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I've wanted a decent message board on the site for a while - but I never wanted to deal with the trolls and spammers. Finally, I found a pretty good one on one of my favorite sites. I've spent the last couple of days fighting with the software, and finally got the thing up and working. I encourage those of you with the urge to rant to hang out and chat at the idleworm forum! You can start your own threads and discuss the many disturbing things on the site. Will the fun never start?
This John Pilger documentary on globalisation looks good. I'll try to catch a look tomorrow.
From LATOC, a couple of excellent articles:
The Perils and Rewards of Relocation. Not for the faint-hearted!
Who's the Real Idiot? To rent a home or buy?
More movement towards a draft in the U.S. - your democrats at work!
2007 Jan 28, Sunday
Shameless Plug: a friend of mine wrote this excellent guide to animation storyboarding.
One of the sad parts of moving out of LA was leaving some amazing friends behind. The LA times recently ran a long and good profile on the Dervaes family of Pasadena. Just because you don't have a lot of land doesn't mean you can't achieve some level of independence from the Grid. If more people lived like that, we wouldn't need to on imperial adventures in the Middle East.
I've posted more snaps from Canada. Lots O' Snow.
Fedex has installed an anti missile system on their planes.
USDA hardiness zones are moving North.
2007 Jan 24, Wednesday
This should make sense of the "War on Terror".
Dinosaurs flew like biplanes!
Andy Griffitn wouldn't have much chance of working for the Bush administration, is his old fashioned ideas on spying are anything to go by...
2007 Jan 22, Monday
This movie about the Apollo program sounds amazing: Reaching For the Moon At Sundance
|
Edgar Mitchell of Apollo 14 speaks of an epiphany on the ride home, a sudden sensation of complete universal connectedness, between the particles of his own body and his fellow astronauts and the space capsule -- and everything. "I was manufactured in some earlier generation of stars," he says.
For Cernan, "what I was feeling, science and technology had no answers for." He felt the touch of a creator, but "a creator above the religions we create on Earth to govern our lives." For Charlie Duke of Apollo 16, on his return to Earth, "Jesus came into my life." Bean says, "We're living in the Garden of Eden." Scott describes the Earth as "an oasis, and we're not taking very good care of it." John Young, the Apollo 16 commander, refers to how clean the planet looked. "Now all the big cities have their own unique atmospheres." |
Hail the TSA: keeping us safe!
Global Warming: The Final Verdict.
2007 Jan 21, Sunday
Bush sucks. Nya nya nya. Enough of him - let's talk about ME.
Back in August 1994, I was sent to Shenzhen in China to supervise (sort of) one of the most f*cked up animation projects ever created. I won't mention it by name. I labored for four weeks in the monsoon season on that abomination.
Many memories: air conditioning so cold in the hotel that I couldn't sleep; RATS that scurried through the ceilings of the rooms and the kitchen; cockroaches bigger than my fist; two electrical fires, one of which would have killed me had I left my room one minute later; Ed, a wonderful 83 year old american animator who had worked on Disney's Pinocchio (and had trained fighter pilots in WW2); pretty women who wanted to marry me; having to do almost all of the work myself as the pre-production had been so screwed up in LA; lunches delivered from the local MacDonald's that always arrived cold; first-rate Filipino artists who could draw rings around 90% of the talent at Disney; a nasty flu that lasted a week; a bedraggled group of western ex-pats all of whom conformed to national stereotype: the Irish drunk (me); the suave Frenchman; the crude Aussie; the Ugly American (not Ed!); the English Empire-builder (who was a stoner in the US - once he sobered up he became quite the leader!).
I remember feeling very isolated at the time in Shenzhen, as it was so alien. Someone had a magazine lying around of travel destinations - I saw a photo of Cologne in Germany, and became homesick. For GERMANY.
The people were still well behind the typical Western lifestyle, but you could sense that they were working for the American way of life...though most were too poor to buy what for us were simple things, like pop-up books or junk food. My English friend bought pringles, a coke and some other items. One of the Chinese guys told him that he'd just spent the equivalent of a week's wages of an average worker, which made him feel like an ass.
From the little time I spent there I became very fond of the people - it was like being on a different planet. We'd walk to work from the hotel, pouring with sweat. Dark skinned peasants would cycle past, staring - and I do mean STARING at us. I was the typical blue-eyed, bearded white devil - the first white person some of them had seen - there's no faking that look of utter astonishment.
That's quite a feeling.
When I came back to California, something strange happened. I felt an intense disgust - a seething rage - at the sight of the teeming shoppers and consumers. I stood in the middle of the Glendale Galleria Mall, watching the parade that you've probably seen - the swaggering, self-centered, waddling consumers, puffed up, badly dressed, full of junk food, junk minds, certain that they deserve this, that the ability to stuff their gaping maw was their First Amendment birthright.
