Pretty Much the Best Thing Ever

Stephen Colbert and Alicia Keys tearing it up on a Colbert Report remix of Empire State of Mind.

The Year in Pictures

This is a collection of pics from the past year from the Boston Globe. For whatever reason they have great picture galleries. This one is particularly full of emotion and intrigue. It's a nice way to look back on the year. The gallery is in three parts. So, make sure you get through all of it.

Here's a picture of mine from the inauguration that captures the spirit of the year that was 2009.

Thought Provoking Words From Mr. Chomsky

"So take right now, for example, there is a right-wing populist uprising. It's very common, even on the left, to just ridicule them, but that's not the right reaction. If you look at those people and listen to them on talk radio, these are people with real grievances. I listen to talk radio a lot and it's kind of interesting. If you can sort of suspend your knowledge of the world and just enter into the world of the people who are calling in, you can understand them. I've never seen a study, but my sense is that these are people who feel really aggrieved. These people think, "I've done everything right all my life, I'm a god-fearing Christian, I'm white, I'm male, I've worked hard, and I carry a gun. I do everything I'm supposed to do. And I'm getting shafted." And in fact they are getting shafted. For 30 years their wages have stagnated or declined, the social conditions have worsened, the children are going crazy, there are no schools, there's nothing, so somebody must be doing something to them, and they want to know who it is. Well Rush Limbaugh has answered - it's the rich liberals who own the banks and run the government, and of course run the media, and they don't care about you—they just want to give everything away to illegal immigrants and gays and communists and so on.
Well, you know, the reaction we should be having to them is not ridicule, but rather self-criticism. Why aren't we organizing them? I mean, we are the ones that ought to be organizing them, not Rush Limbaugh. There are historical analogs, which are not exact, of course, but are close enough to be worrisome. This is a whiff of early Nazi Germany. Hitler was appealing to groups with similar grievances, and giving them crazy answers, but at least they were answers; these groups weren't getting them anywhere else. It was the Jews and the Bolsheviks [that were the problem].
I mean, the liberal democrats aren't going to tell the average American, "Yeah, you're being shafted because of the policies that we've established over the years that we're maintaining now." That's not going to be an answer. And they're not getting answers from the left. So, there's an internal coherence and logic to what they get from Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and the rest of these guys. And they sound very convincing, they're very self-confident, and they have an answer to everything—a crazy answer, but it's an answer. And it's our fault if that goes on. So one thing to be done is don't ridicule these people, join them, and talk about their real grievances and give them a sensible answer, like, "Take over your factories.""

A Couple of Quickies

• Awesome video of flying fish. They can glide for up to 200 meters after take off!!
• Hilarious video of a prank from a Japanese TV show. One of the more well thought and absurd pranks that I've seen on a Japanese game show and that's saying something!
• And a great quote from The Daily Show two Wednesday's ago: "The Special Olympics is to winners what Fox News is to experts; if you show up, you are one." ~ Jon Stewart

Classic Louis C.K.

I have been watching SO many Louis C.K. vids on youtube. This one is one of my faves as it is hilarious and actually thought provoking. The dude gets it.

You Know the Deal

Serious Links

•  Article on the future of batteries. They have figured out how to make paper thin batteries out of a certain species of green algae. Very cool.
• Scary poll regarding the 2010 mid-term elections. The poll found that a huge portion of the republican voter base are planning on voting in 2010 while a minority of the democratic voter base is planning on voting. This appears to be due to the fact that republicans are getting real fired up and democrats are only disappointed in the progress, or apparent lack there of, that Obama has made. This gets my blood boiling. Dems out there who are actually not planning on voting deserve the republicans that are going to take office as a result of their lack of understanding and apathy.
• Article discussing the downward trend in the prices of energy from renewable sources and the prices of first time installation costs. Specifically the cost of solar power has gone down 50% in the last year.

Fun Links

• Article on 5 real scientific reasons why a zombie apocalypse could actually happen.
• Cool pics showing the actual amount of water on the earth compared to the actual amount of rock.
• "This woman has a pet unicorn, why isn't she smiling?!"
• KICK ASS This is a story and phone number that you can apparently call to get your voice blasted out over the Norwegian forest. (pictured below) I do not know if this is for realz but I sure hope it is.
  

