Monday 10 December 2012

Computer Games Sales Dip

The BBC is reporting that sales in console games has not met its November targets as reported here: 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20638318 

Its hardly surprising when you consider just how bad the game releases have been.

  •  Call of Duty Modern Black Warfare IV. Same old shit. 
  • Assassins Creed III. Storyline getting pretty tedious by now.
  •  Halo 4. Reprocessed Halo Reach with excessively ridiculous storyline.
  •  Medal of Honor Warfighter. Somehow managed to compress all the bad parts about BF3 and COD into one horribly frustrating shooter that also is shockingly poor even when compared to the last Medal of Honor. 

Until game developers actually start producing some originality again they aren't going to secure record profits. The gravy-train of simply copying whatever made the most amount of money last time doesn't work in the long-term. Save your money kids!

Falling Guy

Sometimes you get those news stories which seem so random that they just can't possibly be true.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20644402 

 An Angolan guy who it seems was trying to enter the UK as an illegal immigrant fell to his death from a passenger plane near London's main airport at Heathrow. No sympathy here. 

 Strangely, its not the first time this has happened, and it seems its a bit of a well-known gutsy trick which involves holding onto the undercarriage at take-off and remaining there in the freezing, unpressurized conditions until touch down.

 http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/10/mans-body-found-in-undercarriage-of-nigerian-plane/ 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/09/romanian-stowaway-vienna-heathrow 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19562101

 Rather them than me... The only people I feel sorry for are the poor bastards who woke up like every other day, went out their doors and found a body splattered on the ground. I just hope no kids saw it. Sheer randomness.

Marsian Announcement?

So in the past few weeks there has been a number of announcements (and an apparent hoax) coming from the investigation of Mars from the new rover that arrived there earlier this year. In any case, it would seem that NASA is excited to tell us some important findings which will 'be something for this history books' but understandably is also reservedly waiting to confirm their findings before releasing these findings to the public. Its an exciting time!


At this point we have absolutely no idea what exactly that finding may be, but being human its difficult not to speculate. My suspicion (and hope) is that they have found a fossilized remnant of extinct life on mars. Why do I suspect this?

Well, two reasons. The first is that NASA has recently given the first evidence for liquid water having existed on the planets surface in Mars' ancient history. These pebbles would have been worn down by the same sort of weathering that we have here on Earth and could well have harbored life long ago. 

The second reason for suspecting this lies with one of the older rovers which has been on Mars since 2004. They suspect that the area that Opportunity has been driving over the past few weeks is actually made of old clay. Clay of course requires vast amounts of water to change the chemical composition of various rocks and minerals, but what is more important is that this water has to be of a neutral Ph level. This of course is also the same 'Goldilocks' requirement for life as we know it to live comfortably.

If I am correct then this could have far reaching consequences for us as a species. Our religions, philosophical and scientific understanding will all have to change completely, but of course for every question answered, the law of entropy dictates that there will simply be more questions to ask.It would not be completely unfeasible that a discovery of life outside our own planet could spell big social problems for us back home. For instance, will life on Earth be thought of with less respect, will it be seen simply as some inevitable outcome of minerals in rocks that crop up all over the cosmos? Will it lead to a greater acceptance of projects to do with cybernetics, will humanity treat itself differently knowing we are simply just an expression of something ultimately common and mundane? 

Of course this could also inspire humanity to reach out and leave its mark on the universe we find ourselves in. To spread life throughout space and to rekindle our recently lost love for adventure and exploration. There are of course already some thought provoking ideas to do with getting mankind out exploring. 

Speaking of ethical and philosophical conundrums.

The Mars One project is a not-for-profit organization that seeks to put a base on Mars within the next few decades, but there is a tiny issue to do with a one-way-flight that makes the proposition a bit of an issue. Personally, I don't see a problem with having a crew of people go to their deaths having had the experience of a life-time, especially if you could source a crew with medical issues which would prove fatal within a decade anyway. There would in my opinion have to be extremely vigorous psychological testing of individuals to make sure that they could deal with the knowledge that they would die never stepping foot on their home planet again. I personally couldn't do that.
 I also have reservations that once the honeymoon period of landing on another planet is over it could get incredibly boring. There is only so much one can stare at barren rock and take soil samples!

Tuesday 4 December 2012

UN Internet Treaty

It seems the UN is getting busier and busier these days, if they aren't trying to scaremonger the public into paying worldwide taxes directly to themselves or supporting the formation of world financial institution they are trying to tinker with democracy, liberty and national sovereignty.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20575844

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20594779

It seems the internet is getting a tough-ride lately what with SOPA and other similar proposals which would make it illegal to post links to anything, anywhere on the internet and the rather unnerving sway towards the dystopian nightmare where all of our opinions and messages are stored to be viewed by any political agency and misconstrued or taken out of context in order to secure tedious convictions.

