Amazing that I haven't seen this yet. Everyone should see this at least once, and then have a thinker or discussion about it with someone.
The Story of Stuff homepage. With better video!
04/11/2008
The Story of Stuff
Amazing that I haven't seen this yet. Everyone should see this at least once, and then have a thinker or discussion about it with someone.
The Story of Stuff homepage. With better video!
51 Years
That's how long ago Laika became the first living creature from our planet to go into space.
Trentemöller has dedicated one of their videos to her, and it's quite the thing of beauty:
Trentemöller has dedicated one of their videos to her, and it's quite the thing of beauty:
27/10/2008
Quick News Update
Gordon Brown is a cunt because he decided to freeze Icelandic assets under the anti-terror law. The reason apparently was "economic terrorism" which is of course a lie. Why not freeze American assets instead? They were the once who caused the current economic crisis after all.
Oh, that right... Britain is Americas bitch.
And I suppose Iceland was a good fall guy. They don't even have an army, so maybe it's time to bomb them a bit too? That'd teach them not to engage in any "economic terrorism" in the future!
According to Greg Palast: "The U.S. Civil Rights Commission found that the chances of an African-American voter losing their vote is 900% higher than a white voter. Hispanic votes vanished at a rate 500% higher than Anglo votes."
Racism: I'm lovin' it!
Oh, that right... Britain is Americas bitch.
And I suppose Iceland was a good fall guy. They don't even have an army, so maybe it's time to bomb them a bit too? That'd teach them not to engage in any "economic terrorism" in the future!
According to Greg Palast: "The U.S. Civil Rights Commission found that the chances of an African-American voter losing their vote is 900% higher than a white voter. Hispanic votes vanished at a rate 500% higher than Anglo votes."
Racism: I'm lovin' it!
26/10/2008
My Drinking Masterpiece
Alright, lets see. I'm gonna try and describe what I've heard was my
worst. I don't remember hardly anything except glimpses after the 2
first tequilas, until 5 hours or so later when I'm standing in the
hallways, and another drunk friends decides to push me because I look
unstable while putting on my shoes.
But, in no particular order:
Made a list of girls I liked.
Danced on my knees since I couldn't stand properly.
Drove
a moped, crashed, got a concussion and wrecked the moped (it was mine
luckily). Got either led or carried inside, with road rash on my face,
bleeding a little from the head, and with puke on my jacket.
Decided
that jumping a hedge that was almost as tall as me was a good idea when
you're not able to take two steps in the same direction. I crashed
trough the hedge, scratched my belly, and got grass stains on my face
as well. This might have been before or after crashing the moped. I
have no idea really.
Despite heavy objections from the host, threw
myself in his little brothers bed, with puke stains, gravel and so on
still on my persona. Needless to say, he was not pleased at the time.
Though the day after, when I came to collect what used to be a nice
vintage moped, he didn't seem to mind.
On the way home to one of my
friends, me, him and another friend stole 2 bikes outside a party a few
houses away. One had a cart, which the least drunk of us got to ride.
I'm surprised we actually made it back whiteout crashing even once.
Even making it back was an achievement to me at the time.
Then the
following morning, with my two friends saying "shit!" "What the hell
did you do?" and other things like that about the appearance my face,
with a severe hangover and a concussion, the first thing I do is stand
up, only to bang my head with incredible force into a 5 kilos speaker
that's mounted to the wall with iron bolts or something.
It's
amazing how much of this I've managed to piece together, considering
that I brought about a liter of strong spirits with me, drank that in
about two hours, got several shots of tequila, some beer, some
moonshine, some wine, and so on. Considering I hardly never drink, that was a bit much I've realized.
I went to the hospital the day
after, after realizing that my head felt like it was stuffed with
cotton instead of in severe pain. That's how I know I had a concussion.
Oh
yeah, and I also lay passed out in a bathtub with vomit, booze and
things on me, with a shower curtain pulled to hide the sight of the
thing I had become. This meant that as soon as I made a sound, which
was most likely slurred speak, grunts or moans, I scared the hell out
of whoever was using the toilet.
That's my worst so far. It lacks sex with animals and drugs, but other than that I think I covered most of it.
Might have pissed myself, though neither me or anyone else noticed in that case.
worst. I don't remember hardly anything except glimpses after the 2
first tequilas, until 5 hours or so later when I'm standing in the
hallways, and another drunk friends decides to push me because I look
unstable while putting on my shoes.