The Rise of Food Stamps

Food stamps now feed 1 in 8 Americans and 1 in 4 American children. Stop and think about that. This stat says as much about the current recession as any other that I have seen. It hits home. One interesting side effect of the growing visibility of food stamps in our culture is that they are losing their stigma. For decades they were seen as something that only the truly poor had to deal with. Now, apparently, they are something that millions and millions of Americans have to deal with everyday. The times they are a changing. Check out the NYT article here.

Delayed Absence

Sorry for being gone so long guys. I have simply had too much work to be fooling around with this blog stuff. To hold you over until I return, which could be a little while considering finals are approaching, I will leave you with this great video of John Stewart enlisting the aid of retired wrestler Mick Foley to help protect that 10 year old kid who won't stand up for the pledge of allegiance until gay marriage is legalized. It's a hilarious video and for a good cause.

Whhaaat?

1 in 20 british children think that Adolf Hitler was a german soccer coach. for more absurd and depressing statistics such as this one read this article.

Linkkkkkks For Fun

Photos from a contest in which people were asked to create pictures showing what the world would be like if the internet disappeared. This is a real gem.

Insane weird cool video

Amazing set of pictures covering the world drug trade: from the dealers to the growers to the users.

Really awesome and inspired idea for a gift. Makes me wish I was much more creative.

Article on how England's swine flu cases have doubled in the last week...

Article on research that has found junk food to be as detrimental to rat brains as heroin. Clearly shows that junk food is not food for thought.

Crazy map showing the impact that a 4 degree Celsius rise in world temperature would have on the world environment.

Quote of the day: [Newton] invented calculus. Most of us sweat through it for multiple years in school just to learn it. He invented it--practically on a dare. He discovered the laws of motion, the laws of gravity, the laws of optics. Then he turned 26." -- Neil deGrasse Tyson

We Need to Get Out of Afghanistan Now

"According to reports, the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan use 800,000 gallons of gasoline per day. At $400 per gallon, that comes to a $320,000,000 daily fuel bill for the Marines alone. Only a country totally out of control would squander resources in this way."

Until I read this statistic I was semi-dedicated to the idea staying in Afganistan until we had finished what we set out. Now, I could not be farther from that. Right now, we are spending $320,000,000 PER DAY on the Marine's gasoline. Just the Marine's. WHHHHHHHHAAAT!?? How is that even possible? Really. How can we sustain that? I am speechless. To say the least, you should read the article that I got this from. It is all about how the US now fits the definition of a failed state.

What More Can I Say?

(click on it for the full experience)

This is probably my favorite Phillies picture taken during their many triumphs of the past three seasons. The raw emotion. The elation. Freaking Carlos Ruiz, the clutchest little panamanian this game has ever seen. This is the best team that I will ever root for. I can say that without any doubt and without any regret that I will never again get to see a group of players so good, so united by a common goal, so easy to love, and so exciting to watch. That is because these guys are that good. Go Phils. Finish up business tomorrow night and then sit back and wait around for those other teams to fight for the chance to be your next victim. Let's go.

Some Profound Quotes on Human Existence

It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning. That I do not think you understand yet. A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest. I want to be worthy of rest when I am no longer here."

-Chaim Potok

the infinite possibilities each day holds should stagger the mind. the sheer number of experiences i could have is uncountable, breathtaking, and I'm sitting here refreshing my inbox. We live in trapped loops, reliving a few days over and over, and we envision only a handfull of paths laid out ahead of us. We see the same things each day, we respond the same way, we think the same thoughts, each day a slight variation of the last, every moment smoothly following the the gentle curves of societal norms. we act like if we just get through today, tomorow our dreams will come back to us.

and no, I don't have all the answers. I don't know how to joly myself into seeing what each moment could become. But I do know one thing: the solution doesn't involve watering down my every little idea and creative impulse for the sake of some day easing my fit into a mold. it doesn't involve tempering my life to better fit someone's expectations. It doesn't involve constantly holding back for fear of shaking things up.

This is very important, so I want to say it as clearly as I can: Fuck. That. Shit."

--xkcd

“In the midst of winter, I finally found that there was in me an invincible summer.”

