| Leaving LJ - going Insane |
[Dec. 11th, 2007|03:23 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | fuck you six apart | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | parting is such sweet sorrow.. | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Bodysnatchers-Radiohead-In Rainbows | ] |
I've finally had enough waiting for the next shoe to drop.
This is my last direct blog post to Live Journal. I'm keeping the free account up to read my friends who haven't left.
You can find me over at Insanejournal, same handle as ever. If you've got a journal over there, please let me know in the comments to this post.
Hopefully in the next few days I'll set up a RSS feed from IJ to here.
So it seems I can't syndicate my InsaneJournal to here without paying 6A for the privilege. So here's a simple hack:
My Insanejournal RSS is at:
http://www.insanejournal.com/users/catvincent/data/rss/
Use whichever RSS reader you like, and if you feel drawn to comment just pop on over.
EDIT - my good pal Wyldraven has set me up a LJ syndicated feed from my IJ account. In short, if you friend the below LJ, you'll get what I write on IJ. You lucky people.
http://syndicated.livejournal.com/catvincent_ij/
And dear friend Pinkdormouse has set up a feed of my Wordpress blog here,
http://catvincent.wordpress.com/feed/
Mac user instructions (and a command-line ap) for copying your LJ posts (complete with comments can't copy comments over due to limitations at LJ's end. Buggerit.) over to Insane Journal can be found here. I had to run it four or five times before all my stuff copied, but it works eventually.
Ta-ta. |
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| A new Enlightenment versus a new Confucianism? |
[Dec. 11th, 2007|01:19 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | china, east v west, memewar, politics, us | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | tired but perky | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most medications. [SomaFM] | ] |
Brin on the possible memewar once the People of the Book have got all that macho shit out of their systems. Long, smart, worth considering.
A quote:
"How will Earthlings, who are eager to get on with planetary -- and interplanetary -- life, settle their issues, allocate resources, and generally handle the problems of running a complex civilization?
The crux: with the fading of both the empires of paranoia and male frenzy, we’ll be left with an East-West dichotomy ... one that ought to be settled peacefully, since both of these final “sides” recognize the inefficiency and cost and inherent uncertainty of violence.
Non-violence sounds great, for a change. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be a struggle. Because a whole lot will be at stake. In fact, just about everything....
...if the Chinese leadership clade does succeed at translating Lee Kwan Yew’s method into a successfully stable mode for a billion and a half Chinese, then humanity will be offered a genuinely interesting choice, by mid-century. On the one hand, the very best version of oldstyle, oligarchy-led governance possible.
On the other hand, Earth citizens will be offered an updated version of the Western Enlightenment. One that has weathered the trials of a Cold War, a Machismo Meme War, and (we can hope) a successful self renewal, after years of despoliation by the recent Neoconservative Putsch." |
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| On lit-fic versus SF |
[Dec. 11th, 2007|12:39 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | mundanes, sf | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-tempo electronica. [SomaFM] | ] |
Scalzi, in the midst of reaming out another PC idiot who tut-tuts about the horrible influence of Heinlein on modern SF, perfectly sums up the difference between creators of 'literary' fiction and writers of SF, thus:
"People start writing literary fiction as they tumble through writing programs at Sarah Lawrence or Bennington or Iowa because that’s what they’re expected to write and they want to impress their professors and fellow students; people start writing science fiction, on the other hand, roughly ten seconds after they set down The Star Beast or Ender’s Game or Snow Crash because they get done with the book and think, holy crap, I want to do that. Academia generally wants you to show you can write; science fiction generally wants you to tell a story. "
Nice.
