Japan, the News and its Relative Interests

I just wanted to take a few moments out of my workday to write a short note about the news (or -the lack of news) about what happened in Japan mid March.
Is it only me, or am I one of the few people who thought the coverage about the nuclear disaster went away to fast?
I can´t help but think about the Japanese situation once in a while, even though Europe has its own troubles  at the moment, with pending economic crash.
It might just be that I have a soft spot for the people and their culture. So I was glad when The Guardian had a small input to give, about how people are recovering from their trauma.

Anyway. Here is the link to their VID.

Terror in Norway

In the last 72 hours Norway has been through the biggest attack it has witnessed since the second World War.

Its hard for me to write about this, since I think its not a person in this country that has, in some way not been touched by what has happened.

I´m not going to recap for you everything that has happened. You´ve got CNN and whatnot to do that for you.

What I´m going to do is to describe what is happening in Oslo and in Norway at this moment.

The thing is. The terror attack that befell upon our country has made a couple of things abundantly clear. One of which is that Norway, as a people, have reacted a bit differently than what would have been believed. Its difficult to explain how grief strikes people, but believe me when I say that the Norwegian people is a small people, and it is currently collectively grieving as one.

Normally I would have thought that people would react with anger and hate towards the man who bombed our parliamentary district and shot over a hundred young, politically active men and women, killing 92 people in total (this number may be adjusted). But no. Instead most people have reacted with a sense of resignation towards the animal who did this. With that said, instead of flocking toward the prison where he is held, we keep to other places, places of mourning, rather hate.

It makes me proud to be a part of this nation.

We keep to the words of our Prime Minister: “We will react with more democracy...” - Jens Stoltenberg. Even though those words were spoken with the thought of a man who sought to rob us of it, in mind.

With that said: I believe that this situation is teaching us something very important about ourself as a nation. But I´m very glad, and I can´t stress this enough, that this act of terror was done by a white man from the better part of Oslo city, and not by a known terrorist organization. 

  

The day after the bomb exploded I had a talk with a taxi-driver. He was ethnic norwegian, but his parents were from Pakistan. Both he and I were both glad that this act was not done by a man with a muslim background because then the story would probably been a different one. Like he said; “If this had been done by one with my color of skin, I, even though I was born and have lived all my life here, would have been seen as a terrorist.” Sadly enough there is racism in this country, and the thought of that fire being fueled is a scary one.

Instead people are more open than ever before.

The 22 of Juli, was the day Norway changed. The 23 was the day that Oslo was silent. The 25 was the day of reaction with love.

Greece: The Economic badass of Europe

I woke up today to the nice smell of hot coffee and a steady stream of news from the TV. Before I went to work though, I could not help but overhear a report about the happenings in Greece. If you have payed attention you would know that the great and bountiful nation of the ancient philosophers have made a boo boo when it comes to their economy since the crack in the market. You see... the Greek people didn´t want to pay taxes... or go to work... or pay their loans... and their government lied to the EU council about their amount of revenue... so they went bankrupt. And now their people are howling and moaning about their dilemma and refuses to cut back in spending.

As you well might have guessed, the rest of the EU nations were pretty pissed off at their lazy-ass attitude from the start, and what they are seeing now is not helping Greece´s reputation around the world neither. I mean... even Americans pay their taxes to some degree. But what we are seeing in that slosh-pool of laziness is just mind-blowing.

Let me explain the extension of my raging with an example: One of the great uppers by being a Greek employee before the crack was the amount of bonuses they got, like: Bonus for coming to work. Bonus for staying home sick. Bonus while at work. Bonus for working over hours. Bonus for eating bananas while not wearing pants, etc.

I have no problems with bonuses. On the contrary. I love bonuses for work well done. But what they had in Greece was just borderline retarded. If you PAY someone just for getting to work on time, you effectively make them lazy. You might THINK that you are getting them to work harder, but as we see now: no one in that hot-tempered country is working. They are yelling in the streets and calling that corrupt government of theirs unsatisfactory. And by all means... they might be right. What pisses me off is the fact that no one of the general public of retards are taking responsibility for the way their society has gone down the bloody drain. Instead they refuse to see the truth of the situation and are blaming the EU for not giving them more money so they can continue to spend like badass monkeys high on helium.

WE WANT DERPIDOO AND WE WANT IT NOW!

I`m not very nice, I know. The fact is that my dream has always been to live like a king while not doing any work for it. Contrary to my dreamworld of naked ladies and crowns though, I have to reside in the real world... the real world of working two jobs while I study and paying taxes at 18%-32% every single month.