Albert Camus

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. ~Fr. Alfred D'Souza

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life. - unknown

"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here." - Richard Dawkins

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

Robert Anson Heinlein

The people we judge and hate in life are in fact reflections of our disowned selves. (Dr Hal Stone)

The personal, as everyone’s so fucking fond of saying, is political. So if some idiot politician, some power player, tries to execute policies that harm you or those you care about, take it personally. Get angry. The Machinery of Justice will not serve you here – it is slow and cold, and it is theirs, hardware and soft-. Only the little people suffer at the hands of Justice; the creatures of power slide from under it with a wink and a grin. If you want justice, you will have to claw it from them. Make it personal. Do as much damage as you can. Get your message across. That way, you stand a better chance of being taken seriously next time. Of being considered dangerous. And make no mistake about this: being taken seriously, being considered dangerous marks the difference - the only difference in their eyes - between players and little people. Players they will make deals with. Little people they liquidate. And time and again they cream your liquidation, your displacement, your torture and brutal execution with the ultimate insult that it’s just business, it’s politics, it’s the way of the world, it’s a tough life and that it’s nothing personal. Well, fuck them. Make it personal.

• Quellcrist Falconer

High Quality Links

• This is really incredible. It is a recounting of the entirely odd balloon boy saga set to the tempo and rhyme scheme of the theme song to The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
• Some awesome pics of frozen fruits and veggies getting shot at close range.
• A wikipedia entry on the peculiar phenomenon of sailing rocks, which are rocks that just move around, seemingly randomly. Freaking cool.
• A collection of the best of the best microscope images taken in the last 35 years. Truly stunning.
• A kick ass pic showing how big Antarctica really is. (clue: it's huge)
• A really complicated but enlightening and neat flow chart/illustration thing of the differences between dems and repubs.

Massive Berlin Marionette Show (and that's the marionettes that are massive)

There was a truly incredible marionette show in Berlin a few weeks ago. It was both absolutely beautiful and an staggeringly logistically complicated. Check it out if you want to be amazed and touched.

Jon Stewart Destroys CNN and Other Links

CNN spends time fact checking SNL skits. CNN does not spend time fact checking their guests. Jon Stewart has a few words to say on this matter. Check it out here.

Here's an article that expands on these thoughts: Why was Bush able to ram his agenda through so easily? Because his agenda was the agenda of the Ruling Class. Why can't Obama get his agenda through? Because his agenda directly attacks the Ruling Class.

Great reply to Fox's arrogance and overt collusion.

Strikingly beautiful map of pre-WWI Europe. If you look at anything here let it be this.

Nobel Prize winner

Did Obama deserve the nobel prize for peace efforts? It really depends on how you look at it. Has he really done enough yet to garner it? I would say no but I do think that he will in the next three, hopefully seven, years. Some obviously disagreed with me though.

I would have to assume that by giving Obama the prize the prize givers, whoever they are, were saying that by not being Bush, by repealing many of the acts that he had passed, by changing the tenor of the White House's words, by being in support of an ask questions first, and not later, strategy, by simply stepping down off the unreasonably high high-horse upon which the Bush administration had placed the White House and the USA, was enough to earn the nobel peace prize.

That is a powerful statement. It reminds me of when Time magazine made their 'person of the year' the public and put a mirror type thing on their cover. It was a surprising decision and one that a lot of people disagreed with but I loved it. It actually looked at what had happened in the world in the previous year, saw that things had changed, and that the causes of those changes had not been one person but the entire public. In the same light, the nobel prize givers saw that the world has changed in the last year, that many of the changes have been for the better, and that it was the work of one man, because really it is all about the way he carries himself and approaches his work that makes the difference, that had caused that change.

Quite honestly, it was not until a few days ago when someone pointed out that Obama probably won it for simply not being Bush, that I realized how great an impact Obama has had on the world already. No, he has not yet done a lot of the things that he promised but he really is doing an incredible amount of work and almost all of it is going towards returning the USA and the world to the stable ground that it was on before Bush took office.

In the process of writing this piece I have come to realize how brilliant a decision it was to give Obama the prize. I think it's because him receiving the prize made us all step back and think about whether or not he has done enough to earn it. On first look, it seems as though he has not really earned it yet, hell I wrote that at the beginning of this piece, but on second look you see that he really has brought the most peace to the world of any one person in the last year. This is by no means to say that he has come close to fulfilling the promises he made during his campaign or to fulfilling our hopes for what he is capable of but it is to say that he appears to be on the right path towards those goals. Here's to hoping he does enough in the coming years to win it again.

