Good News Everyone!

Loose your legs and become a mermaid! Remote controlled mini helicopter with a shotgun. Seriously. Or just read H+ Magazine to find out what the future might bring.

The Tallest Man on Earth

Newly discovered singer songwriter. Very good. Reminds me a bit of Dylan, which is decidedly not a bad thing in this case.

2 Hours of Sleep

That's apparently how little I can sleep during the night and function normally. Well, alright, so normally might be stretching it. One of the drawbacks with being a freak of nature I suppose. But still, I spent most of the time I spend comatose studying for my first Psychology exam. Then slept badly on the couch for 2 hours before going to school and doing the exam. That took 4 hours, and then I went home, feeling quite superior in a übermench sorta way for the rest of the day. Oh, and I did parkour for 2,5 hours as well. In snow. Ok, so I just wanted to post something before going to bed basically. I had quite a few ideas, but it seems parts of my brain has shut down to avoid long term damage already. Oh yeah: Smile more. It tricks your brain into making you happier. A book told me, so it's hopefully fairly accurate. Or maybe it's a trick to get people to smile more towards each other, thereby creating a more friendly society... Or maybe I've watched too many cheap Buddhist knock offs of the X-files.

Raiding Vimeo 2

Yeah, it didn't take many hours for me to decide to make another one. I didn't even close the tab I had opened for the first one before I started this one. Anyway, it's as usual a mixed bag of awesome videos. Like this one, for instance:

Suddenly from Magnus Engsfors on Vimeo. Apparently he's just hanging in wires as someone goes around taking loads of pictures of him that's later been made into a surreal video. Or how about a video where a guy travels the world to dance in all kinds of places?

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo. It has a tendency to make me very happy. It's people having fun, which usually makes the people watching happy. A piece of advice: Smile more. It makes you happier. Seriously, it tricks the brain into making you happier. Go look it up somewhere if you doubt me. But happiness can be replaced by sorrow as well:

Tea / Las Alturas Fire, Santa Barbara California from Patrick Lawler on Vimeo. Luckily I don't think anyone died, although a lot of homes where lost. Unlike in Australia, which as far as I know is still burning. Emotions always seem to be shifting, so maybe we should just relax, enjoy life and throw a party instead?

DGENERATE NATION - Skate With Me from DGENETICS on Vimeo. Besides, if I get to post at least something with a bit of music in it I'm happy. And this is a music video even! Though sometimes we just need to take the time to appreciate the small moments that we usually seem to ignore. Like having lunch in a hole in the wall type Asian restaurant.

lost in a moment from dennis wheatley on Vimeo. It's a cutout of a moment in time. Some say life is just a string of moments happening after one another. Some that life never truly change. Others that things always change and never stay the same. I'd personally say that life is what you think it is. If you want to believe that things never change I suspect I'd have a hard time to convince you otherwise. As long as it works out for you, I probably shouldn't try either.

Raiding Vimeo

We all know that Vimeo are superior to YouTube for a number of reasons: it looks better, has real HD quality, and consist mainly of good videos. Consider how much crap there are all over YouTube. Most of it is just copied from other places and reposted there too. Or at least a lot is. Vimeo, however, does not allow anything else than original work. This means you have to have made what you post yourself, or at least was involved in the production somehow. But enough jabbering. I took an hour or so to look up some videos to post. I didn't even have to leave the first page to find them either. Who knows what I've might find if I venture in deeper?

Rendezvous with Rama from Aaron Ross on Vimeo.

1000 Bills (In Imago Speramus) from Alex Itin on Vimeo.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo. Yeah, so these 3 falls under art. Which seems to be what most of Vimeo consists of from where I'm standing. Of course, that not all there is either. There some social commentary in the mix as well. For instance this little piece about Blackwater and other mercenaries in Iraq:

Hired Guns from JD on Vimeo. Not that I mind the art or anything, but I like variation too. The next video is also art, but since it's in HD I decided to end this post with it. More videos are to be expected. You may now rejoice. I might also post about psychology in the future. We'll see what happens I suppose.

SCINTILLATION from Xavier Chassaing on Vimeo.

Assorted things again!

That's right, I have nothing important to preach today either, so it will be another post where I try to entertain the non-existent readers I have.

How about some Wingsuit Base Jumping to kick things off?