And don't get me started on lit-fic wrters who steal SF ideas and claim they're not doing SF but something *better*... |
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| Burroughs, Gnosticism and The Johnsons |
[Dec. 11th, 2007|12:08 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | ethics, philosophy | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | interested | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most | ] |
Fascinating article about ol' William Lee and his ideas, found via Signs of Witness:
One key idea - which I'd forgotten, as I last read Nova Express in my teens - is that of the Johnsons, who article author Robert Guffey defines thus:
' Burroughs’s libertarian brand of morality was based on Jack Black’s notions of the “Johnson family” as chronicled in Black’s 1926 autobiography You Can’t Win. The impact this book had on Burroughs when he was still a young man can’t be overestimated. In Burroughs’s own words, the Johnson creed can be described as follows:
“The Johnson family” was a turn-of-the-century expression to designate good bums and thieves. It was elaborated into a code of conduct. A Johnson honours his obligations. His word is good and he is a good man to do business with. A Johnson minds his own business. He is not a snoopy, self-righteous, troublemaking person. A Johnson will give help when help is needed. He will not stand by while someone is drowning or trapped under a burning car.
Surely in Burroughs’s world this would be the only mandatory social stricture established for his personal temporary autonomous zone. '
The Johnson's philosophy/approach to life is something I've tried to pin down for years... and usually I reduce it down to 'giving a fuck'. I see it as a pretty good basis for moral conduct - and it seems to be the common factor in everyone I love and admire. The absence of it also seems to be the prime characteristic of all those I hate and fear (and is roughly equivalent with the Right Man/Violent Male psychosis noted by AE van Vogt and Colin Wilson - the inability to admit ever being wrong, meaning that all who suggest this possibility are enemies. By definition, the Right Man doesn't give a fuck about anyone but his sycophants - and treats those as inferiors too).
Anyone else who'd be proud to be a Johnson? |
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| The voices in your head might be real |
[Dec. 8th, 2007|11:29 pm] |
There's been talk about devices that can beam sound specifically to an individual for years - Fortean Times ran articles on it at least five years back - but an actual (non-classified) gizmo is now revealed:
' After years of reading puff pieces about the coming of the “Hypersonic Soundbeam,” a device designed to send targeted blasts of sound waves that can be heard only be selected recipients in an audio environment, it has apparently made its debut in the public sphere, right here in New York. As part of a billboard marketing campaign for a television show. A&E has placed a billboard (on Prince St. between Mulberry and Mott) that shoots sound waves designed to resonate against your head, giving the passerby a distinct feeling that the advertisement is arising from within their skull. '
Just think of the fun covert ops teams could have with this. Or governments. Hell, the fact that the first aboveground use is for advertising is bad enough. |
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| Shiny new Firefly comic coming |
[Dec. 8th, 2007|11:04 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | comics, tv | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | pleased | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most medications. [SomaFM] | ] |
"...the new Serenity comics series that is due out in March. This three-issue series, Serenity: Better Days, is a step back in time to the early years of the Firefly crew, and the fledgling gang's turbulent attempts to cope with success after they pull off their first successful heist. It features the same creative team as Those Left Behind, with the story by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews, art by Will Conrad, and Adam Hughes providing all three covers this time."
And... Fruity Oaty Bars lunchboxes! 'cos they go so well with a brown coat and all... |
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| Olbermann kicks Bush in the balls - hard |
[Dec. 7th, 2007|11:52 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics, war | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sore | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most medications. [SomaFM] | ] |
Take it away, Keith:
" We have either a president who is too dishonest to restrain himself from invoking World War Three about Iran at least six weeks after he had to have known that the analogy would be fantastic, irresponsible hyperbole — or we have a president too transcendently stupid not to have asked — at what now appears to have been a series of opportunities to do so — whether the fairy tales he either created or was fed, were still even remotely plausible.
A pathological presidential liar, or an idiot-in-chief. It is the nightmare scenario of political science fiction: A critical juncture in our history and, contained in either answer, a president manifestly unfit to serve, and behind him in the vice presidency: an unapologetic war-monger who has long been seeing a world visible only to himself."
Then he gets nasty...