Then of course despite the Copyright Acts not going through, ISP's are to begin storing peoples access to copyrighted material and making threats against anyone who does.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2165004/Illegal-downloading-Families-illegally-download-music-movies-online-face-court-action-copyright-theft.html

Apparently under the new guidelines the entertainment companies will be able to accuse anyone of copyright infringement without any evidence at all - and individuals will be required to pay to prove that they are innocent. This shit goes against everything anyone has ever stood for in a free and democratic society. Just another example of our age-old common law that is being trod on more and more each year all in the interests of mass-corporation and corrupt Government.

Returning to the original point with the UN for a moment however, it is clear that the UN has some vested interest in using the internet as a platform to springboard their own schemes. The ITU (the telecommunications agency which works on behalf of the UN) said the following...



"The brutal truth is that the internet remains largely [the] rich world's privilege, " said Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the UN's International Telecommunications Union, ahead of the meeting.

"ITU wants to change that."

Ok. So why is the UN worrying about supplying the internet to people who still despite billions of spending still do not have access to clean drinking water and food? What good is a PC if you have no electricity outlet? Something doesn't make sense. Thus, read behind the lines, this has apsolutely nothing to do with helping the worlds poorest (yet again , UN) but about controlling the information that they have access to.

Be aware. Read up on all you can now while you still can. Support the free internet, without it we are dangerously close to a irreversible world dictatorship (and this is not some conspiracy theory - the facts are there for you all to see if you choose to read up and take notice of the signs.)




Another Royal Takeover

Srsly???
 
If I remember anything about 2012 outside of the shockingly tiresome coverage of the Olympshits, it will surely be that it was the year that the Royal Family officially succeeded in spamming us on a daily basis about their personal lives.

I do not care that it is the Queens birthday, or the Queens Jubillee, or that Prince William has been allocated a wife hand picked by advisors, or that Prince Harry naively invites wenches back to his hotel room in Vegas, or that the Kate Middleton has been forced to breed with the inbred Windsor line.

Seriously, give me a fucking break!

Then again, I guess we should at least be thankful that they changed the archaic laws of Succession so its equal for first born girls. Still, its not going to make the blindest bit of difference for the avergage person who works to support these cunts on account that the Royals do nothing except rinse our taxes dry.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20600543

So anyway, with the news that Kate Middleton is pregnant and is apparently suffering with 'Acute Morning Sickness', (aww, bless) one thing is certain: this is meerly the begginning. The public must brace themselves for the unleashing of at least half a decades worth of news about some half-retarded sprog who is born with a silver spoon up their arse.

I think Im just going to crawl under a rock now for ten years and save myself the mindless royalist hysteria.



Month Out

Right, well November was a blog no-show due to unforeseen circumstances.

The unforseen circumstances includes the quitting of shit dead-end job and the re-evaluation of ones life.

I'm happy to say that now this blog can continue on into 2013. Much to the disdain of civilization.

Troll on.



Sunday 28 October 2012

Facebook Issue? Use a fake name!

Sometimes you get the odd public servant that actually says something which is true or helpful, and usually those few politicians are tarnished and kept down by the rest of the plebian cunts who feed off each others inane ramblings.

Andy Smith who is an internet security chief at the Cabinet Office for Parliament has publicly stated that people should only use their real details on well known and trusted websites and should use fake names and details for unknown or less-trusted ones. Seems legit and solid advice to me and the vast majority of others who actually understand how the internet works, oh except some politicians take an issue with this.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20082493

Quoting from the BBC story, "his advice was described by Labour MP Helen Goodman as "totally outrageous".

Ms Goodman, shadow culture minister, told BBC News: "This is the kind of behaviour that, in the end, promotes crime.

"It is exactly what we don't want. We want more security online. It's anonymity which facilitates cyber-bullying, the abuse of children.

"I was genuinely shocked that a public official could say such a thing."

Oh of course. This is all to do with protecting the children, isn't it. Sorry, I didn't realise. Hold on a second though. If there were more anonymity, surely noone would be able to find your childs Facebook account if they had a random name, noone can bully someone when they don't know who they are.

Keep internet anonymous! The next step
will be thought crime lists if we are
not careful!
This is not the sort of thing which promotes crime at all Ms Goodman you fucking stupid cow, its the exact opposite. It stops dodgy sites and people from securing data about an individual. If you are someone selling something online which you shouldn't be, or online specifically to commit a crime or cause crime then you aren't going to be using your real name either way. Besides if you politicians are all experts in bloody cyber-crime then why did you need to employ an internet security chief in the first place? Let the guy do his job.

Of course some sites such as Facebook and in particular Google which now hoardes your personal data like no other company (in fact with this blog I had to change to my real name because some turd reported my fake name) demands we use our real details, in the case of Google even suspending services until you provide a real name or provide ID to prove your suspected fake name is indeed your legally held name. Its a slippery slope we are on. The politicians may think this new digital weapon they can use on the public is a good idea, but it cuts both ways. Good cyber-criminals can gain access to anyones information they want if they really have a desire to.