Quite suicidally dangerous if I may say so. For some reason I want to put one of those on and swoop down from rooftops and kick bad people in the head...
If you care about my wellbeing you will not buy me one. This is not in any way reverse psychology I might add.

A short film about vampires, love and comedy.
Bats in the Belly by Thomas Gerber:

Yeah, that's a nice easy start I think. Now for the important stuff.
Like how to prevent the inevitable collapse of the American society by turning balconies, rooftops, parks and so on, into gardens. It's a "Eat your veggies or die" type of deal.
And it gets all the more relevant because of parallels to the development in Russia a decade or two ago.
More here.
And if you've got the money stashed away you might as well invest in a Farm Fountain right away. It'll probably help a bit when society falls apart around us.

A tune for Valentines

Or was that yesterday? Ah, who cares. It's highly entertaining in either case.

Lots of Things

This post will mainly contain links and stuff like that. I'm busy with studies atm, so posting will be infrequent I'm afraid. Here's a little something for valentines for instance:

And here's a link to an io9 post about lasers being used to close wounds. Penny talks about mental illness and how hard it is to find a job with it. A really good post. China apparently has execution buses that double as organ harvesters. Crime forfeits your rights to have organs, apparently. People interested in genetics might want to read about Punctuated Equilibrium and Hopeful Monster.

Movies and Yellyfish

I might have found a new favorite director. (Not that I really have one at the moment, but Katsuhito Ishii is a strong contender either way.)

The Immortal Jellyfish are preparing for their first strike on humanity apparently.
That'd be a good name for a band if you happen to need one by the way.

And here's a clip from a movie you've all probably seen:

Regina Spektor - Back of a Truck

Yeah, I love her too. No surprise there. This is from her first album. One of my favorites from it. It's a lot more all over the place then her latest one, but that's just fun I think.
And it's an awesome song to sing along with. Or try to, at least.
Music only version though, but still, enjoy!

Things from Grinding

Today I have found 3 things that interest me on Grinding.be One post about the history of the Internet, one about a new fuel cell that's so small that you can fit quite a few on the tip of your finger, and a possible future for pirate radio. Needless to say I like this place once in a while. I could care less for cool designer things and stuff like that. I feel it's occasionally too high-tech you might say. We all know the future will most likely be low-tech by now anyway, right?

You lose! Good day sir!

Disolving Evolving?

It took me a while to figure out how I view life, what I think our purpose is, and all those things we're supposed to drive ourself mad over before we turn 30. So, what do I think then? Well, alright. I suppose I have to tell you now, don't I? Alright, so first there was evolution. Things progressed, and we managed to form a theory of how we are what we are, and how other creatures are what they are. No problem there. But this was just the beginning you see. Once we've established all of these things, what separated us from the other beings around us? Not that I'd say all of us wants some proof that they're above the other animals, but I think we've all at least had that thought once or twice, right? And even here it's pretty easy. We've got culture. And I'm not talking about culture as in painting, music, and sitcoms here. Human culture, as I see it, is the heritage of our minds. Our memetic DNA, if you so will. Because even in our culture things are inherited from generation to generation. This, I think, is what we need to evolve further. We evolved until we had the mental capacity to form a massive culture. It's gotten so far that parts of the cultural sphere cannibalize itself and eats it's neighbors. Maybe we've gotten as far as we can with our culture? So what then, might the next step be? It's probably a bit early to talk about the next step in the evolutionary chain already though. The idea of cultural DNA hasn't even been firmly established yet, and here I am already asking you: "What's next?" But that's how we evolve. We discover things, we investigate, experiment, construct and keeps the structure intact. Well, at least until we can upgrade it to something better. So, what then is our purpose? I think our purpose is simple. Evolving. Moving on to the next stage. Trying to be the best we can, and then triple it. We might do so by creating things that improve for others, improve the environment, improving the cultural sphere by generating new material to mix into the vast ocean of ideas that already exist. But this is more the goal, not the start. We start, as most people do, at the bottom. We start thinking, decide to try something new, and from that point on we start building momentum. Once you move fast enough almost nothing can stop you. And if you actually meet an unmovable object, you either work out a way to get around it, or crash and pick yourself up, and try another direction. Yeah, so maybe it's not a life philosophy quite yet, but I'm working on it. That's actually enough. For now, at least.

We're Doomed

At least according to this guy.