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| So much for that fantasy... |
[Dec. 6th, 2007|10:58 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | science, sex, space | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sad | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most medications. [SomaFM] | ] |
Zero-G sex - only four positions work and missionary is 'impossible'. |
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| Authoritarianism - the check-list |
[Dec. 6th, 2007|10:19 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | censorship, politics | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | sore | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-tempo electronica. [SomaFM] | ] |
Fred Clark provides a pithy look at 'democracy' today - derived from this article by Jonathan A. Becker, 'Putin and the Dawn of the New Authoritarians'. In it Becker provides a DSM-like check-list of traits of the modern authoritarian state, thus:
• Asserts substantial control over the media
• Uses television as a blunt instrument to prop up the regime and discredit its opponents
• Ensures that television stations are in the hands of the state or state sympathizers
• Subjects journalists to defamation suits for even minor criticism of the regime
• Restricts journalists' access to government officials
• Arrests journalists
• Bans or limits opposition protests or rallies
• Detains and beats opposition leaders
• Maintains power through electoral fraud
• Invokes threats to national security as a part of their general press crackdowns
• Censors the Internet
As Fred put it, "The DSM might say that a regime that presents seven of these 11 symptoms could be diagnosed as suffering from a severe case of authoritarian disorder. Presenting only five symptoms might be a case of moderate authoritarianism. In either case, the resulting clinically significant distress or impairment of democratic liberties would require immediate treatment."
See how many *your* country scores! I think the UK currently presents as a mild-but-worsening condition, the US as severe. |
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| Xtianfuckwitwatch - parliamentary debate Xtianity and it's discontents. |
[Dec. 6th, 2007|12:27 am] |
Feòrag at Pagan Prattle gives us our new word for the day: Christianophobia. Which was the subject of a full debate of the House of Commons today.
Here's Aunty Beeb on the subject:
' The UK should "celebrate" the role of Christianity in the country's heritage and culture, the government has said.
Community cohesion minister Parmjit Dhanda told MPs the religion had had a "significant impact" in securing people's rights and freedoms.
He was speaking in a Westminster debate over whether there was widespread "Christianophobia" in the UK.
Conservative MP Mark Pritchard (CatNote - the xtianfuckwith who caused the debate to occur) warned the government not to "surrender" the UK's Christian heritage.
Mr Pritchard called the Westminster Hall debate, claiming that the importance of the faith was being undermined by the "politically correct brigade".
He argued that "parties of hate" could step in to fill the gap left by "mainstream" politicians, and "hijack" Christianity to get their messages across. '
(CatNote - 'cos it's not like they've already done that is it?)
' ...Speaking earlier in the debate, Mr Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin, in Shropshire, said Christians should get "full minority rights".
Mr Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin, Shropshire, said Christianity in the UK was being undermined "mostly by stealth", even though 3.2 million people attended church every Sunday.
He added: "Most Christians feel they are not getting a fair hearing
"Many shoppers find it increasingly difficult to buy greeting cards with references to Christ... Advent calendars are extremely hard to find."
He added: "Christ always has been and always will be at the very heart of Christmas. Taking Christ out of Christmas is like serving the Christmas turkey without the stuffing."
Mr Pritchard said the British National Party in Staffordshire was sending out cards showing "the holy family on the front cover", bearing "the words 'heritage, tradition and culture'."
He added: "Is the government prepared to stand by and surrender the nation's Christian traditions to parties of hate?"
Mr Pritchard said it was "time for the dragon of political correctness to be slain". '
So, who's he worried about more - the BNP, the Politically Correct (read Correct as Left...) or the actual threat of Dominionism, which has been steeplejacking churches in the UK since at least the Alpha Course?
Plus, though I can't be bothered to go through Hansard for the full details, I suspect few dissenting voices were heard.
Besides, it's not a phobia of Christianity - for many, it's pure disgust. |
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| Brain versus Brawndo |
[Dec. 5th, 2007|07:56 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | stupid, us | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | tired, hungry, annoyed | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most medications. [SomaFM] | ] |
According to Arthur magazine, there is now a soft drink available called " Brawndo".
