bigger hits

I'm trying to get back into blogging, like I once was, addicted. But relapsing is very difficult, so I'm going to take bigger hits. Not write an essay or something. But more impacting hits. I'm going to take it in and send it packing straight to the addiction center of my brain. I'm going to meditate on that shit. It's going to be wild. Anyone reading this thinks I'm heavy into drugs now, but I'm not into them at all. Taking bigger hits was just a suggestion from a friend.

What has been on my mind today is Plato's Allegory of the Cave. I wrote a couple posts (and months) back about how environmental alarmists fucked the cause with their doomsday talk, and I just realized the relevance of the Cave. We all live in blissful ignorance inside the cave, looking at shadowy figures, left-overs or doubles of the truth. Then when we ascend into the world we are blinded by the light of the truth, we see the true origin of the shadows, we see reality, and we long to be in the cave again, where we return, no longer ignorant, but indifferent. That is what happens with environmental alarm-ism. We don't like what we see, we can't handle it, we ignore it.

You can't unknow something, but you can ignore it.

2012

By this time, in two years, will our planet be destroyed? The Maya never really stated for or against. Their mythology would indicate some sort of peril. With the "galactic alignment" mirroring the original "galactic alignment" that occurred at the beginning of days. Their knowledge of astronomy was and remains to be staggering in some cases rivaling our own up to present day. But then again, they never actually indicated that the lords of the underworld would reign their terror on the world, they just indicated that the calendar cycle would end and begin anew. Some theorize that with the growth in popularity of the myth, someone with the actual power to carry out a world-ending deed and the will to destroy the planet will make it happen. A self-fulfilling prophecy. So what should we do. Hope for the best, and continue the calendar.

Mayan Calendar Portal (Interactive Web-based Mayan Calendar)

Movement Musician of the Week: Shad "I Heard You Had A Voice Like An Angel"

The Final Frontier

The sub-atomic particles that we are built from will never die
They will not dissipate,
They will not dissolve,
They will not disappear.
Their energy is infinite.
It will last forever.
Billions of years from now,
The energy that once maybe up the beauty of human existence,
The planet Earth,
The Sol System,
The Milky Way Galaxy,
And the once tangible and explorable universe,
Will reach into the depths of space never to form that beauty again.
On this scale our existence seems feeble,
In the grand scheme of time and space.
So why not expand our existence,
Reach for the stars while we can,
Use our remaining resources to make our presence known,
And teach other life that they too must preserve their existence?
Or we can burn out,
Expend our resources without developing the alternatives,
And no species human or otherwise,
Will ever reach from Earth into the final frontier.
Is Earth doomed to failure?
Or merely meekness?
It is human desire to be bigger, better and stronger,
And exploration is second nature.
We have time, but not a lot,
And it is a noble goal, to preserve and propagate.
If we are important, should we not save ourselves,
and ultimately prosper?

Movement Musician of the Week: Shad "Get Up"

The Deserted Diviner

The Deserted Diviner speaks his daily news, in hopes that excited ears will heed his words. He knows however, that no one hears his discordant drivel. His audience is deaf dumb and blind to his doctrine, drowned out by the myriad voices of capital. Focused solely on the technological teats before them, devouring their propaganda potions. How can he wake them from their apathy? Better yet, should he? He long ago chose the song of truth and beauty, knowing full well the horror and despair that played the atrocious accompaniment, but his foolish followers reached out for the hypnotic, to avoid the pain. He doubts himself, why not take the drug, with its false felicity? He would not know the difference. He can't give in though, for verity can bring about vivacity, and the other course, however simple, is ignoble. The Deserted Diviner waits on a world trapped in a trance.

Canada, Climate, Copenhagen, Commonwealth

This December the world will meet in Copenhagen to forge a new climate alliance to succeed the Kyoto protocol which is now 12 years old and set to expire in 2012. While people all over the world rally for a new treaty and leaders have high hopes for carbon-cap policies some people are still shit-disturbers on the issue. The PM of Canada Stephen Harper has stated that there will be no binding treaty reached in Copenhagen next month, reflecting once again his "can't do won't try" attitude on climate change.

His statements coincide with a nation-wide radio campaign by Calgary-based climate change skeptics friendsofscience.org. This organization makes outrageous claims like, climate change is not man-made its caused by the sun, the world has been cooling for the past 10 years and atmospheric levels of CO2 do not correlate to higher worldwide temperatures. The immediate thought is that this organization must be funded by the oil industry unfortunately Canadian law does not require organizations to reveal their sources of funding. When asked about their funding the organization claims that they are a small grass-roots organization supported by small individual donations, but a simple look at the ad campaign reveals the absurdity of that claim.

One source claimed that the 30-second radio spot which runs on 15 stations nation-wide 20-30 times a day for the past month would cost upwards of $65000, an obscenely high value for any grassroots organizations' budget. Other sources claim the organization is funded by big oil companies in Canada and supported by Stephen Harper's fishing buddies, making the PM guilty by association. Whether or not Stephen Harper directly funds or supports the campaign of doubt by friendsofscience.org is not the question however. The question is, does national doubt on the climate change issue help Stephen Harper leading up to Copenhagen on December 7, 2009? He has already stated there will be no climate treaty next month. When Harper finally comes out and says he doesn't believe in climate change and finally confesses his romantic affair with oil interests, will anyone truly be surprised?

World leaders have started to question Canadian leadership on the issue of climate change. Specifically, at a Commonwealth summit it was proposed that Canada be suspended from the Commonwealth because of inaction on climate change. That would put Canada in league with nation's such as Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Pakistan who have been suspended for their human rights record at different times throughout history. This is a welcome move to other Commonwealth nations more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, such as Bangladesh, who condemn Canada's deliberate inaction and interference on climate change policy.

Will this become the norm? Will developed nation's who defy climate action be condemned for the impoverished souls they reap through deliberate inaction? It needs to happen to send a message. If Canada joins the ranks of Pakistan and other countries suspended for their corrupt ways it will send a message to the Canadian people and to developed nations world-wide.

So what can be done? When the government, corporations, and radio-stations in this country can't make the moral and ethical decision to tell the truth. People cite freedom of speech, but this is Canada, the government holds the right to censor messages it finds offensive and yet it deliberately ignores the nation-wide smear campaign which is breeding ignorance and teaching lies. Its easy to believe that climate change isn't happening, because the alternative is terrifying, and who's going to question someone with the name friends of science? Its propaganda in its purist form, but because it supposedly comes from a small organization its off the radar. Keep an open mind.

Let us hope that when December 7th comes along the citizens of Canada will demand a binding climate treaty from the governments of the world, but more importantly from their own government. Let us march on parliament hill if Stephen Harper doesn't cease his bad habit of blocking climate talks. Let us protest our government for creating national humiliation when the Commonwealth suspends us from it's ranks. And most importantly let us next time vote for a government that will pledge long-term, effective action on climate change. It is our moral imperative as Canadian citizens and citizens of the World.

Movement Musician of the Week: The Flobots "Fight With Tools" (Live)


Rebel of the Day (Need a Better Title): Shirin Ebadi "Tehran denies seizing Shirin Ebadi's Nobel medal"
She is a Human Rights lawyer who received the Nobel Peace Prize. She's the first Muslim woman to receive a Nobel Prize. In the wake of the last presidential elections she was expelled from the country and her medal was seized from her husbands safety deposit box by the government.

Architects of the Last Day

We are in the end of days. It is told by countless sources. Ancient and modern. Mystical and mathematical. Sweeping changes are coming our way. Changes that could bring about the end of humanity and any recognizable world. Our actions are leading us down a path to disaster and incalculable destruction. Our decisions could mean the difference between survival of our species and Armageddon. Every minute of every day our world as we know it changes. But as more time passes and more conscious minds are lit up in the world around us, the change grows ever quicker. Steadily then exponentially. When our consciousness can be spread around the world and seeded to millions of minds in a matter of seconds it is not a question of whether we have an impact, but how much of an impact we have. And whether our actions are leading toward destruction or salvation. We all have a choice. To be generous or selfish. Proud or meek. Forward thinking or stagnant. We are the Architects of the Last Day. Our lives are the design for the world to come. We are at a turning point. Sacrifice, development and preservation are the mantra of the new generation of Architects. We are profoundly shaping our world in everything we do. For better or for worse, it is our design and we will be accountable.

Zombie Apocalypse Now!

I ran into a mob of zombies on my drive home the other day. They were just milling about in the street bumping into one another picking fights with their neighbours. A couple had even set up a little picnic table on the center-line and were having a zombie-style tea-party. What do they have in their tea? Two creams a teaspoon of lemon juice and of course a dash of human spinal fluid. Needless to say, I had a dilemma, what do you do when confronted by a seething mass of inhumanity in your car? Well having recently studied the driver's handbook I knew the answer to that age old question. Honk, accelerate and mow the Cerebral Masticators down being sure to implode as many semi-intact skulls as possible. My driving instructor would be proud. Sitting in the passenger seat was my father, visibly shocked at my display of dangerous driving causing bodily harm. It didn't help that he had his window rolled down and now had little bits of rancid putrefying flesh stuck in his hair. At least no disembodied limbs found their way in.

The rest of the drive was quite uneventful. We saw no more stray zombies, as they usually mass in these dense pockets blocking major roadways and thoroughfares, or clog of the lobbies of banks or the foyers of shopping malls but why am I telling you; you've all seen it for yourself. Unless you live in Battersea, but then, you couldn't tell the difference between a zombie and a human there. The sum-total of Kingston's zombie population was probably present at their road-side tea-party. If it turns out to be a popular location the city will have to put up a warning sign. Zombies 1 km ahead. Frankly, I'm just finding that zombies are becoming a nuisance in everyday life. Not a day goes by I'm not hassled by a zombie looking for brains. I can't imagine what it's like living in Montreal or NYC what with the gang-related organ-harvesting. I don't understand why people think its a good idea to cater to these zombie-folk. Zombie-folk, that just makes them sound quaint and friendly, like the Amish. Yeah that's right I just compared flesh-eating aberrations to the Amish.

Anyway, long story short, the zombies are getting out of hand and it begs the question; how long until they take over? Is the zombie apocalypse nigh? Will we learn to live in relative peace with these sub-human creatures who have defied the proverbial "Circle of Life"? We've already had to re-write the textbooks on this one. Will the zombie population reach a critical mass and take over, overwhelming our military forces? Really we should stop fighting each other and prepare for a war on death. But then we have all these human rights groups claiming that the zombies have intelligence beneath their instinctual ceaseless march for spinal fluid, and they're going to keep whining about kids with fire-crackers and baseball bats. For god's sake, if we don't do something soon, they'll kill us off or worse we'll become zombies. Just thank god they are the slow kind that are easy to take out with a sawn-off in one hand and some TNT in the other.

Anyway the point of this blog is in this article, you've got to love Canadian scientists. Zombie Take-over. As Philly-D put it, "Scientists in Canada apparently tired of trying to find a cure for AIDS decided, 'hey, let's find some mathematicians and figure out if the world would be over if zombies took over.'."

Harry Potter? Alice in Wonderland?

I don't really know what to write about, because things seem uninteresting to me lately so I'll write about the impending doom that is the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (the movie adaptation). Who knows what will happen in this iteration of the Harry Potter adventure, unless of course you read the book. This is why I will not be attending this matinee or likely any of the following showings in theaters. Despite the fact that I'm a sucker for hype and tend to do whatever the TV and slash or the interwebz tells me to do. I'm not much of a Ad-savvy person. Speaking of ads look there are ads in the sidebar, that I hope don't still say anything about "Sexy Iranian Singles."

Anyway, personally I'd much rather see an original movie concept instead of a story stolen half-assedly from a book. To be totally honest I did not even like the books, they were good entertainment but they definitely don't constitute good literature (not to be a lit-snob). I just think it would be better *Spoiler* if Harry died at the end of the series, but no he sacrifices himself but survives anyway. It would have been a full circle; his parents sacrifice themselves for him and he sacrifices himself for the world. Frankly, I was looking forward to rioting in the streets worldwide at the advent of Harry's death, but JK Rowling was still writing for the children she had started with years earlier as we've apparently not grown up whatsoever. Anyway this week I'd rather see something funny, and clever, and original (there is originality in Hollywood).

As of now I'm looking forward to Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (circa 2010) and before you call me a hypocrit, the story follows a completely different tale of Alice's return to Wonderland when she is 17 (no this isn't through the looking glass). Never been done before, therefore more original than HP6. And besides, just think, Lewis Carroll's twisted, satirical mind captured by Tim Burton's creepy, fantastical directing with the Mad Hatter portrayed by the one and only Johnny Depp with Helena Bonham at his side (but not really) as the Queen of Hearts, doesn't it sound amazing? Well at least I think so. But I and everyone else must wait until 2010!!!

Rhubarb Pie and Climate Change

I was reading a friend's blog little sour apple and an article he had written about New Orleans. He was repeating some projections predicted by scientists saying that New Orleans and large parts of Louisiana would be underwater by 2010. One comment on the post suggested that the facts are questionable and therefore should not be taken seriously but my friend suggested something that reminded me of this video that I once saw along much the same topic. Its the old worse case scenario climate change idea. We act, and we're wrong we suffer economically, we don't act and we're wrong, we suffer far worse fates. Anyway the guy in the video, who has now written a book about the topic, describes the theory much better than me, so just sit down, eat some rhubarb pie and watch the video. You'll be enlightened. And don't forget, spread the word about Column A. Its time we stopped debating the truth or severity of climate change and started acting to prevent disaster by default.