This is just another indication of the direction they want to take the internet. I wouldn't be surprised if the next step in cyber-security won't involve some form of passport system. Enjoy the internet whilst you can, its days as a free exchange of ideas and commerce are almost over.

How To Make Mead

Mead is one of the oldest alcoholic beverages in the world and was reportedly drunk by muliple cultures in ancient times from the Celts to the Ancient Egyptians. Its use was eventually replaced by fermented grains and fruits to give our current facination with wine and beers, which is a real shame because mead is incredibly easy to make at home and more importantly even easier to drink (and at an average of 14% alcoholic content its also good at getting you hammered rather quickly!)

This is a quick tuition on how to make mead. This is a basic version, you can add flavourings such as cinnamon etc if you wish.


First off, some bits you will need:

  • A gallon Demijohn
  • A gallon of spring water
  • 1.2kg of honey (raw is best, if not make sure you buy nice honey and not tesco value shit.)
  • Wine yeast
  • Yeast Nutrient
  • A airlock & bung.
  • Steriliser

Ok. Here we go, its dead simple.

Step 1

Make sure everything is cleaned. I have to admit this time around because Im using brand new equipment I just gave it a rinse, but you should ideally sterilise everything with the proper powder you get from brewing suppliers. Empty the honey into the demijohn. Some say you ought to warm the honey first but as I've got honey that has already been pasturised I didn't want the honey being any more destroyed.

(Note: Try to stop yourself from drinking 2Ibs of honey straight out of the demijohn like Winnie the Pooh.)




Step 2


Pour that water in on top. Yeah, it won't mix together, don't worry about that, we'll rectify that in a minute.
















Step 3


Mix it up! I simply turned the demijohn on its side and used a finger to block the hole up whilst spinning it back and forth on the floor. Its alot easier if you heat the honey up and add to the water in parts but the problem with this is the honey will lose some of its flavour. This method doesn't take that long, but you will need to wheel it back and forth on the floor for five to ten minutes.











Step 4


Once its mixed add the yeast and nutrients as per the instructions. For a gallon it should be roughly be a teaspoon of each. And lastly, pop the bung and airlock in the top.Thats it, you are on your way to brewing the nectar of the Gods! Give it a few hours and go back to it and just put your ear to the opening and make sure that its making a slight fizz (should sound like flat coke.) The sound is the yeast creating alcoholic content and releasing carbon dioxide.


Step 5


Leave for three to six months (until it stops fizzing, the fizzing will peak at around a month or so. Once its stopped brewing, bottle up for a special occasion. Be aware of the sediment at the bottom that will be present, you don't want to be drinking that. Finally, drink and be merry! Give thanks to the great Horse Hrimfaxi, and toast to Odin!









Thursday 25 October 2012

More Derps In Space!

Y U NO STOP SENDING RANDOM SHIT INTO SPACE!?
So once again our best scientists are working on the most complex scientific problems humanity faces. This challenge trumps the story I already covered of: What does whiskey brewed in space taste like? (http://eibsnews.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/space-whiskey.html)

In any case, this is the most difficult experiment to reconstruct and therefore required to actually send a phone into space to test the hypothesis. The question? Can someone hear you scream in space?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20073779

You seriously cannot make this shit up. They are sending a mobile phone into space, strapped to a satellite, in order to test whether sounds which are played on it can be picked up in space in a vacuum.

Erm? Why? Surely students intelligent enough to gain entry into Cambridge university will realise that you don't need to send anything into space to actually do this experiment. Have these kids never heard of those rooms which can create a vacuum? Seriously, Im going to have a hard job trusting anything these future scientists come up with in the future.

That been said, sometimes it is cool to see something utterly random sent into the edge of space! But please don't make out there is a scientific reason to do so!


Work The Pensioners: How Bout No!

I am sure most in the UK will already be aware of the fact that the age at which you can retire went up last year, a trend which in all likelihood will continue for my generation until our limp bodies are dragged off of the factory line and used to make delicious soylent green.

 The future looks even more bleak when you consider all the middle aged workers still working at the moment who have had their private pensions raped by the state for the past decade. Still, these days you don't even have an option to opt out of a private pension anymore.
http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/news/2012/october/major-pension-reform-starts-from-1-october-2012
Which Im sure will provide brilliant little treasures for the politicians to pillage with their banking friends when the next bout of bailouts is needed when the banks fail again (which lets be honest is hardly unforseeable.)

Apparently the IMF is also warning Britain that we should continue to raise the retirement age:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2128540/Raise-retirement-age-save-British-economy-IMF-warning-crippling-cost-pensions.html

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that these latest UK retirement amendments are actually part and parcel of a larger UN or at least EU directive, but that remains to be be seen, at least openly.

So the latest in a long line of attacks on the elderly is from one Lord Bitchard (sorry, Bichard.) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20044862

This guy, who presumably having gotten to a high political status as a professional politician has lived a comfortable life without the worries of how one will pay rising food or fuel bills is advocating that the younger pensioners should have to do voluntary work for their state pensions.
Sorry, what? So lets get this straight; These folk work hard throughout their lives, they pay their tax on their income, a small amount of which goes towards social security. For most working class people they scrimp, they save, they live their lives with the inexorable worries over their finances because of the unfair tax system. When you near retirement age they are told that they need to work for longer as per the new 'pension ammendments' on retirement age. Now this idiot Bichard who has likely never done a decent days work in his life is suggesting that in order to claim the pension you are owed from fifty-odd years of paying taxes that they ought to do compulsory unpaid work in order to have it paid to them. A pension which they pay tax on, again (why do we tax benefits anyway, its the most retarded system ever devised.)

Two words for the right honourable gentleman: Fuck you!

Can we have some intelligent debate please? Þanks.

Here is just one suggestion for you retards in Government offices who seem to enjoy coming out the most ridiculous solutions for simplistic issues.

Obviously the ageing population in the UK (and the Western world in general) is an issue, but once again we see Governments dodging the real causes for these problems. We know for a fact that if it wasn't for immigration into the UK, the population would actually be decreasing. Yes, that may have short term economical problems, but the short term problems could have been solved with careful and fair plans for temporary foreign workers (in an alternate universe where the UK hadn't already been practically invaded by foreigners.)  As it stands, the indigenous white population of the UK (and Europe) will cease to be a majority in the next century. Whether you see the idea of race or cultural ethnicity being important isn't the issue, the fact is that if the population was falling right now our young may have had a chance to get into employment in a forever shrinking job market (due of course to British companies shipping them off to places such as China and India.)

So as it stands our youngsters are currently finding it very difficult to find work because of the lack of jobs, (and the competition from cheaper, more experienced foreign labourers.) Of course any jobs they do find are usually dead-end, low skilled and pay a minimum wage. (A minimum wage which these days is actually not worth working for with living expenses so high, but I digress.) Of course, you could argue that most of the social decay in the UK comes from the lack of confidence about their futures, and this results in a breach of trust from young people and the rest of society. (This is going somewhere, so bare with me...)

Putting The Pieces Together

At the moment practically every job that is posted up on the Internet is done so via an employment agency. Unless you are a professional worker who just wants some temporary work as a locum, nobody wants to work for employment agencies. They are parasites. They leech off of the real workers in this country by charging premium rates to the companies who use their services so they can have the ability to get rid of workers at a moments notice, whilst they pay the workers themselves a pittance. Having being unemployed and in a desperate situation myself in the past I have also realised that they misadvertise jobs in their windows and websites as a way of getting more potential workers signed up on their books for them to use and abuse (and then usually not contact again for two or three weeks.)

There are thousands of young people out of work because they can't find work, lack the skills or confidence to do so or because they realise that work just really isn't worth it when you are taxed to point which feels worse than it is being on benefits. At the end of 2011, 8% (http://www.education.gov.uk/a0064101/16-to-18-year-olds-not-in-education-employment-or-training-neet) of 16-18 year olds were unemployed and not in education. I don't think I'd be wrong to say that these statistics hide many aspects, and that if you were to look at unemployment of under 25's, they would make up the largest slice of the unemployment figures.

Then there is the 'Jobcentre Plus' itself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobcentre_Plus
The jobcentre likes to pretend its this fantastic service run by the Government which helps people get back into work but lets not forget that the jobcentre is a private company sub-contracted out by the Government, it wouldn't do for it to actually help its 'customers' (yes they actually call jobseekers customers) out of unemployment. What it really is is a glorified dole office, a way of keeping people down, sucking your soul out through your left nostril because I guarantee you, once you have been there and have been degraded and spoken down to by their incompetant and unhelpful staff, you will never quite be the same again. (Resentful much? Maybe a bit.) The crux of the issue here is that unemployed people get very little help from the organisations and resources that are meant to be made available, a problem which further ascerbates social (and individuals mental) problems.

Of course newcomers to the country can also enjoy the UK's brilliant benefits system:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16643677

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2089696/Immigrants-claiming-UK-benefits-report-Stop-abuse-British-hospitality.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2180942/Polygamous-immigrant-families-paid-benefits-Government-blunder.html

So here is the eureka moment. If you have read the article even vaguely you may have already come up with same solution, but here you go anyway.

