Don't Look Now!

Good idea.
Not that I watch that many tv-programs, no bloody time. Most of it is crapola from start to finish anyway.

Life, the Universe and Everything on your mobile

Douglas Adams' h2g2 was the first forum/community I was a part of and it has become quite legendary. A couple of years ago when the BBC took over they tried their damn hardest to give us a home but the compulsory BBC-moderation went against many veterans' belief that h2g2 should be(and was!) a self-correction and self-cleansing community. Fortunately the BBC has realized that as good as nothing 'moderatable' ever happens that isn't solved by peer-pressure. So the rules - while still in place - are hardly ever enforced.

It was been announced and tried some years ago but the Hitchhiker's movie is imminent and apparently the support for a real Guide has grown. This has resulted in The real Guide. This is an initiative to create not only the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy online(www.h2g2.com) but to also make the information available on mobile phones and other handheld devices.

I think the Wikipedia is a brilliant initiative. We were there first though... :-)

John Titor: Timetraveller Extraordinaire

This entry is about John Titor. I assume most people have heard the story but for those who haven't: check this out. This is - in my opinion - the best hoax/stunt ever pulled on the web. And the fact that he has not returned to claim his fame makes it all the more convincing. I have not come across anyone on the web who has actually found out who this guy was. And that is quite an achievement.

Back to you Michael

In the meantime, at Michael's party...

Webarchives - another one

Here you can see what your favorite website looked like in the distant past.

Fred about democracy in America

Fred on Everything is a site that contains the writings of Fred(!), a sometimes quirky character but I always have fun reading his articles. This one is about Democracy in America(which, according to Fred, doesn't exist). Select "The path of democracy" on the lefthand side.

I normally do not copy articles from others but there is no deeplink to this article and they tend to shift out of sight after a while. So here it is :

Democracy, Birds, And Snails

Oh...Hell

<>April 7, 2005

I wonder whether liberal democracies do not follow an ordained trajectory into the muck, ripening like fruits, having their arteries harden, and falling, plop, to be eaten by birds and snails. (That was a two-animal medico-vegetative ballistic metaphor, not so much mixed as homogenized, almost colloidal. Patent applied for.) I note that the English-speaking countries are doing to themselves exactly what the United States is doing, and the Europeans, though better educated and more cultivated, follow. Maybe there is a pattern.

Now, any time I refer to the United States as a democracy, I get mail, from people vaguely remembering high-school civics, who tell me that the US is not a democracy but a constitutional republic. In fact is neither. A democracy is of course any governmental system in which ultimate power rests with the people; direct democracies, parliamentary democracies, and constitutional republics are all examples of democracy. In America, the people are nearly powerless, in large part without knowing it. The trick has been done by giving them furiously fought elections that don’t mean anything. This distracts them and gives them a sense of participation, while maintaining their proper role as consumers.

The United States is not the country it thinks it is. It moves fast toward a curious comfortable despotism. This is of course precisely what people want. A few observations:

America does not have a free press. The media are big business and speak for those who own big business. They lie and distort and always have. Now, however, they all lie and distort identically; here is the rub. Their function is to herd the sheep. The public knows only what it is allowed to know, except for the tiny few who go to the internet. “Political correctness” is not an annoying fad. It is a deadly serious means of preventing public discussion of things that those in power do not want discussed (for example, race, affirmative action, illegal immigration.)

In the words of the great political philosopher Fredwitz, democracy is communism continued by other means. Pretty much, anyway.

Though it may run counter to intuition, the press itself has little interest in freedom of the press; this is why freedom is so easily denied. Journalism is first a job. It is second a job with rich perquisites: A reporter travels abroad, attends exciting events, enjoys privileges unheard of among mere citizenry. It’s a racket. Only a cantankerous few would risk these wonders for the sake of telling the truth. They are soon weeded out.

The will of the people? Hardly. Americans do not determine any policy that matters. (E.g., regarding race, affirmative….) The techniques for guaranteeing an unnoticed helplessness are simple but brilliant. First, people are never permitted to vote for policies, but an only for one or another of two essentially identical presidential candidates who prate identically about Getting the Country Moving, and No Child Left Behind. The results determine not policy but patronage. Second, power is concentrated in remote anonymous bureaucracies, rendering policy impervious to attack. Third, there is the federal tactic of taxing the states and returning the money in exchange for obedience.