But, in no particular order:
Made a list of girls I liked.
Danced on my knees since I couldn't stand properly.
Drove
a moped, crashed, got a concussion and wrecked the moped (it was mine
luckily). Got either led or carried inside, with road rash on my face,
bleeding a little from the head, and with puke on my jacket.
Decided
that jumping a hedge that was almost as tall as me was a good idea when
you're not able to take two steps in the same direction. I crashed
trough the hedge, scratched my belly, and got grass stains on my face
as well. This might have been before or after crashing the moped. I
have no idea really.
Despite heavy objections from the host, threw
myself in his little brothers bed, with puke stains, gravel and so on
still on my persona. Needless to say, he was not pleased at the time.
Though the day after, when I came to collect what used to be a nice
vintage moped, he didn't seem to mind.
On the way home to one of my
friends, me, him and another friend stole 2 bikes outside a party a few
houses away. One had a cart, which the least drunk of us got to ride.
I'm surprised we actually made it back whiteout crashing even once.
Even making it back was an achievement to me at the time.
Then the
following morning, with my two friends saying "shit!" "What the hell
did you do?" and other things like that about the appearance my face,
with a severe hangover and a concussion, the first thing I do is stand
up, only to bang my head with incredible force into a 5 kilos speaker
that's mounted to the wall with iron bolts or something.
It's
amazing how much of this I've managed to piece together, considering
that I brought about a liter of strong spirits with me, drank that in
about two hours, got several shots of tequila, some beer, some
moonshine, some wine, and so on. Considering I hardly never drink, that was a bit much I've realized.
I went to the hospital the day
after, after realizing that my head felt like it was stuffed with
cotton instead of in severe pain. That's how I know I had a concussion.
Oh
yeah, and I also lay passed out in a bathtub with vomit, booze and
things on me, with a shower curtain pulled to hide the sight of the
thing I had become. This meant that as soon as I made a sound, which
was most likely slurred speak, grunts or moans, I scared the hell out
of whoever was using the toilet.
That's my worst so far. It lacks sex with animals and drugs, but other than that I think I covered most of it.
Might have pissed myself, though neither me or anyone else noticed in that case.
25/10/2008
24/10/2008
23/10/2008
A Reason to Like Obama
I've finally found one, other than that he's not McCain that is...
"The biggest problem with our energy policy has been to lurch from crisis to trance. And what we need is a sustained, serious effort. [...] I was just reading an article in the New York Times by Michael Pollen about food and the fact that our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean time, it's creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because they're contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in healthcare costs. That's just one sector of the economy. You think about the same thing is true on transportation. The same thing is true on how we construct our buildings. The same is true across the board.
"The biggest problem with our energy policy has been to lurch from crisis to trance. And what we need is a sustained, serious effort. [...] I was just reading an article in the New York Times by Michael Pollen about food and the fact that our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean time, it's creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because they're contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in healthcare costs. That's just one sector of the economy. You think about the same thing is true on transportation. The same thing is true on how we construct our buildings. The same is true across the board.
For us to say we are just going to completely revamp how we use energy in a way that deals with climate change, deals with national security and drives our economy, that's going to be my number one priority when I get into office, assuming, obviously, that we have done enough to just stabilize the immediate economic situation."
Other than the fact that Obama seems to be the kind of guy you could have a serious discussion with, highly intelligent, and a few other good qualities that'd I personally like to see in the leader of one the biggest and most influential countries on the planet, my personal preference for Obama come from two things that has nothing to with this:
First of, he is not "just another rich white guy with corporate interests, and religious views that influence his actions". Not really fair, I know. But that's what large part of the world seem to think these day. Considering the view of many people, especially the youth in the Middle East, Europe, and probably a few other places, seem to amount to this, although in some cases a lot less polite, having Obama elected would shut all of us up. We can't use our "American President-stereotype" anymore, and are forced to re-evaluate our opinions somewhat. (At least that's what I hope.) So, in other words, better foreign relations. I know, you might object that since it's mainly the youth that are angry at the US it doesn't really matter. But this youth will grow up, and if there hasn't been any real change, why would their opinions change? And furthermore, angry youth tend to make their opinions heard. This means that older people will hear them no matter what they do. Some might tag along just because they usually do that, just as some of the youth have, some might agree, and very few of those that disagree will voice their opinion.