Pensioners need not work for nothing to claim a pension they are entitled to and have paid into over the course of their lives. Youngsters need not be unemployed for years at a time, twiddling their thumbs whilst the workers of the country support their Xbox, alchohol and crack addictions.
All that needs to happen are these steps in order:

  1. Ban non-professional job agencies.
  2. Deport all non-essential migrant workers, deport illegal immigrants and put a stop to all migrants receiving any form of benefit.
  3. Change the jobcentre from a dole office to what its meant to be, (a JOBcentre.) Allocate temporary work contracts out to unemployed people as a free service to business who need short-term workers. Work can also be best allocated and shared out as best as they can be throughout all the unemployed people, and also makes a hell of a lot of economic sense too in reduced labour costs for the local companies themselves.
  4. Provide paid training to these so called 'Neets', so that they can gain skills required for entering the work force.
If there were much fewer foreign workers then they'd be more jobs open. If there were more jobs open more of our unemployed could get out of the benefits cycle (along with reduced taxes.) If more unemployed people came off of benefits that'd mean that there was more money to go pensioners. Which means they wouldn't have to retire early. In fact, you could argue that with the high levels of young unemployment, earlier retirement may be more beneficial for society.

Of course, this is all idealism. And this country is always the other end of ideal. Please let me know what you think of this situation in the comments!






Wednesday 24 October 2012

Law And Disorder In The UK



Its not often that I actually agree with anything written in the Guardian, but with regards to the latest one about law and order, this article really seems to have hit the nail on the head. With the recent announcements made by David Cameron that they were going to start being more tougher on crime one doesn't need to be a genius to realise that this is all just smoke and mirrors to detract attention away from the main troubles going on right now.

In any case, Im not going to simply repeat what was written in the Guardian, so feel free to read the article here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/22/politicians-dont-tell-truth-on-crime

The 'tough on crime' stance wheeled out every so often to trick the gullable law-abiding citizens into supporting further decent into a police state is getting a bit old, even so, it still doesn't stop some of the more traditionalist members of society from giving their support. The state of the law and order in this country currently is quite frankly a joke. The politcians may rattle their sabres to gain temporary support from well intentioned citizens who may still remember, or wish to return to the days where there was such a thing as social cohesion, but punishment is essentially like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Politicians are keen to mention crime statistics but not anything to do with social equality or community unity, all things which ultimately reflect upon why people commit crime in the first place.

So what currently do the British public have to contend with when faced with law and order in the land of hope and glory?

The nation which gave birth to liberalism and the modern ideals of legal and constitutional equality is in my opinion at breaking point. There is a plethora of legal and constitutional issues which we face right now which if not tackled appriopriately will end in a particularily nasty national identity akin to a certain dystopian novel by a Mr Orwell.

One of the most worrying trends we see at the moment is with the level of incompetence, lack of common sense and the extremely zealous approach of police, particularily the younger officers who have been brought up in the 'brave new world' environment that Britain has become. Gone is the image of the friendly English bobby who used to represent everything that was right about this country. There used to be a degree of respect and honour both within the legal system and with alot of the organised crime gangs. Just as a for instance the infamous Kray twins in London's East-End used to donate money to various charities and causes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-11487670

The sci-fi drama 'Life on Mars' and 'Ashes to Ashes' from the BBC invoked alot of the issues involved with the changing of police styles over the years, from the local police of the 70's to the decent into the modern face-less borg. The underlying message is that in decades past where there was local communities that cared and looked after one another, even most of the criminals had respect for others to some degree, (unless you owed them money of course) but this has all changed. Now the police go after generally law-abiding people who happen to break some minor law, half the time they don't even realise that what they have done was an offence, whilst the real hardened criminals are ignored because they are difficult targets or because the police themselves feel threatened.

As more and more of the 'old school' police are retired, the more and more we see the new face of the 'police', or as we should call it, the 'corporate tax enforcement force', because by and large, real crime is ignored.

The A19 document is available to all police stations and essentially gives the leaders the authority to retire officers who have served a set amount of service already.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1987/257/regulation/A19/made

But this of course means even more of those 'old school' coppers will leave leaving more room for youngsters who generally speaking have no idea about community and who have no choice but to follow their orders of revenue collection from drivers or to arrest someone who said something slightly inappropriate.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/4606022.stm

Yes, in this day and age it seems that you can be arrested (and convicted for) things you said in jest, online or in person and indeed you can be convicted on a 'minority report' whim for something you may have said online. For instance:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/16/facebook-riot-calls-men-jailed

Men who were alleged to have tried to insight violence and rioting in Cheshire in the 2011 English riots. Of course they probably was, but how can the law convict on the grounds of pre-crime, there is nothing to say these lads were not just joking. They probably wasn't, but I don't understand how you can be convicted on the basis that 'they probably wasn't joking..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-19604735

A Muslim who posted the following message onto a Facebook page which was a tribute to fallen soldiers:

"People gassin [venting off] about the deaths of soldiers! What about the innocent familys who have been brutally killed.. The women who have been raped.. The children who have been sliced up..! Your enemy’s were the Taliban not innocent harmless familys. All soldiers should DIE & go to HELL! THE LOWLIFE F*****N SCUM! gotta problem go cry at your soliders grave & wish him hell because that where he is going."