Awesomest Graph

This graph shows the occupational breakdown of US citizens in the last 150 years. Really cool.

Epimetheus Lives

PETA has a new blog and guess what it's called: The PETA Files. Now, if you haven't gotten it yet, say it three times fast. Dang, they did not think about that one.

Links For Thought

new piece by the great noam chomsky on "the push to militarize latin america"

some good ol' krugman on glen beck and the US. this one is good if you have recently found yourself wondering, as i definitely have, how beck has gotten so powerful.

an interesting piece from mother jones on the potential problems that are going to arise as tasers become more and more widely used, specifically by school security guards.

and, for all you tolkien lovers, but really just for myself, a site with tons of sketches that tolkien made of his imagined realm of middle earth.

let's be human beings

in these times of trouble, we must all remember that the qualities, i.e. race, religion, and politics, which appear to separate us from one another are merely on the surface of our shared existences. it truly can be hard to see this. to see, that is, that we are all the same on the inside.

our internal logic tells us that we are set apart from one another by the things that we have each experienced, and by the unique understanding of, and perspective on, the world that each of our sets of experiences gives us, but this simply is not true. yes, we have all experienced different things and yes, this does mean that we each see things in a different light but the distance between each one of us is minute compared to the gulf that i think we each imagine ourselves to be surrounded by.

for me, the proof that we are actually much closer than we think is that, while we do experience different things, we each experience those different things using nearly the same brains and sensory systems. in other words, we are all using the same operating systems to compute the data that we take in. i think that this means that two people can experience like things in different circumstances and each come out of it with like understandings of their experiences. i might even go so far as to say that that is what happens. that we each draw the like conclusions, merely coated by specific cultural circumstances, when we experience like things.

from here, you can make a leap and begin to wonder whether or not there is a finite set of conclusions that the range of things a human is capable of experiencing can yield. what would that mean? hmm, that's a bit of a thinker, probably best not to make that leap in the middle of all this. back to the main course.

ahh, yes, we all draw like conclusions off of like experiences. it must be noted of that there are differences in intellect, specific brain chemistry, and culture, which do set us apart to a point. i just don't think that we are as far apart as it seems or, more importantly, as we often want to think.

i mean how much easier is it to not care about someone's well being if you can think that they are nothing like you and would not understand where you are coming from? the answer is much, much easier. that right there is where so many of today's problems stem from. we seem incapable of accepting, or maybe even understanding, that the opinions' of our rivals might have merit to them, i.e. that they might be worth listening to and coming to comprehend.

there are efforts in many of today's most contested battles to build stronger bridges towards mutual understandings but this current economic situation is augmenting many of the divides, which already define these battles, and making the great distances that these bridges must cross even greater. now, more than ever in recent history, we need to take a collective step back and assess the true nature of our problems. i say this because i think that many of our arguments right now are being driven more by fear and anxiety about the future than by any specific parts of the arguments, i.e. people are more afraid about growing government control in a time when the government seems like a bit of a lurching giant than they actually are about health care.

we are all scared for what is coming. therein lies the crux; we are all scared. we are all scared that the lives we have worked for are going to get pulled out from under us and that we are going to be left alone and helpless in this new cold reality. well, firstly, that is exactly what is going to happen if we all continue to act so selfishly but, secondly, it is exactly in this moment of terror that we find the opportunity to come together and build a stronger, more united, future.

now, i do know that these idealistic words of mine have been spoken many times before and will be spoken many times again in the future but i also know that i am right. i know that this country is reaching a boiling point and that something is going to happen. whether that something is the republican party splitting into two groups, one group based on religion and yellow journalism and one group based on sound but conservative economic and social ideals, or obama giving in to dropping the public option and passing another weak health care reform bill or obama asserting the democratic majority in each house and passing whatever bill he really wants to or something else entirely, i do not know but i know that the next three, hopefully seven, years are going to bring change to this country.

so, here we sit on a precipice, three years from now, maybe seven years from now, we are going to be a different country. what is that country going to look like? it could be much more united than it currently is or it could continue on this divisive path towards a future that i fear holds in it the airing of some of America's oldest and dirtiest laundry. chances are that we will find ourselves somewhere in the middle of these two options. all i hope for is that we come to recognize the magnitude of the opportunity that we find in front of us before it is too late and that smallest of windows for positive change, which we see open only once every few decades, has closed again.