I'm not saying that's the case in all of Europe, but I think it's at least a not all that faulty description of the situation in Sweden. (Which, if Obama is a socialist, I'm quite sure could also be said to be a Communist dreamland...)
And, as if that is not enough, I think the chances of terrorist attacks on the US might decrease a bit. Both because of the fact that Obama is not the "typical American President", but also because he actually knows something about Islam. Plus, the fact that he doesn't have the same military background as McCain, which I'm hoping means he's less likely to start any wars.
The Time Article, via Open the Future.
17/10/2008
Wall of Text: About bloging, evolution, information, and such.
So, there's some of you that's been reading this blog that probably wonder who the hell I am, and why anything that I say should be listened to. Not that it would come as a surprise to anyone even a bit familiar with the so called blogosphere.
No one will agree with everything you say, just as you wont agree with everything someone says. This goes for identical twins, and in extension also clones.
So, why did I start bloging in the first place? Attention? Fame? Anger? Boredom? All valid reasons to start spewing your metaphysical guts out over the Internet, even though their content might not always be the best.
One thing I think we can all agree on is this: we like to express ourselves. Communication is a vast part of humanity after all, one of the fundamentals of society if you so will.
So that was of course part of it for me. I wanted to make my voice heard. I have no idea if I've succeeded, since none of you bastards ever write anything, but that's ok. I didn't want attention or fame.
I probably felt a bit lonely, needed a good output for emotions. And what I've realized after over a year of sporadic bursts of anger, excitement, sometimes clever phrasing, sometimes pubertal anger. What I've realized is that it focuses my mind. It's like my on-line scheduling system, where I shape my thoughts and opinions into clear crystals so that other will see, whiteout the light getting dimmed.
And that's just part of it.
I'm a idealist. I belive that humanity can do great things if we decide to. Yet I would never call myself unselfish. It's easy to fall into that trap, because it's a quality that takes on an almost... biblical tone. It's a word that people like to connect to idealism I suppose. Which is fine, but I'd never admit to being one.
Mainly because that'd make me a hypocrite asshole, and secondly, I don't think any human being, that could still be counted as a human being, would be totally unselfish.
Let me clarify: I'd love to be totally unselfish. It's a good thing. It's, what I'd call, a sign that we're still evolving. We ignore our survival instinct and work for the better of humanity, even if we have to suffer for it.
It's not gonna happen any time soon with how society looks, unless we drastically alter our lifestyle, even our view of life, personal ideals, and a lot of other things.
Part of the problem, at least in my eyes, is a system based on capitalism. The accumulation of wealth and property trough the production of more property to exchange for wealth.
This is encouraged, even though we don't need a lot of it. Hell, most could easily survive on less than half of what they make. For those of us who've been, and are students (that wasn't spoiled by our parents) know how little you can survive on. Noodles, hard bread, rice, pasta and ketchup. You can easily live like that. I'm quite sure you can also be happy like that if you just ignore all the things you should have. Who says you need a big tv, a car, air conditioning and so on?
I could probably get rid of most of my things, except for a matress and my laptop, and I'd be happy like that. The books I feel I need to read could be borrowed from the library. Food would be pretty cheap if you keep it basic. Rice, pasta, the things I mentioned. In fact, after a while you'd begin to enjoy it.
I know I somtimes do. Sure, it sucks not being able to have a beer or two with your friends, but you know what I'd like to think would happen if they tried it?
You'd end up having conversations for hours. You'd need to discuss things, just because there nothing else to do. No tv, no radio, no video games.
The thing is: What would you discuss if you didn't have anything to discuss? No movies, shows, something on the news. You'd have to think up things yourself, right?
Or, as I'd probably prefer, you activly work to accumulate information.
See, I've been thinking about evolution lately. The purpose of evolution is adapting to the enviroment, right? How do you do that?
By doing two things:
One. You adapt the old fashioned way, trough random mutations that spreads trough the race, in some cases proving beneficial, in some they kill you. Mostly, the bad ones makes sure the individual die, or their offspring die.
Two. We gather information about the world around us, so that we can adapt ourselves and our eviorment using our knowledge. This goes a lot quicker than what you might call classical evolution.