Why is this odd? Well, because it comes from a movie called 'Idiocracy' - a dumb and pointless retelling of The Marching Morons for, well, morons. In the film, everyone in the future has become so stupid that they use this soft drink as a replacement for water in irrigation - and wonder why their crops don't grow. The film was, by the way, a flop financially.
So, that's a drink, based on a film which lost money, and is associated with morons. On sale now.
Oh, the irony. Oh, the money that will be made by kids quaffing this muck ironically.
(Did I mention Idiocracy was written and directed by Mike Judge? Yeah - the creator of Beavis and Butthead. Also of King of the Hill and Office Space.
I wonder what his cut is - if anything?)
This may not be the dumbest tie-in for a media product ever, but I think it may be the first to try and get the product to earn back its costs with a dumb tie-in. This bodes ill. |
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| Two countries seperated by a common language |
[Dec. 5th, 2007|07:50 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | language, us | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | too fucking awake for the time | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-tempo electroni | ] |
Yeah, I'm up early and thus not at my mental best, but I have to say I'm confused. By Americans.
Words really do mean different things when you take them across the pond.
I was reading a piece on Feministing (hey, I'm a semi-evolved male) and both it and the article which prompted it had me very confused - until I realised that there's a word which Americans use as a synonym for something which, in the UK, is it's opposite.
That word is 'stockings'.
Which, to Brits, are two thin garments each shaped like one leg, sold in pairs. But to Yanks, it means both that and, at the same time, means what we call tights and Americans also call 'pantyhose' - one thin garment, shaped like a pair of legs and the hips.
Here's a quote from the article:
"It started with Miu Miu's fall show, with grandmotherly cardigans and pullovers tucked into the waistbands of flesh-toned stockings."
To a Brit, this sentence makes no sense. Stockings, by definition, cannot have a waistband. The cross-use of the two meanings continues throughout the piece.
Later comes the bit which had Feministing linking to it in the first place:
"Last summer, a 25-year-old Berkeley woman (who did not want to give her name for fear of her in-laws) was accused by her new mother-in-law of "indecent exposure" for failing to wear hose on her special day.
The mother-in-law might find solace in the fact that her views are supported by the president of the United States. One of his first actions upon taking office was to reinstate the White House dress code requiring, among other things, that women wear stockings in the West Wing."
The Feministing piece reads:
"Did you have any idea that one of Bush's first actions in office (right after reinstating the Global Gag Rule, I'm sure) was to require that all women in the West Wing wear pantyhose at all times?"
To add to the confusion...
Stockings have a sexual association. Especially over here, where stockings and suspender belt (another translation error - Yanks say 'garter belt') is these days strongly associated with being, shall I say, up for it.
So for Bush to say women in the White House have to wear tights/pantyhose is one thing. To order that they have to always wear stockings is quite another. I wonder which it was?
(Another version of the tale here. You can imagine the kind of hits I mostly got typing 'bush pantyhose stockings' into Google...) |
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| a young Slayer speaks |
[Dec. 5th, 2007|12:16 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | funny, kids, monsters | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | one of kinship | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-tempo electronica. [SomaFM] | ] |
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| Israel tightens borders against 'dirty bomb' attack - False flag flag? |
[Dec. 5th, 2007|12:14 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | israel, terrorism, us, war | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | concerned | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-tempo electronica. [SomaFM] | ] |
From John Shirley's Signs of Witness:
' Israel has tightened security at its airports, seaports and border crossings—increasing both technological surveillance as well as information gathering efforts —in order to thwart attempts at smuggling radioactive materials into the country. These materials could potentially be used in the production of a “dirty bomb” that could be detonated within Israel.
A “dirty bomb”, which is essentially a low grade nuclear weapon, is far less lethal than an atomic bomb, but can still lead to massive casualties and injuries should it be employed. It basically consists of an ordinary explosive “laced” with radioactive materials. When detonated, these nuclear materials then emit dangerous levels of radiation, which can quickly spread across a rather large area. As previously noted, Israel is growing increasingly vigilant of a possible ‘dirty bomb’ attack. Supervision at seaports is at an all time high, and new detectors have been put in place to identify nuclear materials hidden in containers and freight cargo.