considering the dire magnitude of some of the ideas i just put out there, i should probably end this piece with a few words of encouragement. so, here they are: let's not be the cold, heartless, passive aggressive robots, which we have become. let's just be the warm, understanding, forthright creatures that we are meant to be. let's be human beings.

that may not sound like much but, really, it is all that we need to bring us out of this darkness and towards a brighter future

The man who saved a billion lives has just died

Norman Borlaug, "father of the green revolution", just died. His obit is ridiculously interesting. He worked tirelessly to find ways to increase crop production, specifically wheat, at a time when there were serious concerns that the world's population would outstrip it's food supply. It can be said without equivocation that his work saved hundreds of millions of lives. Though, he was not one to ever acknowledge the importance of his impact. Check it out.

Also, if you've got 10 minutes to kill, here's a penn and teller vid about Norman. If you've never watched a 'serious' penn and teller vid, you should because they are pretty politically conservative and they are pretty smart, too. In other words, they are an important perspective to hear from every now and then.

One more, a piece that I haven't gotten to read yet but that looks pretty cool. It's on the racial divisions that this recession is creating/bringing back into mainstream America. Read it.

real cool explanation of some old sayings

so, im not entirely sure that these are real but, if they're not, they're at least really creative. check them out

hurricanes make big waves

interesting piece on an upcoming supreme court battle

onion brilliance

funny this onion video is called "is using a minotaur to gore detainees torture?"

the little "next story" blurb at the end of the vid said "powerful coal lobby adds coal to food pyramid" ha.

krugman on his game

nice article by paul krugman about the health care plan which was nearly passed during richard nixon's presidency. interesting how times have changed. i especially like the last paragraph. deep.

can we do anything right?

ahhhhhh

uh oh

"the big hate"

great article by paul krugman tearing the GOP to shreds

two good links. hopefully ill do some sort of write up after these finals i've got.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/education/11stuff.html?_r=1&em

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/opinion/06price.html?_r=1

two solid links

first one is about google getting a flock of goats, instead of a yard service, to mow their lawn

second one is about a legit whale fossil being discovered in a kitchen counter top

enjoy

a little bit of hating on blind faith

I really am not one to discriminate against people that believe something that I do not but I do have a bit of a thing for people who discriminate against others based upon a set of beliefs that they blindly adhere to. This most often comes into play in my life when I come into contact with people who blindly believe in god and all that he has decreed. In fact, there is nothing that I disagree with more than the twisted logic that hundreds of millions of god-fearing people on this earth use to decide what is right and what is wrong. Now, there are hundreds of millions of non-believers who also use grotesquely twisted logic when it comes to there decision making but those people are less united and, thus, it is hard to put a finger on one group of those people or one set of their beliefs.
Long story short, I stumbled upon this video on the youtube and I think ya'll should watch it. Now, it's not a new argument against blind faith but it is the most simplified, logical, and funny one that I have seen. It really does break down the argument against blindly holding unproveable things to be true, however ridiculous it sounds to need even need to make such an argument.

why I trust this man with our future

President Barack Obama is soon going to make his first, and hopefully not last, appointment for the Supreme Court. I just read a front page article from the NYT that discussed Obama's views on law, the role that it plays in our society, and the type of person that he is most likely to choose. The article reminded me of why I have so much faith in him. Basically, he fucking gets it. He understands that it is not what you believe that is right but what is right that is right. He understands that, now more than ever, we need people running our government who are openminded, thoughtful, and ego-less. He understands that being able to admit that you are wrong, understand why, move on with the new knowledge in tow, and call upon that new knowledge with confidence in the future is maybe the most important quality that a person, let alone a freaking supreme court justice, can have. The article makes the point that Obama is not necessarily going to appoint some far left thinker. Instead, he is going to appoint someone who thinks outside of their own biases and sees through all of the fog that our absurd, reactionary, propagandistic, and fear-mongering society is shrouded in, to the truth.