But despite his somewhat serious tone, there's loads of interesting things in the links.
Like the NYPD wanting to be able to shut down cell phones in case of terrorist attacks.
Which, is of course, fucking dumb. If the terrorists works in cells, or have an actual plan to begin with, it won't matter.
And if they've set up a diversion, for instance blowing something up, people won't be able to call for assistance.
Sure, it might cripple the terrorists if they're lucky. But it will also cripple the society, and the police departments source of information.

And then there's the French police raid on a new started village for people who wanted to live in a better society, and decided that a small village would be the way to go.
Apparently they where dangerous Anarchists plotting to overthrow the French government, according to the French government.
There is apparently evidence to this fact even, although none has been presented so far.
According to their neighbors all of the arrested where nice people.
And besides, I thought violent Anarchists usually lived in the city? It's a lot easier to light things on fire if you don't have to drive for a few hours to get there first, for one.
And if you live in a village like that, there's always something to do. It's people who live in the cities that gets bored and unstable.

Then there's this:

Which is horrible and scary as hell all in one. This is the shooting that caused the riots I posted about on the bottom of one of my music posts.
I've heard he mixed up his gun and tazer, which don't really make me feel any better in any way.
Then there's things like this, this, and this. But it seems things are calming down a little.
If, on the other hand, the situation escalates things could get really bad really fast. It hopefully won't come to that, but if the officer just gets a slap on the wrist there's no telling what might happen. He had the sense to hand in his resignation a few days afterwards at least, so that hopefully diffuses the mess somewhat.

Via Grinding.

Competetative Use or Abuse of Drugs?

Drugs are, depending on who you ask, good or bad for you. Ask a Doctor and he'd say some are. Ask a addict and he'd probably tell you to fuck off or something. He might also try to kill and eat you to dispose of the evidence. I would. But it seems there is a new form of drug use on the horizon, the sort that do not surprise anyone who actually know a thing or two about this in the least, but we can't all keep up with what new and exciting new flowers are being found in the rain forest that turns the world into Jello when you smoke them, now can we? I sure as hell can't. I need some reality to stab me in the sockets once in a while. And I can't get that if I have elves singing happy tunes about la-la land in my head, while drooling on myself on the floor. So therefore I welcome this new approach with gusto. The new type of drug is not for fun, it is not to relax and enjoy life, it's not even about seeing pretty music and hearing beautiful colors. It's about working until you knuckles bleed and your ears rot and fall off. Drugs that will turn your brain into a nuclear powered machine bursting with ideas and processing at such a speed that you'll most likely have to wear an iceberg on your head to avoid spontaneous combustion. Now try shouting that 3 times from a bell tower while dancing with a monkey. You can't, can you? Getting a monkey can be a bit tricky though, so I won't torment you about it too much. Where are they doing this you may ask? Silicone Valley, of course! Where Pamela Andersson rule supreme, and the size of your bosom dictate your standard of living. Even men have huge knockers in Silicone Valley! ... Or maybe that's the script for a porno I'm working on? Yeah, probably is. Anyway, the people who sail the virtual seas, and pirate and plunder the world of bytes are drinking their super-rum and building castles out of their ideas. The next version of Microsoft will most likely have been made with the aid of powerful brain boosters. I wonder, if you look closely, can you maybe see the outlines of a smiley face starring back back at you? Via Open the Future.

Oh God Why Am I Not Well Yet?

