archives
| 2007, November 29, Thursday. |
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Sorry to keep on nattering about auto-biography; I'm in the process of moving. I'll be in a new place by Saturday (in Portland's Alberta district, not too far from The Kennedy School - a notorious tavern, frequented by sundry miscreants and cutpurses. I'll fit right in). Expect spotty posting for the next week or so. Oh - thanks are in order - to Michael Willcocks, Christian Daser and Nina Paley for their generous donations! You're all on an FBI watchlist now. I've been trying to keep up with the (real) news, but I find it increasingly hard to read past the first few paragraphs of any piece; it's all just so damned grim and scary, even for me. Four years of this can wear anyone down. Read 'em at your peril. The Impending Destruction of the US Economy. Economic Round-up. Horrific stories from the fairly level-headed Oildrum.com site. Earth and Energy Round-up. More grim from TOD. Finance Round-up. Yet more. Maybe you just do what I do and scan the headlines, then run out and buy some canned food. Bush Beans! Beans called Bush! I'm so glad that the Chimp in chief can find time in his busy schedule to pose for frat-boy prank photos with cans of beans. I've been toying with the notion of buying a couple of acres, dump some horse manure on it, leave it to fester, and save money for a Yurt. Yes, a YURT. You heard me. A yurt. You have a problem with that? China's attempt to bail on the US dollar. Who do they think they are? An independent nation? Bush's entourage. Hail Caesar! Lifeboat time. I have mixed feelings about John Michael Greer (aka the "Archdruid"; author of this piece). He disparages the doomer mindset, yet I found myself palpitating when reading his description of the present "catabolic collapse" as he describes it. In one sentence he ridicules the idea of stockpiling food, but in a later one says that it's sensible to have some extra food handy. I think he's having his canned tuna and eating it. China's first moon picture. Well done China - a great achievement. When they're not plotting the destruction of America, they're making moves on Neil Armstrong's moon. Seriously, the Chinese space program is fascinating - very different from that of the US and USSR. They launch very few missions, but those they do are all milestones. Mission 1: One astronaut (Mercury style). Mission 2: Two astronauts (similar to Gemini). Mission 3: Three astronauts, a spacewalk, maybe a docking (late Gemini/early Apollo). Each mission has a 1.5 or 2 year gap between it. It seems to be working so far. Good luck to them, says I. Taser Nation. More liberal whining. Salute the flag and take it like a man. BLENDER is a free (as in beer) 3D animation program. It's open source, GNU, so it's unlikely to be bought by Shaitan and turned into the service of Evil. So, if you're not keen on paying $5,000 for a professional 3D animation app, and too honest to get a cracked copy, you might try Blender. It looks interesting, and would seem to be a good option for students and their ilk. I don't know if any professional work has been done with it or not. Some of the clips on their site look pretty good though...and it's FREE. Another datapoint on our descent to cultural oblivion is the spread of the "2 girls 1 cup" meme (yes, I know I'm contributing). It's a video involving girls, pooh, and puke. You don't want to see it. What has surprised me is the fact that respectable sites like boingboing.net have been treating the whole thing as comedy. It's not - it's a form of collective insanity - a milestone in degeneracy. If you have kids, this is the reason why you don't allow them online unsupervised. Enough said on that freak show. Shame on the fucknuts who spread this depravity. The above link is safe for work. |
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| 2007, November 26, Monday. |
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Still busy with the move, hence postings are erratic. Stunning underground Italian temple. Another modern architectural horror show. Crytptogon: US military demands the return of signing bonuses. Taking a cruise to the Antarctic on a ship registered in Liberia = stupid. US dollar could plunge 90%. Buy toilet paper now. Britney Spears wants to kill two Chinese children. Homeland Security wants to use fire-fighters as spies... |
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| 2007, November 20, Monday. |
The search for a Portland apartment continues. 'Tis shivering in a cardboard box that I am, nursin' a bottle of whiskey. Spare us a copper?
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| 2007, November 18, Sunday. |
My move from the Canadian Maritimes to Portland, Oregon is complete. Everything went smoothly. I'm ashamed to say it was hassle free. I wasn't beaten by security (who were calm and professional), neither was I tasered or forced to strip for a body search. Immigration was a breeze, involving two minutes of queueing, followed by a 15 second ritual, and I was clear. What is this country coming to?
