The Plimsoll line

what do you call someone falling down the stairs?

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 21:05:49 +0100

A TUMBLR
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I've moved

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 23:45:16 +0100

I have given up with Tumblr, it has its good posters (indeed the majority of the people i follow) but it has also its fair share of fad-politicians and fad-feminists. Reblogging things because they are popular and not allowing counter arguments by making it morally impossibly to argue back without being an ‘evil person’.

I have instead taken residence in the land of Wordpress.

Hopefully here I can rant more in an environment meant for ranting and not for pictures, art and personal life posts.

I hope to see some of you over on Wordpress but if not oh well followers (of 8) this is the end.

"We got talking about how some people were selfish and some weren’t, and the difference between right..."

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 22:27:57 +0100

“We got talking about how some people were selfish and some weren’t, and the difference between right wing people and left wing people. You said it all came down to imagination. Conservative people don’t usually have very much, so they find it hard to imagine what life is like for people who aren’t just like them. they can only empathise with people just like they are: the same sex, the same age, the same class, the same golf club or nation or race or whatever. Liberals can pretty much empathise with anyone, no matter how different they are. It’s all to do with the imagination; empathy and imagination are almost the same thing, and it’s why artists, creative people, are almost all liberals, left-leaning. Hard-headed people - business people - didn’t have that sort of imagination; it’s all directed at seeing business opportunities, identifying gaps in the market, spotting weaknesses in rivals… it’s just the way they are.”

- Alban from The Steep Approach to Garbadale - by Iain Banks (via dustedsunshine)

Britain Still Has Terrorists

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 22:43:17 +0100

Six people were arrested today in London, related to terrorism charges.

It may be the case that this group of six are terrorists, or maybe it is simply another ploy to remind the public that we should be afraid.

Fear is used globally to keep the masses in check. From the economy to Iran, from Bird Flu to power outtages. If you keep people afraid of what might be they ignore what is.

With the run up to the Olympics Britain will see many people arrested on suspected terror charges, is this to clean the streets or stock up the fear? The government does need a reason to have missiles on top of blocks of flats, ones that will some how become a perminant feature.

Fear is the soup of the day.

Remembering Colonialism (Independance Day)

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 22:25:37 +0100

How did I manage to get sucked in to the jingoist furore about Independance day. No I am not an American and no I was not celebrating Independance day, quite the reverse I was complaining that we let them get away and become the mess they have become.

Little did I remember it seems now that there was a much more important point to be remembered. The Native American’s and also the slaves. They were not given Independance and Native American’s still do not have that freedom. Their land was taken from them by the British colonialists and has been kept by the American’s in all but a minority of instances.

So my thoughts today are with the nationalities living in America who have not been given freedom and the failure of Britain in its colonialist period to allow the REAL American’s their land.

Obviously I am focussing on America because it was July the 4th yesterday but there are many other nations affected in similar and worse ways in the past and the present.

So yes well done Britain (as all these anti-independance day posts say) for free healthcare and for many other things, but shame on you Britain for commiting genocide on countless occasions, shame on you Britain for oppressing your colonies, shame on you for even taking colonies, but most of all: Shame on you Britain for forgetting this.

Two Thoughts

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 15:48:00 +0100

Minister for Education Michael Gove is said to be doing away with GCSEs for tougher O-level style exams. If he does this, this will leave youths with not only a weak economy to try and find jobs in but also no exam results of any worth. The lost generation are becoming ever more lost.

Second thought: Scientists are trying to find the gay gene but will this help? Yes if they find it, it gives a biological validation of their being natural. But, in the wrong hands it also gives validation for eugenics - to remove those with the gay gene - or possibly genetic modification - to ‘fix’ them. If they do not find the gay gene it gives religious extremists and psychiatrists the powers to ‘fix’ by training and brain washing.

Somethings are best left alone.

buttsen: help I’m in love with president Obama The man who didn’t close Guantanamo Bay?The...

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 15:12:30 +0100

buttsen:

help I’m in love with president Obama

The man who didn’t close Guantanamo Bay?
The man who personally clears the use of drones in Pakistan?
The man who has designated any man old enough to carry a weapon in a pro-militant area an enemy which causes all drone attacks to have no civilian casualties?

Or the man who supports gay marriage and Obamacare?

Q:What do you do with a super-computer?

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 23:57:00 +0100

Q:What do you do with a super-computer?:

A:Check to see if your nuclear weapons can last longer…

as the Specials sang “Ain’t you heard of the starving millions?”
surely this computer could aid crop production or food distribution or maybe even select a new head of state who could save the world.

Photo

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 23:38:45 +0100

bergopolis: Says it all, really. Asimov you are brilliant.

