Bye bye grey blog. It was nice for a change but now it’s back to green. I’d say that the protest was overall a smashing success, however the fallout has yet to be fully digested. We’ll see if anything positive or negative comes out of this demonstration.
In other news, check out this ‘deer in headlights video’ of the commander in chief of the U.S. of A. answering straightforward questions with his usual grace and style. Notice his eyes, his stance, his general defensive posture. Very enlightening.
Finally a bit of meta news – Wally has finished remastering the last of our audio conversations. We start off talking about Waking Life and meander through many subjects from google to a bottle of whiteout. This was recorded sometime in October of 2003 I believe, although I could be wrong. It’s not a bad one, but we do come off as pompous pricks so be warned.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Grey Tuesday
Tomorrow, a form of digital disobedience will occur. Many sites are participating in a protest called Grey Tuesday to take a stand on musical rights. Many of you may not appreciate remixed music or hip hop, but they are incrediblly influential and beautiful as forms of musical art.
DJ Danger Mouse created a remix of Jay-Z’s the Black Album and the Beatles White Album, and called it the Grey Album. Jay-Z’s record label, Roc-A-Fella, released an a capella version of his Black Album specifically to encourage remixes like this one. But despite praise from music fans and major media outlets like Rolling Stone (“an ingenious hip-hop record that sounds oddly ahead of its time”) and the Boston Globe (which called it the “most creatively captivating” album of the year), EMI has sent cease and desist letters demanding that stores destroy their copies of the album and websites remove them from their site. EMI claims copyright control of the Beatles 1968 White Album.
So this site, along with many others will host links to the complete album and turn our colours grey in protest. Join the fight for musical rights! Break the chains the bind us and participate in digital disobedience!
Futurology
Wally sent me this link about Futurology and how they believe they can use physics to explain the behaviour of the masses. Kind of like psychohistory in Asimov’s Foundation series.
“we sometimes act en masse as though we are a collection of atoms interacting with one another through forces of attraction and repulsion. This doesn’t mean that everyone does the same thing, but it can mean that our quirks get submerged beneath averages and mass movements. It doesn’t mean that we lack free will, but it does suggest that we might not be as free as we’d like to believe.”
If we assume that at all levels of complexity entities make value choices, then it would be easy to infer that they all follow the same rules of probabilities when making them. What we see as fact in the interaction of matter at the subatomic level could really just be highly predictable value choices by the matter at that level. However, this allows for the possibility of matter to interact and choose a different unpredicted path, however improbable. I guess that’s why in string theory there exists the probability that you will walk through that wall as opposed to hitting it, despite the overwhelming odds against it.
Likewise, it would allow for more complex entities like ourselves to follow and interact based on the same rules of probabilities as the sub atomic partices. You have to keep zooming out and believe that the rules work at all levels. Then our choices become probabilities, and it’s up to us to fight against the odds when it comes time to roll the dice. Perhaps thats what life is, taking the chance and going the road less followed, but in the end making all the difference.
Winnipeg
It’s hard to describe living here. It seems to me that there are so many pluses and so many negatives. You have the bitter cold, and let me tell you it does get bitter. A week ago it felt so cold that I began to wonder if the Sun hadn’t been just snuffed out, and the chill I felt was the slow emptyness of space about to consume us. It gets cold. I’m finding though that I don’t mind it as much as I used to, even though practically speaking I spend more time outside in the winter then I normally would because of the smoking ban. I guess all it does for me is intensify sensation and provide a stark contrast against our realities of room temperature. Yes it can get this cold but soon enough it will be warm again. The sweet isn’t as sweet without the bitter.
A question for the men
Ladies (ya right – like any girls come here!), please disregard this post as the question I am about to ask does not pertain to you. Well, in some ways it does but it’s like the question of abortion – that’s always a womans choice (in my mind). This however is a man’s choice.
So I got a piece of spam today (one of maybe 100 I get at work) that made me wonder about the lengths that men go to in order to, *ahem*, enlarge their members. So I pose this question: Would you put your dick in this?