Do I agree with him? No. Do I agree that a tribute page to the dead is the right place to start political debate? No. Do I think that someone who gets a little hot headed and emotional should be sentenced to prison? Of course not! I don't agree with the wars, they have nothing to do with us - but even if you was gullable enough to believe the propaganda, wouldn't it be ironic to be punishing freedom of speech against dead soldiers who died in a war against the Taliban?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh5kgJQ6-xU

This was a high profile case because of the mass-media getting ahold of it, but this woman although not exactly eloquent, voices concerns that the vast majority of white Europeans harbour. She was more than likely feeling extremely vulnerable since she looks to be one of the only English people on the bus. Also, there seems to be an awful amount of 'racist' videos coming from certain accounts which seems to suggest that many of these people are being goaded into saying things they wouldn't usually say (unless pissed off.)

I often speak to a ex-policeman who comes into where I work and even though he worked for the police for some thirty years, he says himself that most of the 'new-breed' are simply bullies in uniform, or lack any kind of intelligence or integrity to do the job in a proper capacity. This is an increasing trend too, many older people who used to never question the way in which the police operate are suddenly becoming surprised at the sort of behavior we are being subjected to these days.

So why is Cameron hammering on the idea of 'tougher punishments?' Well, its a ridiculous situation. In the past few decades, especally under Labour, we have seen thousands of new offences being created. Most crime (as in stealing, assaulting, murdering etc) is actually down in recent years.

When you look at these statistics you will see something strange:
http://www.ukcrimestats.com/





The vast majority of crime is 'anti social behavior'. Well aside from the fact that anything could be construed as 'anti-social', we have to assume that most of this is from the kind of typical ASBO lout you may expect to see in any run down council estate area, or anyone who is in a drunken state coming out of a pub or club late at night and is making a bit of a nuissance of themselves. In this case we have to ask some questions seeing as all the other areas of 'normal' crime (such as robbery and so on) are actually on a decrease.
Why do kids go out and become anti-social?
Why do people drink excessively every weekend?
If politicians could answer those questions effectively and more importantly seek to rectify the problems, then maybe that is more important than starting a witch hunt against the vulnerable in society. Am I advocating the 'hug a hoodie' mentality that Cameron came up with before he was elected and has since dropped? No. But what I'am calling for is for the real reasons for Britains social woes to be investigated instead of making laws up for no inherrent reason which only serve to restrict freedoms and do not help society in any way.

I'm not qualified to answer these questions, but I would suggest that the vast majority of the reasons comes from the Government itself. That is:
The destruction of family values.
The unbelieveably poor education system which teaches in an out of date fashion without the dicipline which that old system requires to operate.
The destruction of local communties (both through the disintergration of traditional organisations and through mass migration.)
The attack of individual liberty.
The isolation of children in community.
The lack of job or career prospects (because the Government keeps getting cheap foreign workers in and because British companies keep moving their factories abroad) and for most if not all youngsters in this day and age.
The fact that alchohol and drug usage is a coping mechanism for many for the many issues the poorer face today. Not only that but much of the violent and anti social behavior is a learnt charectaristic through the sheer frustration of their situation and it essentially equates to mental illness. Punishing chavs just because they are uneducated and angry at being put on societies landfill sounds somewhat harsh to me. All the while the biggest criminals in the world eating lavish meals at international conventions paid for by the struggling tax payers, I very much doubt the status quo is going to change a great deal.

Just another day of bullshit.

(On a lighter note, Rowan Atkinson is backing a campaign for free speech, let us hope his fame will bring some real debate on the subject. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9616750/Rowan-Atkinson-we-must-be-allowed-to-insult-each-other.html)

Wednesday 17 October 2012

World Overpopulation? Hakuna Matata!

There are many who choose to keep putting their fingers in their ears when confronted with the facts about over-population.

It is a complex issue because there is no clear line between ecological balance and dystopian dictatorship, try as we might, a compromise is impossible because there are too many varying factors to consider when telling people how many children they may or may not have in a life time.

There are more and more celebrities, famous ecologists and certain 'royal' families who tell us we need reduce population to save the planet. When you look at the facts, you can't help but agree with them, however there is point that the world leaders need to re-think their strategies and think about human costs. Which of course they never do because they are families of inbred psychopaths. Literally.
There is more and more evidence to support the claim that chemicals such as BPA (which I've already spoken at length about previously) fluoride and suspicious concoctions added to vaccinations (especially in the third world, thanks Bill Gates) are already been used to reduce fertility and slowly sterilise the worlds population. Sounds extreme, by how else would you explain the fact that twenty year olds now in many cases have the fertility of a forty-something year old. More importantly, why would entire Indian and African villages be sterilised without actually being told what they are having done? Human costs and actual solutions need to both be taken into consideration, the acts committed by the likes of Western Governments such as the UK and corporations blatantly linked to secret agendas such as Microsoft's Bill Gates are abhorrent but should not deter us from finding proper answers to the issues.