I picked out one guy in the crowd. For a moment I fantasized about walking up to him and punching him in the face, hard. I wanted to hit one of them, I didn't care which one. My girlfriend guessed that I was freaking out. "Let's get out of here." she said. Six little words that kept me out of prison and/or hospital, maybe.
There it was, the universe tapping me on the shoulder with an Important Message, but I turned away. Within a couple of days the feelings went, and I returned to buying and eating and consuming and stopped thinking for another ten years. I became one of "them" - and had an extra 60lbs to prove it. It wasn't until the universe decided to kick me in the balls, good and hard, that I Got It.
It all sounds fairly grim, but I became very nostalgic about Shenzhen after a couple of years had passed. I've often wondered what happened to all the people I met. I googled Ed (the elderly animator) - he passed away in 1998. I was ashamed of myself for not keeping in touch. I wish I had that to do again.
Anyhow, the memories were stirred up by reading about a French animator who spent time in Shenzhen in 1997, and wrote a comic book about it. I rarely buy myself non-essential items any more, but it's as if he drew the thing for me, so I'll have to hunt down a copy.
2007 Jan 19, Friday
It's snowing pretty hard now - another 12 inches. Temperature reached as low as -35C with windchill (similar in Fahrenheit) - both F and C are the same at -40...wow. I'm posting from work; I'll head home in the snow - it's a 15 minute walk. Anyhow, if I never post again, you'll know I froze to death in the Canadian Maritimes.
So remind me why I left sunny California again? Oh yeah, because of shit like this: POLITICAL BLOGGERS MUST REGISTER OR FACE JAIL
and this:
Jesus camp Bush worship.
Gary Brecher writes a moving eulogy for Our Favorite Dictator: Saddam Died Beautiful.
Congressman Ron Paul on the value of Gold vs. Paper Money (scroll down halfway to read): A VOTE OF "NO CONFIDENCE", PART I
A mind boggling illustration of the amount of oil pumped last year: One Cubic Mile...
War with Iran, or is it all brinksmanship? Watch the Nimitz.
Here's a great piece on alternatives to the toxic shampoo and toothpaste we use: My Compact Year. The site has links to how-to pages on recipes, such as this one for toothpaste. Yum.
Ran Prieur provided this link to a flouride filter for water.
2007 Jan 17, Wednesday
I don't like being seen as an American basher. Many of the best people I've known have been Americans. Having said that, the great unwashed lumpenproletariat are clearly thicker-than-shit, if THIS VIDEO is exhibit A...
Enough of Apple's iShit: My cure for affluenza - an interesting account of an Englander's journey to an Ecovillage.
John Jeavons: Recipe for Survival
|
...commercial agricultural practices are causing the loss of approximately six
pounds of soil for each pound of food produced...
...The world continues to deplete its soils approximately 7 to 80 times faster with conventional forms of agriculture - even with organic practices - than they are built up in nature. Probably only 50 to 100 years' worth of world soil productivity remains for us to use. We are rapidly depleting the soil base upon which civilization depends. |
| Voltaire in Candide suggests that if we each tend our own "garden," the entire world will be transformed. In the process, all of our work will be filled with meaning. In this way, we will "grow people" who possess a whole new understanding: that we must grow soil rather than crops - create rather than consume. When we do so, the harvest for our nourishment will be abundant beyond our greatest expectations! |
2007 Jan 14, Sunday
Last March I was sure that we'd see war with Iran, what with the planned opening of Iran's Oil Bourse (a stock exchange for oil). Technical problems delayed the Bourse opening, but Iran seems determined to continue with it. We may see war yet...
Republican congressman Ron Paul (one of the good guys) has predicted a "false flag" operation in the Gulf which will be used as a pretext for an American "counter-attack".
Ron's running for president. Not since RFK has there been a Presidential candidate more likely to be assassinated. I hope he stays clear of small planes...
Follow the money: Why Iran is next.
The FOX TV show "24" appears to be a vehicle for indoctrinating Americans in the necessity of torture, and now, "Emergency Detention Centers". Link is to the Alex Jones site. Alex is pretty "out there", but I can't help but see this show as sinister.
More on the drift to ugliness in the U.S.: Pizzerrias that accept pesos get death threats
Adware pops porn on school computer; teacher faces FORTY YEARS in jail. RELATED NEWS: The internet is made out of tubes.
The Austrian Alps are Green in Winter!.
A windstorm/hurricane in Seattle...
Seriously, WTF? ICE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA? If it gets much colder, I guess it could snow, were conditions right. CNN's site shows Sunday night at -1C, but warming later. Four months earlier SoCal was "enjoying" a 46C heatwave.
Bye Bye NASA: Former FEMA Deputy Director Hired at NASA HQ. I'll say this for Bush: he rewards loyalty, if not competence.
2007 Jan 11, Thursday
One of my readers created a fine cartoon about Saddam and Pinochet...