 Portland is beautiful; trees everywhere, and lots of lovely gray skies and rain, rain, rain. I love rain; it makes me happy. I may have mentioned that my home world has lots of rainfall, so it reminds me of the Mother Planet. One day I'll return to Zwecekpgta #1314, and leave you puny hu-mans to your fate. Until then... Went through downtown - love the old buildings and omnipresent buses, trams and light-rail; many late 19th/early 20th century buildings; lots of nice architecture and cool places, saw the famous Powell bookstore; and took a stroll through Hawthorne avenue. Do you know that genital piercings are half-price? You can call me "Prince Albert". Now beginneth the quest for an apartment, and so far there are two likely candidates lined up. I cannae wait to meet them. One of my former co-workers, veteran animator Bruce Woodside, has created this fantastic Peak Oil animation: Peak Oil - How Will You Ride the Slide? Nicely done, sir! Pentagon covers up a pandemic of military suicides. Here's a forum thread. More Apocalego. Violentacres visits a Super! Walmart. Woohoo! The Zeppelins are coming! The Zeppelins are coming! The only thing I love more than a bucket of orange lego blocks is a Zeppelin fleet. I'm not into owning shares, but I'd invest in Zeppelin. (yes, the guys who built the Hindenburg). Forum: 19th century streen names. |
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| 2007, November 11, Sunday. | |
No decency: Cenotaph ban on wounded war heroes.
Mmm. Bilderberger... Anyone fancy a pint at the Adolf? This is on my to-buy list. Red Cross warns Georgians (US) about emergency water supplies. Credit card debt disaster pending. Cartoon of Sarkozy and Bush. |
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| 2007, November 10, Saturday. |
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OK; moving time approaches, so I won't be able to post much until sometime after Nov 15th. I just hope I don't get hassled by U.S. immigration. There's no reason why I should, but these days anything is possible. I'll be arriving in Portland, Oregon on Thursday evening. Thanks to the forums on lifeaftertheoilcrash.net I've met people who have kindly offerend to put me up for a few days, and a former room-mate currently in Portland has helped me find a place to stay - not 100%, but looking good so far. I'll meet the landlords on Saturday.
So far, it's all going smoothly. In the event that I'm one of the 860,000 innocent people on the "terror watch list", Plan B is to return to Canada. Plan C is to return to Ireland. It's good to have options. Any more posts from me between now and then will be on the forum. I'll put breaking news and status updates here. Comedy genius from The Exile: Ron Paul: Let the market save Darfur. Gnrgh: Are the Republicans nuts enough to sacrifice the Fifth Fleet? Neatorama: Welcome to Zimbabwe. |
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| 2007, November 7, Wednesday. |
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Youtube: 17 year old girl tries to explain World War 1. This is stupendous - the first every HDTV footage from the moon, returned by the recently arrived Japanese probe. If it's slow to load, be patient. Let the whole thing load, then play. Beautiful! China's moon probe will double life due to fuel savings. Sinking currency, sinking country. Seven countries considering abandoning the US dollar. Fred Reed, my favourite conservative, continues his love affair with Mexico. 860,000 of us are now on the terrorist watch list. I hope the bogeyman is on it. FBI will arrest anyone you declare a terrorist. Feel safer now? Economic doom is accelerating. Bond insurers set off fresh wave of credit panic. Morgan Stanley under pressure. Bear in mind that we have at least four months to go before the peak of the Sub-prime tsunami. If they can barely hold the system together now, what happens in March/April/May next year? Nice gallery of post-apocalyptic tribepeople. |
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| 2007, November 6, Tuesday. |
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Holiday shopping approaches. May I humbly suggest that you change your purchasing plans and buy your loved ones some survival goodies? Here's a selection of good companies, most of which I've done business with. I won't make anything you buy from them (I'm not affiliated, I just think it's a good idea to be ready): Emergency Essentials. A Mormon company - first rate. Survival Acres. Tons of emergency goodies. Lehmans. A Mennonite company, with lots of fun stuff. Yeah, you'll get funny looks when your loved one opens a 7-day emergency survival kit, or a blister pack full of Potassium Iodide capsules (for fallout protection). Maybe little Timmy wanted a train set, not a solar powered flashlight. But you know what? F*** 'em. They'll thank you AFTER the apocalyse. Forum: Fireworks - best seen inside a car! Hooray for pod-people. Clay Bennett mystery meat: 
And now, some doomer-porn: Ugh: Markets fear banks have 1 TRILLION DOLLARS of toxic debt. tik tik tik tik... Citigroup has more problems. A documentary on my "to watch" list: What a way to go. Oil: When will Russia (and the world) decline? al-Huseini: Oil reserves over-inflated by 300bn barrels. Survival Acres: The human story. Simmons: World Oil peaked in 2005; we're F***ed. Pray he's wrong. |
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| 2007, November 4, Sunday. | ||
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Uh-oh...you've got a nasty case of humans! The financial house of cards continues to teeter. Will this be The Week? How many bullets can these guys dodge? The world's biggest bank, CITIGROUP, is in trouble.