The argument made by those who believe the worlds population can go on forever (many of those are blinded by religious scriptures who still cling to the mantra of 'go forth and multiply' and take it literally) feel threatened when the idea of resource control is brought up. How do these people then expect ten, twelve or twenty billion people to live on a planet in the near future which right now is currently being ripped to pieces by the current seven billion or so inhabitants. You can't have your cake and eat it. However if you are one of these people who believes that the world population can continuously expand, you have no worries. Hakuna Matata!

Our friends Timon and Pumbaa know all about the no-worries life style, and so I'm sure you'll be fine with their eating habits too, right?

You know, grubs, aphids, ants. Delicious right? No?

The European Union thinks otherwise. They recently gave €3 million in grants to projects to try and find ways of getting the public to find the idea of eating insects (a more or less infinite supply of protein) more....palatable.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/8739313/Roasted-crickets-and-toasted-ants-coming-to-you-courtesy-of-EU-research-millions.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2033606/EU-spends-2-5m-encouraging-people-eat-insects.html

At first I was digusted by the idea of eating insects, and then secondly I was angry at the EU for wasting my tax money on this project which is essentially designed as propaganda to try and convince us to eat less energy-intensive meat sources, but then of course there are worse ideas:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16972761

Scientists are currently attempting to grow completely artificial meat in a lab. So far they have only succeeded at growing very small amounts (to the tune of £200,000 per burger) but realise that the meat will have very little flavour and will need artificial flavouring to make it edible.

Both of these choices seem bad, but if I were to choose one, the witchery grub wins hands down. Why? Well because despite my first angry reaction towards the EU for using my money on this project, it actually makes sense. People, including myself, eat crabs, shrimp and prawns. What really is so different about eating their land-borne cousins? In a world which in our life-times will likely reach nine-billion souls, it really makes sense to begin changing our attitude towards food. For too long we in the West have relied on eating parts of the animals which 'look nice'. Whats worse, the parts we are often too squeamish about eating such as heart and kidneys etc are often the most nutritious parts, and they simply go to waste half the time. As a side note, many insects such as meal worms, witchery grubs and crickets have been eaten in other areas in the globe traditionally and are incorporated into local dishes. It needn't be just a survival staple. Of course it is not just consumers who need to change our behaviors, supermarkets play a big role in how food is being wasted (along with sell-by-dates which serve no purpose if you are intelligent enough to know what something which is past its best smells like.

 The added bonus to both these ideas however is animal rights. No one wants to know their hamburger came from animals that lived in shocking conditions only to be brutally murdered in a row like something out of the holocaust. Insects lack any form of intelligent thought, so we shouldn't feel too guilty about eating those, and well, the lab meat is a completely victimless crime, its just that its ethically abhorrent against nature. Having said that, blood donering was at the time of its invention seen as ethically wrong too, so who knows, if it can be proven safe then I personally see no logical issue. Its just morals that will take a few generations to change.

There are no easy answers for the problems humanity is about to face. It will require us to change the way we think.  When I first read and heard about these two articles I was very angry, but when you consider the alternative, you have to be prepared to adapt your perception. If we are not going to make the difficult choices now and help control population (by this I mean through education and through improving the lives of the most vulnerable both at home and in the third world) then we must begin to consider how we are all going to live at all.

 
 
Slimy, yet, satifying.


All Souls: Dishonouring The Dead

There is more to halloween than just pumpkins and candy.
OK, I know halloween is a few weeks away but I just have to get this off my chest. Before I begin let me just start by saying that I' am a pagan who follows Northern European traditions including Celtic and Germanic and so I warn readers in advance that I' am in no way unbiased in the views which I' am about to put into words. I do however feel strongly about the message behind Halloween, and I believe it should not be subjected to the kind of degenerative, commercial abuse that it currently suffers from.

From the popular culture that we are surrounded by, we are led to believe that Halloween is about sweets, costumes, the paranormal and antisocial behaviour. I must ask what planet parents are on when they allow their children to knock on complete strangers doors asking for sweets, the kind of behaviour which would usually be perceived as begging and in any case it is what every child is told not to do every other day of the year. It is a perverse commercial hijack of a highly sacred and noble festival.

So aside from the children's sugar high and that bad kid down the road flour bombing Mrs Miggins' Vauxhall Nova, what exactly is the true meaning behind Halloween?

Christians may be familiar with All Saints night, and All Souls Day, which (suspiciously) occur around the same time as Halloween. The commemoration of the saints and the 'faithfully departed', are of course the same as the pagan festival which have simply been borrowed by the Christian church as a way of integrating the native customs into the Christian calendar, the same tactic which ended up giving us Christmas at Yule and the rebirth of Christ at Easter.

Halloween literally means All Hallowed Eve, 'sacred evening'. The placement of All Saints night eventually becoming the following day is interesting, and is probably due to the fact that many ancient cultures used the moment of sunset as the next day, so All Saints Day actually falls on the same day that Hallows Day would have been celebrated.