You might think that is a lot, but then again I get free healthcare, free education, financial help to pay for classes, easy accessible loans and a huge kiss on the ass from the head of state just for being me in return. But I don´t get payed simply for dragging my huge ass to work.

YARR! gief moneys noews! gtfo!

whatever he is saying + 1

I´ll make you a deal. I bet I can change my diet in accord with the new Greek cut-back package. I´ll suffer with them! I´ll drop some kg´s just to show them how much I care about their honorable plight. In return the Greek people who happen to read this has to swear to go to work like every other joe in Europe. And drink a healthy amount of coffee every day (Don´t worry. Its cheap and has zero calories.)

Here is the recent article from the guardian about Greece´s development.

Beo

The internet as a factor on Democracy

As I may have mentioned before; I´ve been working on my Bachelors degree. In the paper i recently turned in, I worked on a perspective on social media as a participatory tool in new democracies, where one of the themes I came upon was the internet as concept. It turned out to be very interesting, and rather complex.

I found this video, and almost jumped because it touched upon what I thought was something very few scholars was aware of. Guess I was wrong.

I´ve been toying with the idea of publishing my paper in this blog, but my intuition of putting something of academic value on the internet told me not to.

Enjoy the vid!

Escape Artist & Gaming

I´ll admit it. I play a lot of different kinds of games. Though not so much as some might think. Normal people think of gaming as a serious default in the range of things to do in an everyday life. Although I´m not going to discuss the broader debate between gamers and non-gamers, I´ll say one thing: its better than fishing.
Thing is. The gaming community has grown in considerable size over the last 10 years, swallowing Japan whole, along with the larger portion of USA and Britain. Some have managed to capitalize on us, while some have managed to reach "famous"-status because of us. The important thing to notice though, is that gamers are in control of most of the world already. Not because we are one big blob of control-freaks, but because gaming is so enjoyable that state managers and leaders around the world are probably enjoying some kind of game when they get home from work.
I enjoy thinking of Obama coming home after a long day, yelling for a beer, telling Michelle to shut up and bring him a sandwich, sit down in a chair and fire up some Black Ops. "F*ing dawg, I´m gonna paint the wall with ur entrails!"- he´ll yell into the mic in frustration.

With that said, there are some baaaad games out there. I love to criticise different flaws of shitty games, but I enjoy it even more when other people do it. Like Zero Punctuation, the rambling Australian/British-dude, talking too fast for his own good, with a satirical or nostalgic comment every 0,14 second. He rips the games apart and puts up spotlights on the broader perspective. One example is that he talked about Nintendo stagnating within 2 games, copying them over and over. So true and so sad. But I love Zelda tho. And thats why Nintendo is still in business... because of idiotic old-timers like myself.
Thank god I don´t own a Wii.

Putting crap in perspective

The mind is obviously a complex thing, giving us the ability to think about several things at one time. I have used up my effective quota of things to think about it seems.
So here is a list of all the impossible things I have to have in mind simultaneously:

1. The time limit of exams and paper due-dates
2. My research question
3. Case studies (there is two of them)
4. Theoretical framework and its relevance
5. A discussion that should, in theory, shed light on the totality of the paper
6. News and new material
7. Other fields and other exams not related to the ones I´m working on

In addition there is a social section of the stuff I have to worry about, most of which I can´t help but think about.

1. Organizational work
2. Work
3. The usual social interaction a.k.a: drinking beer and talking sh*t with people
4. Showing up at events that somehow I came to agree to earlier, and now have forgotten about
5. The vacation coming up: what to do, what to do?
6. Certain individuals 
7. Concerts, barbeques and other parties...
8. Several young people who have decided to have their "confirmations" at the same time, thus making me inadvertably pissing off an occational aunt or uncle if I´m not showing up. 
9. Birthdays
10. The people who I pissed off by not showing up to something themselves, or me not caring enough to tell them of my absense before an event. (Social capital thus going down)
11. Food (I have to have nurishment sometimes... though this is highly unimportant to me at the time. Coffee is enough.
12. Money---> Not getting any from work related to issues with contracts

So. By deviding this by zero, we get two conclusions:

• That my brain isnt capable to think of more than 19 things at one time

and

• Getting things in perspective is good for you... Although I realize that this was probably most for my personal benefit, and I have wasted the time of whoever is reading this. 

One interesting question pops up though: Do I really care about any of all this? Only time will tell I guess.