I'd like to belivie that it's this informational evolution that is the basis of our current existant. That we, as a race will spread our ideas, values, discoveries, and all the other things we learn, until we force ourselves to evolve.
By forcing ourselves to evolve I don't mean that we genetically alter our bodies or minds, although that will probably be a reality at some point in time. I mean that we force our minds to evolve to deal with the massive flow of information that will sooner or later become neccesary for us to absorb.
What happens when the worlds history is so long that it would take years to learn just the most basic parts of it? Should we just ignore the parts we deem least important? Who will decide what is least important, and what if it turns out one of these things has an effect on the then present, now future, time?
Of course, this also assumes we haven't decided to let a few develop new technology that the rest of us have no idea how it works. The ideal would be that everyone knew a little about almost everything, and specialised in a few things. Then we'd be able to expand this knowledge to others when they need it.
All of this builds on the thought that information and communication is the cornerstones of human life and civilazation, something I can't say for sure is fact.
I think there's definetly something to it, but there could be something I've overlooked I suppose. I'm still only human, after all.
No one will agree with everything you say, just as you wont agree with everything someone says. This goes for identical twins, and in extension also clones.
So, why did I start bloging in the first place? Attention? Fame? Anger? Boredom? All valid reasons to start spewing your metaphysical guts out over the Internet, even though their content might not always be the best.
One thing I think we can all agree on is this: we like to express ourselves. Communication is a vast part of humanity after all, one of the fundamentals of society if you so will.
So that was of course part of it for me. I wanted to make my voice heard. I have no idea if I've succeeded, since none of you bastards ever write anything, but that's ok. I didn't want attention or fame.
I probably felt a bit lonely, needed a good output for emotions. And what I've realized after over a year of sporadic bursts of anger, excitement, sometimes clever phrasing, sometimes pubertal anger. What I've realized is that it focuses my mind. It's like my on-line scheduling system, where I shape my thoughts and opinions into clear crystals so that other will see, whiteout the light getting dimmed.
And that's just part of it.
I'm a idealist. I belive that humanity can do great things if we decide to. Yet I would never call myself unselfish. It's easy to fall into that trap, because it's a quality that takes on an almost... biblical tone. It's a word that people like to connect to idealism I suppose. Which is fine, but I'd never admit to being one.
Mainly because that'd make me a hypocrite asshole, and secondly, I don't think any human being, that could still be counted as a human being, would be totally unselfish.
Let me clarify: I'd love to be totally unselfish. It's a good thing. It's, what I'd call, a sign that we're still evolving. We ignore our survival instinct and work for the better of humanity, even if we have to suffer for it.
It's not gonna happen any time soon with how society looks, unless we drastically alter our lifestyle, even our view of life, personal ideals, and a lot of other things.
Part of the problem, at least in my eyes, is a system based on capitalism. The accumulation of wealth and property trough the production of more property to exchange for wealth.
This is encouraged, even though we don't need a lot of it. Hell, most could easily survive on less than half of what they make. For those of us who've been, and are students (that wasn't spoiled by our parents) know how little you can survive on. Noodles, hard bread, rice, pasta and ketchup. You can easily live like that. I'm quite sure you can also be happy like that if you just ignore all the things you should have. Who says you need a big tv, a car, air conditioning and so on?
I could probably get rid of most of my things, except for a matress and my laptop, and I'd be happy like that. The books I feel I need to read could be borrowed from the library. Food would be pretty cheap if you keep it basic. Rice, pasta, the things I mentioned. In fact, after a while you'd begin to enjoy it.
I know I somtimes do. Sure, it sucks not being able to have a beer or two with your friends, but you know what I'd like to think would happen if they tried it?
You'd end up having conversations for hours. You'd need to discuss things, just because there nothing else to do. No tv, no radio, no video games.
The thing is: What would you discuss if you didn't have anything to discuss? No movies, shows, something on the news. You'd have to think up things yourself, right?
Or, as I'd probably prefer, you activly work to accumulate information.
See, I've been thinking about evolution lately. The purpose of evolution is adapting to the enviroment, right? How do you do that?
By doing two things:
One. You adapt the old fashioned way, trough random mutations that spreads trough the race, in some cases proving beneficial, in some they kill you. Mostly, the bad ones makes sure the individual die, or their offspring die.