Here's the article. Check it out. Do some thinking. Leave some comments.

jack kemp, pretty dang thoughtful

jack kemp, former nfl QB and US member of the House of Representatives, died a few days ago. I didnt really know much about him while he was alive but i just found a link to a letter he wrote to his grandchildren after obama won and it's worth a read. The man understood the unique greatness of the USA and how tight a rope we walk to uphold that greatness.

http://www.kemppartners.com/about-jack-kemp/column/a-letter-to-my-grandchildren/

BEST QUOTE EVERRRRRRR

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything that you have." ~ Thomas Jefferson

water water everywhere and not a drop to drink

50 years from now we will look back on the days when fresh water was plentiful and the ocean was relatively unpolluted. We will cringe when we realize how much water we have wasted and we will be shocked when the world's fisheries collapse. Wars will be fought over water and they will be unimaginably brutal. This is where we are heading. While this rarely gets much press, some scientists recently called for a ban on fishing in a third of the world's oceans. It probably won't happen but it's good that they are getting the idea of cutting back on fishing into the mainstream media.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/26/fishing-stocks-protection-conservation

Plus, an article that has some pretty strong things to say about Obama's lack of innovative thinking and policy writing in his first 100 days.

http://www.reason.com/news/show/133157.html

uh huh

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/700_billion_bailout_celebrated

http://hurundurujkapujka.blogspot.com/2009/04/strange-tracks-in-snow.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/27/colbert-study-conservativ_n_191899.html

http://www.pleaselink.me/_hotlinking/myconfinedspace/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/calvin-parenting-is-screwing-him-up.jpg

http://www.propublica.org/feature/officials-in-three-states-pin-water-woes-on-gas-drilling-426

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/3076232-its-a-picture-thats-sure-to-make-your-hair-stand-on-end

http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/even-genghis-kahn-knew-torture-doesnt.html

what are we coming to

i am usually pretty understanding of other cultures and religions but this is really too much. saudi police beat back unveiled girls who were trying to escape from a burning building so that they would not be seen in public without their veils. the girls died.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1874471.stm

linx

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/opinion/16kristof.html?_r=1

pretty interesting article on IQ testing. makes you wonder whether or not that test means all that much in terms of actual intelligence and not just learned knowledge. for example, using today's IQ test half of the US population of 1917 would be considered legally mentally disabled.

plus: the best of banksy. need i say more. (and there's some in here that i haven't seen so much before)
http://joaoramos.org/bestofbanksy/

a legend

harry kalas was just that. this article, more than any of the ones i have read since his passing, encapsulates everything that he was to the phillies, to philadelphia, and to baseball.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/opinion/15glanville-harrykalas.html?_r=2&emc=eta1

teeeeaabagggin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLsKt4O4Yw8

comedic gold

struggling with what our culture demands of the rest of the world

I have never really been able to fully understand what living my lifestyle means to the rest of the world. What I am really doing by owning expensive electronics, buying third-world imports, and traveling to the third-world. In reality, I know that by doing those things I am supporting a system of exploitation and oppression. We, the West, are holding the head of the third-world under water. Not to the point that they drown but to the point that they are gasping for air and have no choice but to do what we ask of them.

So, I guess what I am really wondering is what does this mean for me. What should I do to work against this? Should I stop buying cameras whose parts are made in the third-world (which really means all cameras)? The answer to that question may very well be yes but fuck! if it is because I like cameras! I am of course being a bit facetious but still, a part of me does not want to stop living the life that I lead. I mean I already buy humanely whenever it's possible, i.e. when it's not too expensive or is available. The problem is that there are some things in this world, usually electronics, that are not produced without exploitation and oppression.

I suppose the questions that I have been building to for this whole post are "Am I doing as much as I can or is there more that I can do? and Should I be prepared to drastically change my lifestyle to do more? or even Should I feel the need to change my lifestyle (i.e. is the pressure on me to change or will me changing not even make a difference at all)? This is all a bit garbled but it may be the most important question in my life right now because, really, I do not want to lead a life that inhibits others from leading theirs.

Am I wasting my time by even worrying about this or should I be this concerned?
Here's a link to the set of pictures that got me started on this tangent and, yes, I know that this is not commonplace across the entire third-world.
http://www.zoriah.net/blog/2009/04/guest-photographerphotojournalist-gmb-akash-child-labor.html

reallll interesting

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/14/federal-agency-warns-of-radicals-on-right/

the department of homeland security is predicting a rise in far right white extremism and warns police forces to be on the lookout for "groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority." hmmm, do i smell a revolution brewing?

on a side note I have now twice seen a PA department of homeland security van in philly. It's a make of van that I have never seen otherwise. The things are monstrous. They are covered in electronics, including a massive camera perched on the back that looks down at whatever is following the van. weird man weird. also, i just tried to google image homeland security van and nothing came up. again, hmmmm. im probably on some anti-us lists now, too!

monsanto baby

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/business/global/15gmo.html

so i posted some stuff a week or so ago regarding agri-business giant Monsanto. In a pretty cool move, considering germany apparently grows so little corn, germany has outlawed genetically modified corn, which monsanto produces en masse. If there is one business sector that needs to be held in check in the entire world, and yes I am considering the banking industry, it is the gmo industry. Those guys have all too much power and guile.

good signs...?