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 17:04:57 +0100

bergopolis:

Says it all, really.

Asimov you are brilliant.

mehreenkasana: occupyallstreets: Richard Haste, an NYPD...

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 12:03:10 +0100

mehreenkasana:

occupyallstreets:

Richard Haste, an NYPD officer, killed an unarmed black teen (Ramarley Graham) in front of his grandmother and 6-year-old brother at point blank range over marijuana. The landlady, Paulet Minzie, 55, ran out the shower with only a towel after hearing the gunshots. Officers then put a gun to her head and told her to put her hands up. It wasn’t until she told them that there were cameras surveilling them, that they put their guns down.

Court papers say “[He\] immediately lowered his weapon. His demeanor completely changed, and he alerted his colleague that they may be on camera,”. The footage later revealed that Graham walked calmly to his apartment followed by police barging in without a warrant, contradicting the officers original claim that the teenager was running away from him. (Source)

Haste was freed on $50,000 bail yesterday after pleading not guilty. Police cheered for him as the parents of Graham wept in the court room.

When will this stop? I don’t know what to say anymore.

perverse incentives

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 11:44:57 +0100

perverse incentives:

Strikers in Britain have lost more ground in the ever marching fight against direct action:

Low paid strikers, those in most need of their wages, will now no longer be able to top up their wages from the government for days missed due to strike action.

This will now be a strong incentive for politically active workers to give up and carry on working - if they strike they run the risk of losing their home.

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for..."

Sat, 26 May 2012 18:01:21 +0100

“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

- Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146

What Happened to Heroes?

Fri, 25 May 2012 18:02:00 +0100

Hero refers to people who, in the face of danger and adversity or from the position of underdog, display courage and self sacrifice for a ‘greater good’. Originally a term used only for military situations but not it is used for any, and all ‘excellences’.

The term hero has come now to mean near enough anyone and everyone. Those involved in the events depicted in ‘Defiance’ are quite clearly heroes but is Margaret Thatcher or an Olympic athelete? By naming such people as heroes, by using the term in statements like “oh you are such a hero, I needed that cup of tea,” the term dies a death and heroes of the past become nothing.

Andy Warhol said we shall one day all have 15 minutes of fame. Well today we all can become a hero. Both Warhol’s fame and modern herocism is meaningless. Because if everyone is rich no one is rich. So why do we name atheletes heroes at the detriment to the reputation of those who deserve the title? Maybe its because then we can all strive to be a hero. I don’t know the answer but I know what it does to the term.

Photo

Fri, 25 May 2012 17:14:23 +0100

mehreenkasana: Heh. Truth.

Thu, 24 May 2012 09:02:57 +0100

mehreenkasana:

Heh. Truth.

THE TRAP

Wed, 23 May 2012 10:29:30 +0100

Three documentaries by Adam Curtis. They cover the ideas of freedom and how we have been duped in to being part of a freedom that is not free. I recommend watching all of them if you have the time but no matter what you should definitely watch the last one. It is quite shocking really. THE TRAP - Adam Curtis

Photo

Mon, 21 May 2012 13:24:42 +0100

The West knows Best!

Mon, 21 May 2012 12:46:20 +0100

“We now have to send a very clear message to people in Greece: there is a choice. You can either vote to stay in the euro, with all the commitments you’ve made, or if you vote another way you’re effectively voting to leave.” -David Cameron on how to deal with the Greek crisis.

This clear message I am going to assume shall be full of such subtle threats as “incredibly dangerous” to go it alone and if you leave you will get “extremists and xenophobia” not to mention the lack of support Greece will get if they leave.

“Maybe our rhetoric has been too dogmatic in the early stages because we needed to persuade people it was necessary.” -Nick Clegg on being ‘austerity fanatics’.

I see two problems here. We live in a democracy, surely we should be telling the government what they should be doing, no matter how they feel about it and no matter how ‘wrong’ it may be. Secondly, if he was persuading that means he was exagerating and sifting the information so that the facts leant towards austerity.

I see the great powers of the west grasping tightly at the seams of Europe and the capitalism that they all know and love. They caused this situation by telling the rest of the world - this is how you do it! and now they try to fix it by telling us - this is how you do it!

What is an extremist party? Labour was once one and the Green party is one. Are they dangerous? Are extremist parties just parties that have actual views and not vote winners? Is it possible to lump Socialist extreme parties with Fascist extreme parties? By grouping these parties together they all become ‘dangerous’ and the politics of the ‘grey’ continues.

All quotes and information from this BBC news report

"[T]he limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."

Sun, 20 May 2012 22:21:46 +0100

“[T]he limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

- Steve Biko, Black Consciousness and the Quest for a True Humanity, 1973 (via 8todefec8)