Two. We gather information about the world around us, so that we can adapt ourselves and our eviorment using our knowledge. This goes a lot quicker than what you might call classical evolution.
I'd like to belivie that it's this informational evolution that is the basis of our current existant. That we, as a race will spread our ideas, values, discoveries, and all the other things we learn, until we force ourselves to evolve.
By forcing ourselves to evolve I don't mean that we genetically alter our bodies or minds, although that will probably be a reality at some point in time. I mean that we force our minds to evolve to deal with the massive flow of information that will sooner or later become neccesary for us to absorb.
What happens when the worlds history is so long that it would take years to learn just the most basic parts of it? Should we just ignore the parts we deem least important? Who will decide what is least important, and what if it turns out one of these things has an effect on the then present, now future, time?
Of course, this also assumes we haven't decided to let a few develop new technology that the rest of us have no idea how it works. The ideal would be that everyone knew a little about almost everything, and specialised in a few things. Then we'd be able to expand this knowledge to others when they need it.
All of this builds on the thought that information and communication is the cornerstones of human life and civilazation, something I can't say for sure is fact.
I think there's definetly something to it, but there could be something I've overlooked I suppose. I'm still only human, after all.
Secret Service loves McCain/Palin?
At least according to this piece, the Secret Service is preventing journalists from leaving the press area to talk to those attending campaign meetings. Censoring the press is not what I'd call democratic, but then again, making sure you can actually vote, is even more important.
Or maybe they're so ashamed that they're trying to hide the problem? Who knows.
Via Think Progress.
Or maybe they're so ashamed that they're trying to hide the problem? Who knows.
Via Think Progress.
15/10/2008
03/10/2008
The Structure of Problems
There are a number of different ways a problem might present itself. For instance, it might show up suddenly, and you only have a short time to react to it.
On the other hand it might also be visible for a long time, and you've got a lot of time to prepare to deal with it. It doesn't really matter if you do it now, or later, as long as you do it before it hits.
Then we have the problems that you can see ahead of you a long time before they hit, but which you can only affect by doing something very soon. Act now, or die in 10 years kinda things. Kinda like excessive smoking really.
Then we have the problems we don't see until they're just ahead of us, but we should have tackled years ago.
These are the really dangerous once, since when we give them due attention it's too late. Like standing on the rails of railroad, and looking the wrong way, while you somehow miss the train approaching behind you. Then you turn around and have a train poking you gently (fatally) in the face.
These last kinds of problems would be things like global warming for instance. If we do something now, it wont have effect until in a few decades. On the plus side, human life will continue it's evolution, which I'd venture to guess most people think is a good thing.
Brain food provided by Open the Future.
On the other hand it might also be visible for a long time, and you've got a lot of time to prepare to deal with it. It doesn't really matter if you do it now, or later, as long as you do it before it hits.
Then we have the problems that you can see ahead of you a long time before they hit, but which you can only affect by doing something very soon. Act now, or die in 10 years kinda things. Kinda like excessive smoking really.
Then we have the problems we don't see until they're just ahead of us, but we should have tackled years ago.
These are the really dangerous once, since when we give them due attention it's too late. Like standing on the rails of railroad, and looking the wrong way, while you somehow miss the train approaching behind you. Then you turn around and have a train poking you gently (fatally) in the face.
These last kinds of problems would be things like global warming for instance. If we do something now, it wont have effect until in a few decades. On the plus side, human life will continue it's evolution, which I'd venture to guess most people think is a good thing.
Brain food provided by Open the Future.
02/10/2008
Palin - The Origins of the Info
Turns out all the things we've heard about Palin, like her checking if she could ban books, firing a sheriff she disagreed with, and almost a chief librarian that was saved because people protested the decision, did not originate from liberal bloggers, communists, hate mongers, or anything else like that.
It all came from the observations of a local Alaskan woman, who had gotten interested in local politics a number of years ago, that attends more or less all the City Council meetings.
She wrote a long email that ended up going viral, but it was originally intended for a few of her friends who wanted to know who the hell Palin was, essentially.
It got passed on, ended up all over the place, and people started discussing it.
I'd say she's a very good source, since she's observed Palins political career with her own eyes, and although there's gonna be a few personal opinions in there, those should be easily spotted.