What with this whole troop increase in Afghanistan and protection of the government's right to wiretap I have been a bit torn up lately by our president. These are not huge things but they may be telling ones. Whatever, maybe I'm overreacting. Either way, this article is one that re-instills some confidence in me.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/business/energy-environment/08greenoil.html?_r=1

pesticide companies bitch and moan about michelle doing good

so, michelle obama is trying to start an organic garden on the white house lawn and a pesticide company is complaining about the fact that she is not going to be using chemicals on her plants. The company is even going far enough to campaign to get her to use the chemicals. This is obviously ridiculous but the pesticide lobby is a strong one and who knows what would happen if they put their back into this fight. So!, here is something you can do to help. This is a link to a sight that is creating a petition to stop the pesticide company from winning this fight. Do us all a favor, sign up.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/wh_garden/?r=3305&id=3489-1227855-ASVmLvx

http://www.oliviagentile.com/

the world of monsanto

first a blog that monsanto puts out

http://blog.monsantoblog.com/

then some info on a new bill that may get passed by congress and blatantly supports monsanto

http://www.populistamerica.com/gmo_proliferation_bills_proliferate

more to come here later

are we free to choose?

I just added a new picture at the bottom of the blog and it is getting me thinking.

I like to think of myself as being a bit counter culture or, at least, as being aware of the absurdity of our culture but this picture makes me wonder. I know that, by living in a major Western city, buying name brand goods, and being in the upper class, I am just a cog in this whole system. The question for me is how big of a cog am I?

This graffiti makes me think that I am a pretty big one. It exposes the fact that, while I do speak out against a lot of our cultural practices, I am still totally a part of this culture. While there is nothing inherently wrong with that it is still a little disconcerting. Could I be more of my own person? Could I lead a life outside of this culture's boundaries? Why do I follow so many of this culture's rules? Has this culture co-opted/stifled my creativity? These are all questions that worry me because I know the answers to most of them and I don't really like them.

Quite honestly, this makes me want to get up tomorrow morning and do something different. Do something that is mine and not theirs. I want to stop worrying about things like grad school, my appearance, and money and start worrying about things that influence my true happiness, not the happiness that I have been taught to experience inside the contexts of this culture. I mean really, whose life am I leading; my own or the one that I have been taught to lead? Right now I am pretty sure that I am leading the one that I have been taught to lead but I feel as though it is well within my power to lead my own life.

I am not entirely sure what this all means for me so all that I can really hope is that I continue to look behind the reasoning for the decisions that I make. For it is there that the grip this culture has on me hides and it is also there that the grip can be broken.

colbert 1 glenn beck 0

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/223279/march-31-2009/the-10-31-project

We're really not THAT big of a deal

Here in the good 'ol US of A we take ourselves pretty seriously. Maybe rightfully so, but maybe not. We are the most powerful country in the world and we have been for about a century. There is no doubt that that is impressive but is it reason enough for our egos to be as big as they are? I think not.

From the perspective of time, the US is, at this point, simply an experiment in governance. A lark that, considering the track record of past empires, is likely to someday be just a blip on the radar of history. That's a pretty bold statement but consider that the Roman Empire, which had a golden era of about 500 years and a total life span of over 1400 years, rarely gets more than a few weeks of attention in most world history courses in the US. With this in mind, where does that leave the US?

Well, I don't really know. I can't predict how history will view the US but I can say with confidence that the US is centuries, like five or six of them, away from beginning to compare to some of histories great empires. Is that the story that we are taught as kids? No, we are taught that we are the best that has ever been and will ever be. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, every country/empire needs propaganda to operate successfully, it's just that it makes it really hard for us to analyze the US today without having a heavily biased perspective. I am not trying to be anti-american I just think that it is important to take all the talk US supremacy with a big ass grain of salt.