The people do not rule. Nor do they have freedoms inconvenient to the government. But then, they do not want freedom.

We are seeing I think that letting people govern themselves doesn’t work. I don’t say that it is undesirable, but merely impractical. (Letting them think they have power, however, is splendidly sensible, as it keeps them quiescent.) More succinctly, democracies aren’t stable. They tend toward well-fed dictatorship. Why? Because the bright, grasping, and conscienceless inevitably rise.

The people lack the intelligence to govern any entity larger than a very small town. Particularly in the United States they read little, think less, know almost nothing of history, geography, the nature and politics of the world beyond the borders. They are thus easily swayed, frightened, enraged, gulled, and led into dog-pack patriotism by those, far smarter and more aware, who understand the levers of power. They so quickly give up liberty to those who offer to protect them. They are eager to do it. Look around you.

I have seen it said that the national character of the United States safeguards the country against despotism. I doubt it. National character may exist at a given moment, but it is easily changed. A spirit of hardy independence, of “Don’t Tread On Me” and so on, cannot outlive the independence itself. America is no longer a nation of rifle-toting frontiersmen or self-sufficient farmers. It is a nation of employees. On average they are heavily indebted, imprisoned by the retirement system, unable to farm, fish, hunt, defend themselves, change their spark plugs or build a shelter. They cannot live without the state, which leaves…who in charge?

A curious phenomenon, of uncertain provenance though I have heard many theories, is the national promotion of psychic weakness as a virtue. Some of it surpasses parody. I see that teachers are eliminating red pencils for grading papers because the violence of the color might shock the sensibilities of the students. There is much of this. Presumably the effect, and perhaps the intention, is a cowering race of pitiable and self-pitying weaklings unable to withstand, well, much of anything. A red pencil, for example. Dreadful things, those pencils.

People want neither freedom nor democracy. They want a soothing mother domestically and an outlet, preferably overseas, for anger.

While political democracy does not exist, cultural democracy does. It can exist because it does not threaten those who govern. The common run of humanity has no interest in learning anything or in any sort of intellectual betterment. They resent anything they see as indicating superiority in others, though, and want assurance that, as kids used to say in Alabama, “you ain’t no gooder’n me.” The degradation of the schools serves to eliminate obvious distinction, improve docility, avoid unwanted study, and make people consumers of witless amusement provided from above, as for example terrible music and awful movies.

All of the foregoing I believe serve to make the public a somnolent mass paying taxes, buying things, and directing little attention to larger matters. The only freedoms most want are the freedom to drive nice cars, watch 300 channels on the cable, drink beer, and take an occasional vacation. Freedom matters to intellectuals. For most, prosperity suffices.

A friend recently returned from China and told me, “As long as you don’t screw with the government, it doesn’t screw with you. It’s not Burundi. I hate the bastards, but the economy is getting better and people go along. It could be lots worse.”

Convergence.

Music-videos all over...

I got this from the very informative "Splinter Inside" Blog. This blog even has the same standard-layout as mine... Hrmmmmm.... gotta do something about that sooner or later...

Anyway : thanks Hans.

Responsetimes

Blogspot sucks big time lately. Responsetimes of over 5 minutes... That's so last century guys. Do something will ya?

Boob Marley

Apparently this is not an April Fool's joke. Boy oh boy...

BOOB MARLEY

Apr 1 2005

BBC ask to interview reggae music star who died in 1981
By Eva Simpson

THE BBC asked to interview reggae legend Bob Marley for a documentary - despite the fact he died in 1981.

In an email, they told the Bob Marley Foundation it would only involve him "spending one or two days with us".

The Beeb wanted the Jamaican star's contribution for an hour-long show on his hit single No Woman, No Cry. The email said the story "would only work with some participation from Bob Marley himself".

It added filming was pencilled in for June, July and August, but "our schedule is flexible".

The show, expected to air on BBC2 and BBC Three, follows a December documentary on The Story Of Bohemian Rhapsody, the Queen song. Marley died aged 36 from cancer. Last night a source close to his family said given the BBC's prestige the email was a "shock".

"We didn't think there was anyone on the planet who didn't realise Bob Marley passed away years ago," he added.

BBC Three said the blunder, by researcher Paysley Ross, was "not an April Fool". It added: "We're very embarrassed."