In fact, because she voices her opinions in the mail, I'd say it can be considered equal to a news paper article, and I'm talking about a real news paper now, the kind who does the news instead of "celebrity rumors", one sided political propaganda, and similar trash bin travesties.
Either way, here's the article about Kilkenny, the woman in question.
And here's the letter.
There is also a second letter, where someone gives their support to Palin by comparing her to Thatcher, which isn't exactly a compliment in my book, so that's about where I stopped reading.
01/10/2008
Financial Collapse Caused by Greed?
I just heard that the very few and very rich Americans have received tax cuts amounting to 680 billion dollars. A number that's uncomfortably close to the 700 billion needed for the bail out.
Anyone able to verify?
Anyone able to verify?
24/09/2008
Methane: The Doom of Man
Global warming? Turns out global warming was just the spark to light the fuse.
So, yeah, that's it I suppose. Unless scientist comes up with a way to travel trough the high energy areas separating us from other universes, or a quick growing mold that absorbs methane really really fast, we're fucked.
Now I just need to build a Robo-Marx that goes around telling people: "I told you so! But did you listen? Noooo!"
And compose a list of people that has denied the threat of global warming and personally punch them in the face. Or make Robo-Marx do it somehow.
And do lots of drugs to loud obnoxious music while having an orgy.
So, yeah, that's it I suppose. Unless scientist comes up with a way to travel trough the high energy areas separating us from other universes, or a quick growing mold that absorbs methane really really fast, we're fucked.
Now I just need to build a Robo-Marx that goes around telling people: "I told you so! But did you listen? Noooo!"
And compose a list of people that has denied the threat of global warming and personally punch them in the face. Or make Robo-Marx do it somehow.
And do lots of drugs to loud obnoxious music while having an orgy.
Dawit Isaaks
Dawit is Sweden's oldest, and from what I'm aware of, only political prisoner. (He's not being held as a political prisoner in Sweden, in case you thought that.)
He was arrested by Eritrea's military police 7 years ago for being one of the owners, and news reporters, of one of the leading papers in the country, and put in jail. He's been there ever since. With him in prison is also about 10 of his colleagues, of whom 4 have died during unlawful detention so far.
No trial, no jury. If you criticize the regime you get "detained indefinitely", it seems.
He came to Sweden around 17 years ago, as a war refugee, and was granted citizenship there. He lived here for 10 years with his family, and returned to his home country once the conflict had come to a rest. If he wanted to stay there or not I don't know, but as long as he is in jail without a fair and correctly performed trial, we can't afford to ignore it, just as little as we can ignore the Guantanamo "Prison", which is just another illegal detention facility.
It is indeed illegal since the people being held there are suspected, not guilty, of terrorism. I know, if they are terrorists they should be put in jail.
But what if they're not?
How the hell do we even know that they are terrorists? If there was evidence of it, then surely there could have been a trial, right?
Or maybe the problem is that since that trial would need to take place in a international court there is the possibility that the defendant would be declared not guilty? If he/she was then detained even after the ruling, that would be a clear violation. But as it is now, it is, somehow, a smaller one. One we can seemingly ignore it seems.
For now, I'd be happy to know that Isaaks is released and able to return to his family. But when that's done, the only legal battle I'll have an interest in here in Sweden would be the FRA-law. And after we get rid of that... Who knows? Maybe I'll try and end up in Gitmo just for the hell of it? I'm quite sure it's possible, and if I did, and could have my innocense proven in my absense, that would at least put a dent in it's already doubtful credibility, right?
He was arrested by Eritrea's military police 7 years ago for being one of the owners, and news reporters, of one of the leading papers in the country, and put in jail. He's been there ever since. With him in prison is also about 10 of his colleagues, of whom 4 have died during unlawful detention so far.
No trial, no jury. If you criticize the regime you get "detained indefinitely", it seems.
He came to Sweden around 17 years ago, as a war refugee, and was granted citizenship there. He lived here for 10 years with his family, and returned to his home country once the conflict had come to a rest. If he wanted to stay there or not I don't know, but as long as he is in jail without a fair and correctly performed trial, we can't afford to ignore it, just as little as we can ignore the Guantanamo "Prison", which is just another illegal detention facility.
It is indeed illegal since the people being held there are suspected, not guilty, of terrorism. I know, if they are terrorists they should be put in jail.