Moreover, heightened security has been instituted at sensitive sites, such at the nuclear waste site in southern Israel, (emphasis mine) in order to prevent theft and smuggling of radioactive materials.
The United States instituted similar heightened security measures at its borders crossings and sea ports several months ago, following repeated security alerts. Radiation detection devices were placed along major access points into Manhattan, including bridges and tunnels. '
Consider this - both Israel and US are nuclear powers (even if the former won't admit it). Border restrictions won't stop fissionables and other hot metals already within their borders.
This sounds a lot like a warm-up to something bad. Hope I'm wrong. |
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| Metaphors of our time |
[Dec. 4th, 2007|11:34 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | sore and tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Raised To Be Lowered-Saul Williams-The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! | ] |
From Avedon, http://www.correntewire.com/more_funny_money_from_the_occupied_white_house#comment-66974 of modern American building practices - which sums up so much about America these days:
"Two townhouses undergoing renovation and one new multiple story apartment building in my neighborhood have used what looks like typical styrofoam (white, not blue, which I understand is construction grade) on the facades underneath the stucco. At one site I watched as a man cut the styrofoam into the decorative lintels, whacking off large parts and shaving down little bits to achieve the shape he wanted. Then the styrofoam was attached to the building and covered with stucco.
As Groucho Marx said: “You can even get stucco. 0Oh, boy, can you get stucco!”
The end result looks great, but I was shocked by the method and concerned on several fronts. Is styrofoam durable, or will these homes soon look shabby if the materials don’t hold up. Is this another example of cutting corners on materials and workmanship, decreasing property value in the long term? And finally, isn’t this an environmental no-no? I’ve heard styrofoam shouldn’t be cut or broken for environmental concerns, but I don’t have any info to back up that lore. Can anyone weigh in?
Styrofoam facades… Is that a great metaphor for what Our Betters have done to us with the mortgage meltdown, or what?" |
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| Name! My! Snail! - the winner is... |
[Dec. 4th, 2007|02:59 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | snail | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | pleased | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most medications. [SomaFM] | ] |
Orlando.
Many thanks to dear ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) lucybond for the perfect suggestion.
In related and ironic news... I am now a snail abortionist.
Orlando laid eggs yesterday. About two hundred of them.
Since it's unlikely that I could offload all these snails if they hatched, and they don't thrive well in the wild, and if they *did* thrive they'd (so I am told) unbalance the local ecostructure... I did the deed.
(If you should ever need to know how - take the eggs and freeze them for 24 hours. then bin them.)
Never let it be said I wasn't pro-choice. |
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| Word for the day... 'neurotypical' |
[Dec. 4th, 2007|02:53 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | brains, rights | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | interested | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most medications. [SomaFM] | ] |
From the ever-handy linkfrenzy, this article about autistic people who "don't want to be cured". I get where they're coming from, in a way that I *don't* get other disabled-rights activists (such as deaf parents who don't want their kids to have implants to let them hear). I'm not sure why I comprehend one group and not another - perhaps it's because, though not autistic personally, I am certainly not neurotypical!
Key quote:
"Are a person's rights contingent on them having a certain kind of brain?" |
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| Anti-child abuse comics - two views. |
[Dec. 4th, 2007|12:03 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | children, vachss, xtianfuckwit | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | peeved | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most medications. [SomaFM] | ] |
From Boing:
' The New York Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic church has published a comic book that depicts cute angels warning children never to be alone with an adult (which presumably includes priests). '
Click the link. See the angel flating above the kiddie. Wince involuntarily.
Then, if you want a comic book that actually says something intelligible about child abuse, check out "Another Chance To Get It Right" or "Batman - The Ultimate Evil", both written by Andrew Vachss. |
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