Halloween was also seen by the ancient Celts as the start of the new year, and it was at this time in the year that they believed the barriers between this world and the next were at their thinnest giving them the opportunity to speak with the deceased through ritual, but the night also added the threat of harmful spirits, and it is likely it was this aspect which has given rise for the need for Halloween to be 'spooky'. To scare away the evil spirits and to guide their ancestors spirits to them, most ancient religions lit large bonfires, it is a tradition which we have still kept to this day in many cultures (its more than likely that in England the tradition is simply delayed by five days and is given to us in the form of 'Guy Fawkes Night', or as it is also known 'bonfire night' (Good Fire.)



Keep The Fires Burning:



Indeed the bonfire is something which has never left mankind's psyche. Its interesting when you go camping how quickly everyone can relax and just enjoy each others company, even in the fast paced modern world, with just the inclusion of a bonfire you feel as though you can understand those around you so much better. The bonfire also has an almost magical quality in its ability to transcend cultural barriers, bonfires have been apart of the spiritual culture in Europe to Native America, Japan to Africa. Humans have very little inherent behaviour, but if I was to place bets it would be that the fire is one of the only inherent non-learnt behaviours we possess. We are drawn to it because of its protective nature. It shelters us from the cold, it lights our immediate area, which of course is imperative to our species survival which has no special physical adaptations for defence or even the slightest night-vision capabilities to protect us from would-be predators. It cooks our food upon which we are reliant on as our stomachs cannot process raw starch and proteins they way other animals can. Finally it led to all of our technologies. All of our scientific discoveries today began when the first hominids mastered fire and began putting random rocks and elements in to the flames 'just to see what happened'. It fostered our curiosity of the universe around us, and gave us a laboratory with which to experiment with and eventually become the masters of chemistry.

IThe bonfires symbology is univeral, when we sit gazing into that flickering inferno we see exactly what the first intelligent hominids saw, and it links us to the past like nothing else. It is this reason that many pagan religions treat a sacred fire as being the literal portal to our ancestors, and in ceremonies folk often give offerings of food and drink as a way of including them in our festivities.


A Mark Of Respect



Halloween and All Souls Day then is the remembrance of our ancestors, family and friends who have passed on to the next world, a time to honour the dead and take the time once a year to spend time with them as a mark of respect. The same festivals exist worldwide, it does not matter what religion you are personally, because the entire idea is not based on worship, it is veneration of the dead in general. In many ways Halloween (to me at least) is far more meaningful and sacred than Christmas or Easter for it revolves around something tangible, something we have witnessed. Noone living today ever saw Jesus in a manger, or Eoster bring forth spring with the help of her Lunar Hare, but everyone has known loss and death, and everyone has the memories of a loved one who has passed on. Whereas in other festivals and holidays the meaning is left with the presumption that stories that are thousands of years old are correct, each of us has their own personal experience when honouring the dead.

So this year, when you see the usual droves of children descend upon their neighbourhoods to beg strangers for their sugar-fix, consider the fact that all of this is a perversion by commercial interests which makes a mockery of the dead. Everyone is too busy buying shitty costumes, drinking and allowing their kids to throw eggs at that grumpy old man's house to give a shit about the real meaning behind the festival.

In the past I have often marked Halloween with just a minutes silence, but this year I have convinced some friends to consider a more traditional evening. Don't worry, being pagan doesn't automatically condemn you to insane blood sacrifice. Sometimes its best left simple. Just good friends, a bonfire, some seasonal food and a bottle (or three) of home made Mead. Just a good time to really reflect on what is important to us in the realm of the living, and a chance to remember loved ones who can no longer be with us.

Please, teach your children and those you hold dear the true meaning of Halloween so we might build greater respect for the deceased and for ourselves. It doesn't matter if you are Pagan, Christian, atheist or anything else, the original meaning behind halloween trumps the fake one hands down.

I am obliged to let the end of this rant go out with a beautiful end. The wonderful music of Loreena McKennitt:



Bonfires dot the rolling hillsides.
Figures dance around and around
to drums that pulse out echoes of darkness;
moving to the pagan sound.

Somewhere in a hidden memory
images float before my eyes
of fragrant nights of straw and of bonfires,
dancing till the next sunrise.

I can see the lights in the distance
trembling in the dark cloak of night.
Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing
a waltz on all souls night.

Figures of cornstalks bend in the shadows
held up tall as the flames leap high.
The Green Knight holds the holly bush
to mark where the old year passes by.

Bonfires dot the rolling hillsides.
Figures dance around and around
to drums that pulse out echoes of darkness;
moving to the pagan sound.

Standing on the bridge that crosses
the river that goes out to the sea.
The wind is full of a thousand voices;
they pass by the bridge and me.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonfire#Celebratory_bonfires
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints_Day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Souls_Night
http://altreligion.about.com/od/holidaysfestivalsevents/f/what_is_halloween.htm
http://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/holidays/halloween3.htm
http://www.pocm.info/pagan_ideas_soul.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/paganism/holydays/samhain.shtml