A devastating report: The Mining Boom is Fading Fast
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| 2007, November 2, Friday. | |
There it is: gold breaks $800! Boycott the elections. I've gotten into arguments about this before. I believe that voting (at least in a system as rigged as America's) is a complete waste of time - on the national level, certainly. By voting, you're endorsing the system. Vote Green/Reform/Whatever, they have no chance of winning. Your vote for them won't count - except as a vote in support of the current system. This article takes a simple idea: voter turnout in 2008 falls to 20%. What happens? At what point does the system lose all legitimacy? What if turnout falls to 15%? 10%? 5%? At some point, the sham that calls itself democracy will be exposed. By not voting, you bring that happy day closer. Totalitarian regimes have elections - the Soviets had 'em, Saddam had 'em, Pakistan has 'em. All utterly worthless - except as crude tools to legitimise barbaric regimes. Why do people think that the West is any different? Just because we get to choose between two rival parties, Kleptocrats and Plutocrats, does that mean we're free? Not by my lights. Do something useful on voting day. Have drinks with friends, plant some winter lettuce...but please - don't vote. Do you think the machines will even count your vote properly? You'll only encourage the bastards. I don't know how I missed this story first time around - Don Mitchell, a retired American researcher from Bell Labs has re-construced the Soviet Venera images from the surface of Venus. I've seen the original images (curved and a bit pixelly). This is a miracle job. Have a look at this view of distant hills, and this one of a flat horizon. More here. The archdruid/godesky grudgefest continues. Jason takes the druid to task for his optimism for a future society based on salvaging the ruins of the present one. It's a fat world after all... Fat version of Michelangelo's David. Take that, Anne Coulter: Jewgenics
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| 2007, November 1, Thursday. |
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BBC cluelessness: Oil at $96. Not a word about oil PRODUCTION, only DEMAND. Note: if production was meeting or exceeding demand, the price would probably fall. FACT: global oil production was 86.1 million barrels a day in 2006. In 2007, it was 84.5. The BBC article fails to mention the collapse of Mexico's Canterell oilfield (one of the largest on earth, and a primary source of US imports). Neither does it mention the 1999 peaking of the UK's once mighty North Sea, now falling at 7 to 10% a year - a similar collapse to Mexico's. Nah, blame it all on the a-rabs. They'll just pump more. They always have, and they always will. Iran: A bridge to far? An apocalyptic scenario, should war with Iran be attempted. Cruise missiles Vs. Carrier Fleets - a scenario that's never been put to the test. Canada's glaciers at 7,000 year low. Oh, those pesky lefty facts just keep on coming. The reason why hemp is illegal. Man has sex with bike, and ends up on sex offenders list, along with kiddie diddlers and rapists. Raising a brand-free kid. Not an easy thing, in this modern age. Iraq dam burst would kill 500,000. This is Patrick Cockburn's second post on this topic in as many months, so I'm guessing his original piece held water, so to speak. Tigers driven to extinction. As long as the world economy continues to grow at its historical average of 2.8% p.a., no need to worry. |
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