Did I scare you now? Admit it, you thought I was gonna write and complain about still being sick once more. But no, I am gonna complain about other things instead! Like the fast food industry, and why it evil and should be isolated and sent into orbit with nuclear warheads! (Except for the fact that sending up a few thousand McDonalds, Burger Kings, and so on on a huge wire attached to nukes would look awesome that is.) Let's start with the things we know: it will fucking kill you in the long run. It does not provide you with what you need, it only fills your stomach to some extent. The only good thing is that it's fast and comfortable. We don't need more comfortable things in our lives though. What we need is something like the plague 5.3, so that once we make it to work whiteout our face rotting and falling off, we're happy. Thank God for the failing economy and environmental crisis though. These are things we can all agree upon. We gather in little groups, and say "This is bad. Fuck you problems, we're gonna do something about you!" and some actually does! Some think about it, or complain about it on their blog like they're better than everyone else. Of course I would never do that, but you know what sort of people I talk about. The ones driving diesel SUVs, that get fake tans, that would actually wear expensive jewelry. (For some reason I start thinking the word jewelry comes from the fact that Jews are supposedly good at diamonds. I know it's jewel-ry, but I keep thinking jew-lery.... Maybe Sarah Silverman could create a fake super villain with that name or something?) Ok, so maybe you wouldn't confuse me with tasteless rich people. All they have to do is buy whatever the designers make. Poor people have to buy cheap things and make them look good. I buy stuff from thrift stores and make it into other stuff, some of which you can actually wear whiteout violating indecency laws! But that's an easy point to make really. If you're used to adapting to things, and have to be creative to survive in todays society, of course you're gonna be more interesting than someone who just does what they please and don't have to face any obstacles. And yes, I have something of a negative of rich people. Or at least rich people who are either lazy or stupid. Or act like idiots in bars. Unless they buy me things. I can't hate people that buy me things, even if I don't really like them. This is not hypocrisy, it is honesty. Ok, so I might have side tracked a little there... Anyway: environmentally fast food is disaster. Cheap Indian beef... Hey, aren't cows supposed to be holy? Or is that China... Ah well, some poor bastard of a country will have to cut down their rainforest's to grow cows for lazy people to eat at McDonald's, or some other hell-hole of a fast food joint. It's bad for you and the environment. What else do you need to know? Maybe how to cook food? Yeah, buy yourself a cookbook instead, and make something easy and nutritious. If you really can't cook there are probably students cookbooks that you can buy. If you can't even boil an egg though you should probably sure your parent's or something... Or, you know, yell your faces of at each other. That's always fun too.

Good News Everyone!

The worlds largest botnet is being constructed thanks to a a worm that's infected a few million computers in around a week. Is it Skyney? Is it aliens? Is it a government conspiracy to take power over the Internet?
I don't know, and I don't care because I haven't got it yet.
Go here to see if you do.

Possible epidemic of H5N1 in China?

Yeah, that's it. I also read something about a Mexican police chief getting killed after only five days, and one of the cartells leaving his head in a icebox outside the police station. Torture, hitmen, and gunshot wounds were also mentioned.

Video Projection

Very cool. A possible future where the line between adds and billboards are blurred comes to mind.

Haze

Sick again.
I probably didn't get completely well since last time, and two hours at the local bathhouse didn't exactly help either. Or maybe it was the bicycling around for half an hour with wet hair?
Either way, things have gone all foggy and unclear. I should have made my way over to a friends to borrow a few books for my classes, but I'm gonna have to skip the chapter that I'm supposed to have read until tomorrow. I'm feeling bad enough as it is, going all the way there and then back again would probably end up with me unconscious in some ditch somewhere.
Oh, and I'm supposed to get up at 7 tomorrow. Which means I'm gonna have to go to bed soon. I have serious doubt as to my ability to fall asleep this early, but I'm gonna have to try I suppose.
And here come the headache... fucking hell.

Something more interesting will be posted soon. I might post that dream I turned into a short sci-fi story even.

Life on Mars?

Nothing mayor, just microbes... On the other hand, it would be life on another fucking planet! HOLY SHIT IT'S GONNA EAT OUR SOULFUL BRAINS! RUN JAMES BROWN, RUN!

Via Open the Future.

Work hard

My brain constant shifts between furious activity powered by a homemade energy drink made from amphetamines and gasoline that I inject trough my eyeballs, and an semi-unconscious state where the walls seem to melt and I spend a few hours in a little white room to construct new and brilliant things to do once I regain momentum. Or, alternatively, I spend the time in the white room listening to Asian people chanting. Chopin works too. I have around a week to read around 8 books, and write 50 pages. After that I start my first Psychology course, which is probably a good idea since I'll be needing at least 3 nurses to take care of me after this is over. There is also the possibility that I'll have to write and read my 50 pages on memetics while also studying psychology. If that happens I might actually die. Spider Jerusalem's ballistic brain meat comes to mind. I'm thinking it's entirely possible to loose an eye by getting hit by my frontal lobe. But you'll notice when I die. Even if you're in a far away land, you'll suddenly get an urge to cry and jump in front of a train because you suddenly felt so very lonely all of a sudden. That's how important I am to the continued existence of this plane of existence!