I am not really sure why this is all coming out of me right now. I can only guess that it has something to do with the fact that, especially in these times of great historical import, it is vital to remember that, in terms of history, a human life is short and that appearances can be deceiving.

Now, to sum up, think for a moment that the US empire will eventually collapse, that the country will eventually break up, and that history will eventually forget us. For some reason these thoughts give me some comfort on an existential level and I hope they do for you, too.

some sweet links

http://izismile.com/2009/03/31/road_crash_hummer_h3_vs_suzuki_ignis_7_pics.html

http://trinixy.blogspot.com/2009/03/are-your-eyes-playing-tricks-on-you.html

more real entries to come later tonight after i'm done that h-dub

LED sheep and some statistics to ponder

the sheep- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw

the stats-
In America:
1970- 50% of one paycheck bought middle class lifestyle
2000- 70% of two paychecks bought middle class lifestyle

1970- Avg CEO made 30x more than avg worker
2000- Avg CEO made 400x more than avg worker

can there really be good logging?

YES! I saw it first hand in Montana. It is out there and it is awesome. I saw this article yesterday on nytimes.com and was really excited to see that more environmentally mindful loggers are getting some press. The below links are the article and the website of the logger that I worked with in Montana.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/business/energy-environment/29forests.html?_r=1&hp
http://www.rbmlmbr.com/

The myth of the free market

These days there is a great debate going on as to how much influence the government should have on the economy. Many of the debaters are of the opinion that an entirely free market is the best option for america and the world. This simply is not true.

The idea of the free market is based on the fact that, under the right set of circumstances, market forces do eventually push suppliers and demanders to an equilibrium price at which optimal output is achieved. This is true. The problem is that that right set of circumstances rarely, if ever, occurs. This is due to the fact that some of the circumstances, such as consumers and suppliers having perfect information (i.e. having a full understanding of the circumstances surrounding any transaction), there having to be no externalities (side-effects) that result from any transaction, and that all of the suppliers must be price-takers and not price-makers (i.e. be firms that are too small to dictate the price of a good in a market on their own), are nearly unachievable in this modern world of mis-information, pollution, and big business.

My point is not that there is anything wrong with the free market, in theory it is ideal, my point is that free markets do not, and cannot, really exist. Therefore, the idea of conducting business in a market based on the assumption that the market is a free market is ludicrous. Acting as though free markets exist leads to the exploitation of consumers, workers, and the environment in the name of profits. In other words, it leads us to exactly where we are today.

This is not to say that government intervention is the answer to all of our problems but it is to say that some government intervention in markets like ours, markets in which many of the necessary circumstances of free market economics do not exist, is a good idea. At some point, hopefully soon (as in during this administration's lifetime), the policy makers, which in reality are not necessarily all elected officials, in this country need to ensure that guide lines, which make it so that businesses cannot operate on free market principles are set up. Again, I am not calling for socialism but I am calling for the reining in of some of our free-wheeling economic principles.

Impressive weather

This is just plain awesome. http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/video?id=6734765

The storm was yesterday evening. I hope all of you got to see it. I was outside before it started and the air felt electric. There was lightning everywhere, really high humidity, swirling winds. Then I ran back to my house and called brad out. It then started hailing like crazy and raining. We just stood there in awe. I had so much adrenaline. Then we realized that almost all of the windows in the house were open and spent the next five minutes franically running around fighting against the wind and hail to close them. Everything got wet. Hail got 15 feet into Brad's room. It was so surprising and exciting. Good times.

everything has to have a beginning

Hey guys. So, this is the first post of my new blog musings on the modern world. The intent of this blog is really just to give me a place to voice many of the opinions and ideas that I have about my life and all of our lives in this city, country, and world. I want to cover a broad range of topics from environmental, globalization, and socioeconomic issues to natural history, music, biking and beer. I'm hoping that it will be interesting, entertaining and, maybe even a little, enlightening for those that read it. I would also really love if this became a place where some discussions could get started up. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it and here are a few links to get the ball rolling.

-The first one is a pretty interesting piece from another blog on the possibility that the US may be becoming, or has already become, an oligarchy and the second one is a slide show of some pretty stunning bird life.

-http://futurenewstoday.blogspot.com/2009/03/has-us-become-oligarchy.html
-http://thehomebased.com/?p=25