But what if they're not?
How the hell do we even know that they are terrorists? If there was evidence of it, then surely there could have been a trial, right?
Or maybe the problem is that since that trial would need to take place in a international court there is the possibility that the defendant would be declared not guilty? If he/she was then detained even after the ruling, that would be a clear violation. But as it is now, it is, somehow, a smaller one. One we can seemingly ignore it seems.
For now, I'd be happy to know that Isaaks is released and able to return to his family. But when that's done, the only legal battle I'll have an interest in here in Sweden would be the FRA-law. And after we get rid of that... Who knows? Maybe I'll try and end up in Gitmo just for the hell of it? I'm quite sure it's possible, and if I did, and could have my innocense proven in my absense, that would at least put a dent in it's already doubtful credibility, right?
Quote of the Day
"Moreover, Don Pederasto's society was part of a general homosexual conspiracy to take over Spain."
From The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity by George L. Mosse
From The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity by George L. Mosse
23/09/2008
ARE YOU AWAKE
Want a movie that makes you think? Not only that makes you think, but that forces your mind to wander and become part of the movie? Then this might be for you. Then again, if you're the kind of person that can't sit still, it might be for you. Stalker.
22/09/2008
Biopunk
What is this strange word I throw in your face all of a sudden? Is it the bastard child of cyberpunk perhaps?
Not an entirely faulty assumption to be honest.
Biopunk is biology performed by people outside of labs, in places fashioned to house there activities, but that was not originally meant to. Like their garage, or a spare closet for instance.
They play around with DNA, crossbreeding the furry things that grow on spoiled food, mixing their own genome with that of a doves to see if things go boom, or they've just discovered something that may give them a braingasm.
Sailing the seven seas of biology, taking what they need to pursue their own goals, outside of the laws and ethics of modern science.
Biopunk may very well be to us what cyberpunk was to the late 80s/early 90s, a prophecy foretelling the future.
Not an entirely faulty assumption to be honest.
Biopunk is biology performed by people outside of labs, in places fashioned to house there activities, but that was not originally meant to. Like their garage, or a spare closet for instance.
They play around with DNA, crossbreeding the furry things that grow on spoiled food, mixing their own genome with that of a doves to see if things go boom, or they've just discovered something that may give them a braingasm.
Sailing the seven seas of biology, taking what they need to pursue their own goals, outside of the laws and ethics of modern science.
Biopunk may very well be to us what cyberpunk was to the late 80s/early 90s, a prophecy foretelling the future.
09/09/2008
03/09/2008
Some more awesome music, with an at least equally awesome video.
This is Bag Raiders. The song is Fun Punch. I just had an orgasm.
27/08/2008
Burma: Only Relevant During Riots
Burma still have elections. This might come as a surprise to you, but there are still elections being held that, more or less, accurately announces the people's choice.
The democratic party NLD (National League for Democracy) has also won this election several times.
Not that it matter's to the military regime, who 1990, when the NDL won an overwhelming victory, killed around 200 people instead of handing power over.
There are still hundreds of political prisoners in jails, as well as Buddhist monks, who made the mistake of openly protesting the regime.
Ms Suu Kyi, the leader of the NLD, has spent the last 20 or so years either in prison or house arrest.
There are now rumors curcinating that she, and her two aids, have gone on a hunger strike. What the goal would be if this rumor is indeed true is unknown.
Meanwhile the regime continues building their new capital city, Abode of Kings, presumably as a monument over their own glory. Who else would be surprised if only the rich, famous and powerful get to love there, while the rest remains in the old capital?
The democratic party NLD (National League for Democracy) has also won this election several times.
Not that it matter's to the military regime, who 1990, when the NDL won an overwhelming victory, killed around 200 people instead of handing power over.
There are still hundreds of political prisoners in jails, as well as Buddhist monks, who made the mistake of openly protesting the regime.
Ms Suu Kyi, the leader of the NLD, has spent the last 20 or so years either in prison or house arrest.
There are now rumors curcinating that she, and her two aids, have gone on a hunger strike. What the goal would be if this rumor is indeed true is unknown.
Meanwhile the regime continues building their new capital city, Abode of Kings, presumably as a monument over their own glory. Who else would be surprised if only the rich, famous and powerful get to love there, while the rest remains in the old capital?
24/08/2008
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