Original teaser

Needless to say I'm looking forward to this in this New Year of 2009. I'm also looking forward to Special, The Brothers Bloom, and a few others movies you might not have heard about.
I might even post a list of movies to look for in the coming year.
All thanks to Twitch!

John Safran vs. God

The first episode where he: gets a colleague a fatwa, mocks Scientology, does a peyote spirit walk and insults atheists.

White World and Wildbirds & Peacedrums. Plus the latest News.

There is snow outside. That is all I have to say about that. Well, alright, it supposed to be a few degrees above freezing later today. How does this work? I have no idea. But either way I'm gonna go out and stomp around in it in seriously insulated boots to hear that satisfying cracking sound. I'm probably gonna end up dead because of all the ice below the snow, but it'll be worth it either way. Also: Yesterday I discovered another awesome band! Wildbirds & Peacedrums is their name, and they're actually Swedish. I discovered them via television of all things. This is rare ever since they stopped airing the awesome show known in these parts as "Musikbyrån" (the Bearu of Music). I love that show, it's awesome for discovering new music. I still get by though. Now I show you a video! Watch and be mesmerized:

Drums and singing. That's it. Well, almost it. They use one of those hand smash thingies once in a while too. But still, it's seriously awesome considering how minimal it is in format. These guys can literally play anywhere if they feel like it. Like on the stairs of a building at a café:

And what else is going on then? Well, Israel has killed UN personnel bringing in supplies to the Gaza strip, which has effectively ended all UN aid from being delivered to Gaza. This despite the UN having informed Israel beforehand. I can't help but wonder if it's a conscious attempt to stop any help from getting trough? Read more about the conflict here. And I just found out that there's been riots in Oakland when a police officer shot a man laying face down with hands on his back. Here's some photos from it on Flickr. There's probably more to be found if you so wish. Found via Warren Ellis.

The Gaza Situation

This is a tricky path to thread whiteout taking sides, but I'm going to try in any case.

So, we have a background to this whole thing, but I'm quite sure we can sum it up as: "Years of conflict over matters that never got settled properly."
It sounds official and good, plus I don't have to write down a short history lesson either.
Who's fighting then?
The Israeli Army and Hamas. This is pretty much clear.
And here we see the first problem: An army fighting against a form of urban guerrilla? This means that Hamas operates mainly in highly populated areas. They blend in with the rest of the population, and can use any civilian casualties (of which they are partly to blame) as propaganda to increase their numbers. They also use populated areas to launch their attacks from, which means that the Israelis have a hard time hitting their attackers whiteout hitting other people too.

Other factors that's also making things worse are the fact that there's an election coming up in Israel, which means the current government must show that it's strong and can act when it's people are attacked.
Another factor is that there's no real infrastructure in Palestine. It's even doubtful if you could call it a country by our standards.
I think that would be part of the solution actually. To repair the infrastructure. Especially if Israel repaired it. That would show the Palestinian public that they're not trying to kill them all, and would decrease the support of Hamas. Though this would also put a lot of Israelis in harms way, which is why I highly doubt it'd happen.
What alternatives are there then? A third party enters the country and repairs the infrastructure with the support of Israel. Military support is more or less out of the question, but some financial support would probably be possible.
Then again, a better infrastructure might also mean that Hamas can attack Israeli civilians more efficient, which no one wants.

A large part of the problem would also be what the two groups think of each other. I'm betting that the Palestinians think the Israeli are just murdering oppressors. While they're just trying to protect their people, and kill those who kill their people.
The Israeli might also think that all Palestinians are cowardly terrorists. After all, if all you see about a group of people is the bad things they do, wouldn't you think the same thing?
And then there's the people who wants revenge for their families, who (depending on which side they're on) either join the military or Hamas. Hamas welcomes them most likely. The Israeli military probably does too. A motivated soldier is a good soldier after all.
But the military shouldn't. Or should at least make sure someone that might be looking for revenge isn't guarding the border to Palestine.
I'm not sure it'd help too much though, since roadblocks gets attacked too, and loosing your friends in a suicide bombing right in front of you will affect you.

It's a sticky situation in many ways, and both sides are to blame somewhat for it. Removing Hamas and improving the infrastructure would be a lot of help in restoring peace in the area, but how to do it? There's no easy answer there, I'm afraid.


(I'd also like to add that this post isn't fact as much as it is opinion.)
Inspired by Chiron.