Kevin at Cryptogon has gauged the seriousness of the Iranian crisis:
|
I think it would be a good idea to review your contingency plans and increase your state of readiness for an emergency. I’m not saying that this is going to happen, but if any news comes out about military action involving the Strait of Hormuz or Ras Tanura, all bets are off. At that point, you must assume that the situation represents a clear and present danger. Execute your contingency plans without hesitation.
I’m sorry if this sounds frightening, but we could all—very easily—be facing a catastrophic situation in a very short period of time. |
It seems that the excellent Joe Bageant is finally fleeing the U.S. and moving to Belize. Good luck Joe!
The Peak Oil Cookbook. I could make a joke about "To Serve Man", but I won't.
Someone on the lifeaftertheoilcrash.net forum sent me the link to this incredibly cheap greenhouse. $600 for 120 square feet sounds good to me. I wish I had a place to put it.
Scary: Joy Ride to Global Collapse
| Morally what we are doing is very much akin to burning the children's lifeboats on the Titanic to keep the partying adults warm for another half an hour. |
2007 Jan 8, Monday
Steve Bell on the Saddam "execution": part 1 and part 2.
More links to piss off morons from the Cato institute. Sorry, I can't resist re-posting yesterday's link.
Matt Savinar has a great take on Al Gore's global warming movie. It's written on his "breaking news" page, so it'll probably slip off in a day or two:
| ...my feeling has been that Gore's film was and is part of a program to maintain "business as usual". It acknowledges the size of the threat but avoids advocating the real sort of things that would neeed to be done to save our butts. In the end this keeps people doing and not doing 99.5% of everything they're already either doing or not doing.
The end of the film is instructive. After a terrifying factual presentation, Gore hits you with his recommendations. Should you give up your car? No, just buy a hybrid or keep your driving under 55 mph. Should you pull your money out of the stock market? Hell no. Just buy a sweater. Should you give up air travel? How can you do that when you're going to be taking all those fabulous eco-vacations to save the rainforest? Should you sell your Mcmansion and move off-grid? Absolutely not. Just buy a $10 light bulb and all will be well. In other words, the solution seems to be to stay put and consume our way out of the problem! |
Another link from Matt's site - former Reagan administration official Paul Craig Roberts writes about the evil influence of the Israel lobby on U.S. politics and media: Bush’s War Heating Up—Attack on Iran Imminent
Another datapoint for the "America is a Police State" file: Historian arrested, thrown to ground and imprisoned for crossing the street.
Another datapoint for the "Britain is turning into 1984": Safe under watchful eyes. I love Big Brother.
Rattled America Will Find It Can't Spin Itself Out of This One
Will Bush or won't Bush? Ominous signs of a wider war. He's crazy enough, and certainly stupid enough.
Amazing account of conditions faced by U.S. forces in Sadr City. Yo chickenhawks! Watcha waitin' for? Join The Fucking Army, already.
Must-have survival gear: Sleeping Bag Extremo
2007 Jan 7, Sunday
It's not every day that a Cato Institute member accuses you of being an anti-semite (in a cruddy computer game review, of all things). The review appears from the url to have been written around 2005, though I could be wrong. I'm sure you'll extract some entertainment from my reply.
PROOF THAT BEING A LAWYER DON'T MAKE YOU SMART.
Funny old world!
2007 Jan 4, Thursday
Moved into my new apartment, the animation company I work for moved into a new building (in a new town), in my new country (canada); all of the above occured on Jan 1-Jan 2 2007. New Year indeed...
In no particular order, here's what I've been reading:
If the long threatened War In Iran comes to pass, all bets are off. Time to start packing.
Woah - Lawyer Who Questioned Bush Regime on Treason Falls to His Death. Suicide. It's suicide, OK? I SAID IT'S SUICIDE YOU PARANOID PINKO NUT-JOBS!
If you live in Washington, be sure you work outside the BLAST ZONE! If a leftie did stuff like this, they'd be called "defeatists".
Discover the North Pole!
Brilliant Irish comic Dylan Moran disembowels his clueless English interviewer, Jonathan Ross. Jonathan - dude - cop yourself on. Part 1 and Part 2.
From 2000 - a prophetic fake Time cover.
Don't leave any of these appliances plugged in when not in use - they're "phantom loads" - they draw power, even when not in use. Door-bells also. Pull those suckers out if you can.
Cartoon, funny: Thingpart
No, they have neither decency or shame: Troops' Gravestones Have Pentagon Slogans
Mastering French manners, the hard way. When you're so polite that you're rude, you're doing something wrong.
Iraq vets are suffering horrific injuries; particularly nasty are the loss of genital organs.
2007 January 2, Tuesday
Well, two weeks without posting is OK if it's over the winter solstice holidays (otherwise known as Christmas). I'm still moving in to my new apartment in Canada. I should be able to resume regular ranting services soon (in a day or so).
Happy New Year, all.
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