Canada
Conan O’Brien was in Toronto for today’s show. It was a wonderfully strange experience for both Canadians and I’m sure Conan. There was a bit of Winnipeg slander in his opening segment but I’m willing to ignore that. If nothing else the truth in his jibes is a testament to the trials of Winnipeg existence, which only a Winnipeger knows. His show (and other events) has brought me to the realization that I should probably spend more time discussing Canadian politics as there is little that I can do to affect American ones. Only problem is that I don’t know as much about Canadian politics as I do about American.
There’s an interesting definition of conservatives and liberals on this is class warfare. Very succinct description if you ask me. Liberals and conservatives are going to war in Canada right now, this upcoming election ought to be an interesting one. The Liberals in power are beset by scandal and corruption. The conservatives are still trying to put together a whole party after it split a dozen years ago. Interesting times indeed. Thank god that Canada doesn’t just have two parties – other parties balance them out. There’s always lots of choice up here.
How many of you have ever been to wikipedia.org? It’s an interesting site – a user edited and contributed encylopedia of knowledge. I happened to come across an unused entry for The King of Canada and I felt I should contribute at least something. I’ve also contributed to the Sustainability Wike, but I suppose that’s on a different network. Ah well, at least I’m throwing a bit of information pollution out there.
Sigh
I was going to refrain from discussing ‘nipplegate’ until thekitty pointed me to this depressing article: Tenn. Woman Files Suit over Super Bowl. Two quotes:
“As a direct and proximate result of the broadcast of the acts, (Carlin) and millions of others saw the acts and were caused to suffer outrage, anger, embarrassment and serious injury,” the lawsuit says.
…..
Carlin’s lawsuit seeks billions of dollars in compensatory and punitive damages.
Outrage, anger and embarrassment – are they litigation material? If they were I would say that half of the population of the states would start a class action lawsuit against the supreme court for allowing Bush to expose his nipplegate. And injury? Did this woman get whiplash from the shock of seeing a sinful breast exposed? The shame of it all!
The second quote though, that’s the one that makes me very sad. Billions of dollars in compensatory and punative damages – not only does this expose that absolute lack of relevance that the judiciary process holds in the U.S. right now but also the blind, opportunistic greed that it’s faithful alcolytes worship. Overhaul is needed, before it’s too late.
Contributing to the Meme-stream
You vote on it’s quality with a link. Incubus’s Megalomaniac has been getting a lot of air time on the radio up here in Canada. You gotta love the fact that these guys have vocalized what so many of us our feeling. It’s strange but it really feels like this upcoming election in November is one of those critical moments in history – where the fate of a country and the world rests in the vote of every American. So go out there and vote! Spread the word! If there should ever be an election with a high turnout it should be this one.
Politics, politics, politics. This is definately going to be the year of internet political debates. Well, at least we’re not talking about people. It gets hard to only come up with ideas all the time…
Return of the linkage
The content has been a little on the light side for a while here, but I have a good excuse. I’ve been frantically trying to help my dad put together his doctoral thesis and it’s been taking all of my time at night. I might just have to rant about the uselessness of MS Word 2003 one of these days, man oh man for software that’s supposed to make things easier we sure wasted enough time getting all the formatting and what not working. Anyway, as I’m at work I’ll keep this short with some interesting links:
My Milenko brother Bubu has a list of things that Bush forgot to mention in his State of the union address. Very interesting read.
Do plants act like computers? An interesting theory explaining the behaviour of plants.
Now for something a little lighter (or do I mean higher?)- the Marijuana-logues. Pretty funny.
Finally, something that I could probably use – A video game controller that doubles as exercise equipment. Cool!
Every blogger and their dog
As opposed to giving my inexpert analysis of Bush’s state of the union address, I’ve decided to post a few sayings from my zen day calender (which I bought yesterday). I mean how many people have already mentioned his militant unilateralism, his reunification of Church and State, his anti-gay mentality and his drug testing at schools. I’m just another guy, not even an American.
Without further ado: