The Yes Men Fix The World
[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 7, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
The folks who brought you the Halliburton SurvivaBall™ are back to fix the world again.
Remember The Yes Men? Don’t feel badly. Not many people do, in spite of their outrageous antics. The Yes Men are consummate culture jammers who utilize “identity correction” by pretending to be people of position or power, or spokespersons for prominent organizations, and then making public statements on their behalf. One of their most well-executed stunts involved appearing on BBC World Television as Dow representatives, to apologize and promise restitution for the Bhopal Disaster. Needless to say the Dow Corporation wasn’t too pleased, but the stunt came off so well that the BBC actually asked them back after their cover was blown. Another stunt that briefly duped some news sources was the The Halliburton SurvivaBall™, “An advanced new technology that will keep corporate managers safe even when climate change makes life as we know it impossible“. This one was so over-the-top that it quickly became appreciated simply for its utter absurdity. The Yes Men released an hilarious movie (aptly titled The Yes Men
Do You Occupy More Space Than You Need?
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on September 6, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Maybe it’s time to downsize. Because as Bernie Madoff can tell you, if you’re obsessed with living large, you can indeed end up in the big house.
Do you take up more space than you need? I’ve always lived a fairly simple life, but some missteps in the last year forced me to really downsize, and at the end of it all, frankly, I was happier. One thing I noticed as I shed a lot of belongings was that I had only kept many of them simply because I had a place to put them. Another thing I noticed was that with every box of knickknacks or piece of extra furniture I let go of, a place seemed to lighten up in my head. I had a palpable feeling of liberation, which got me thinking about all of my values. That little house info-graphic lower on the page shows how much more space we all occupy today as compared to 50 years ago. Do we need that extra space? An obsessive longing for wealth and a big house can, as Bernie Madoff can tell you, lead to a life in the big house . And a life fueled by consumption of goods, in my opinion, also leads to people’s actual bodies taking up more space than they should. To me, the debate about higher airfares for obese people is a no-brainer. Sure. Charge more for heavy people. And less for skinny people. In fact, do it by the pound; that’s how they charge for other shipping, and especially with today’s quality of service on airlines, that’s all they’re doing is shipping people, right? If you have a problem with this, consider donating some of your fat for fuel. Maybe they’ll give you a credit for reducing your “Carbon Fatprint”. But I digress. Simplifying your life is gratifying, and easier than you think. There are hundreds of books out there
We Don’t Need No Education
[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 5, 2009 by admin in Politics
But we’ll have another serving of that delicious thought control, thank you very much.
But we’ll have another serving of that delicious thought control, thank you very much! In the past decade or so, the political landscape, the media’s portrayal of it, and the irrational, polarized public sentiment aroused by the combination of the two have nearly driven me back to a position I held in my twenties, which is that the only rational response to politics is to become apolitical. I’m not quite there yet, so I’d like to share a few thoughts, and get your feedback if you have the time and interest. For the record, I have to confess that the recent ranting about whether or not President Obama’s speech next week should be viewed in the public schools was sort of a last straw for me; I dropped out of high school in the tenth grade in the seventies, a time when I feel safe in saying public education was in better shape than it is now. Education is a hot-button topic for me. And frankly, even Republicans like Colin Powell are concerned about the alarmingly high dropout rate in America. The idea that a local public school system would decide to censor a presidential speech directed at school kids – rather than viewing it and having intelligent classroom discourse about it – is mind boggling to me. In my view, it’s a perfect example of the negative impact of politically driven, media-fueled, irrational public sentiment. So, listed below are a few things I think are at the core of many of America’s problems right now. Please save me from my own political apathy; if I know there are others out there with similar thoughts, I might stay engaged and even pursue action. Otherwise, I’m likely to end up as one of the first proud citizens of the impending Idiocracy. Read the rest of this entry »
Does Artificial Intelligence Equal Genuine Stupidity?
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on September 4, 2009 by admin in Technology
Dissociated Press is being run by an artificial intelligence today. Go ahead and talk to it.
More than one person has suggested that my writing could easily be replicated with a fairly small number of monkeys with typewriters, and that Dissociated Press could be replaced with automated link aggregator software. I can’t afford any monkeys, and offhand, I don’t know how to program a link aggregator, so I’ve decided an artificial intelligence would suffice. And I promise it’s not a Russian Flirtbot. Today, YOU are writing the content, and the site will talk back to you. Maybe not all that intelligently, but how smart a web site do you expect at the price you’re paying. I mean, 99.6% of you don’t even click on the ads! Have a nice chat:
XX’s Extra X Has Made Me An Ex-X Hater
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on September 3, 2009 by admin in Music
All Ian wanted to do was say he really likes XX’s first release, but no-OO-oo. First he has to ramble on for 224 words about the history of bands with X in their name.
These kids are so shy that they don’t stop mumbling and get to the good stuff until about 0:55 |
I wish bands would stop resorting to using “X” in their name. For me it all started with X in the 70′s. My friends and I were all busy cutting ourselves, wearing second-hand clothes, getting weird haircuts, and listening to weird music, when all of the sudden people started calling us “Punk”. It wasn’t long after that that there were all these “punk bands” running around, acting all punk and stuff. One of the first in the states was, of course, “X”. In spite of (or maybe because of?) their solid musicianship, I remember distinctly thinking they sucked, and seemed incredibly contrived. Punk Lifestyle Rule Number 1: You can’t call yourself punk and actually be punk at the same time. It’s sort of like Groucho’s line about not wanting to belong to any club that would have people like him as a member. I mean c’mon, these alleged rebel misfits actually received an “Official Certificate of Recognition” from the City of Los Angeles for their music. We also would always confuse X with Generation X, until Billy Idol left the band and started his solo career. Which has turned out well