In any case: Thank you for reading? Here is a link and a video clip to make up for the motivational-post to myself.
LINK

The filter bubble

This is both relevant to my degree and pissing me off at the same time. A kind of laaaame A.I that screws up our information-flow.

Its kind of a irritating thought that the utilities that are made to make our lives easier are actually blocking us from potential news and the like.

An interesting talk about a new... bit?

I am currently neck high in work, so I´ve decided that I don´t have much time at the moment to write on the blog. Instead I´m going to post a number of interesting lectures or other video material to your (and my own) amusement and developing understanding.

This one was linked to me by a friend of mine. Hope you enjoy!

I´m give you downs; America

Hold on. I have the ama-derpiderpiderpidoo

Like the amazingly reflected, god of a person, that I am, I have only one thing to say about the consideration of Donald Trump as presidential candidate to the 2012 election:

  -.-########what#######-.-

   -   -

   !------------------------------------!

Its like the republicans are both retarded and ranging on the inane at the same time. Either way, they are too much fail, compressed into too tight a space, that my fail-finder-equipment can´t even register it. Yes... its over 9000.

The irony here is the fact that the man with a wig will probably win too, if given the chance.

If he even does run for president I will have a sermony in my basement where I sacrifise a lamb to Bhal, for the progress American politics are making, because truly: its development is going backwards.

Its cool to watch from the outside, though. Its like having a time-machine on CNN and ABC, not even to mention FOX where they already are wearing dead animal skin to protect themselves from the cold.

Point is: I see a trend. It all started with Reagan, then a speedy tour where social welfare and political freedom is slowly but surely eradicated from american life and way of thought, then ending up in Wisconsin, where labor rights (considered as fundamental as air by ILO) are plucked away, effectively moving american society one step further to the middle ages. 

And now; possibly this:

Your fired! Because running a country is the same as running a business, dipshit!

... end of rant.

Terry Jones

 

Well... now we are screwed... royally. 

Before going in to the Rant of Monday I will waste a couple of sentences in explaining a couple of fundamental things you have to know... about religion. In some ways its like conflicting factions of politics... even though its really not... People tend to get personal when confronted with an opposing side because it goes deeper than simple discussion. So know that when you are arguing with a religious person (or an anti-religious person, because you know, they are people too) he or she can get ugly at some point because at the end it isn´t about writings and text, but the individual´s inner most belief... which is not easily defended and not to be tampered with.

So with that said; Today´s post is about Terry Jones. The "Pastor" who burned the holy Qur'an.

Before reading onward: My analysis of his actions comes at the end of the rant.

There is something fundamentally wrong... or right, about this picture.

Idiot.

No. Wait. That's an understatement.

I don´t even know how to begin ranting about the idiocy that is him.

I´ll make a list so its more fun and organized.

1. Christianity:

It is to be understood that there are some things in the bible that you can´t overlook and translate another way than it is written. Terry Jones has managed to do this with one of the few bits of information I until recently believed untouchable. I´m here thinking of the "golden rule": you shall do onto others what you want others to do onto you.

Out of my considerable understanding of Christianity, me myself being one of its followers, I have to say that Jones has taken one of its fundaments and scrapped it on a huge pile of crap like only a red-neck American can.

As a religion entering the modern age I can say that Christianity is a religion of peace... one who’s name has now been plowed from behind yet again by a media hungry asshole. 

Let me make this perfectly clear.

If Mr. Jones was a member of the christian belief he would not have done what he did.

I here presume that you as reader know a little about the douche and enough about Christianity to know that Jesus, the dude with the good shampoo, would not have done that.

But I´m speaking out of term. You should know, even if you consider yourself un-religious, that there are other aspects to christianity than the conservative bigots and creationists. Indeed most (if not all) of christian communities disagrees with his actions... even the Vatican. But what I´m spesifically thinking of are the liberal christians, who are more down to earth in general.

With that said, not only does Mr. Jones have a poor understanding of his own religion, but of Islam as well!

The Bible is not holy. We keep it on our night-stands and besides our used condoms because we recognize that it is a work of man- inspired by God and may be led by the great dude by an extent, but not holy.

The muslims DO on the other hand, believe that the Qur'an, is. And as I mentioned before: when you mess with that kind of belief, you attack the most personal. No wonder they are pissed.

They did what, you say? Well THAT was unexpected...

2. Politics:

Who the hell does he think he is? Here Obama, the man in black himself, comes forth and tells him that all hell is going to rain down on him if he burns the book, and Mr. Jones believes himself to be above international relations and above the president of the United States.

what. the. hell.

As diplomats around the globe tries to establish some semblance of peace with the Muslim countries, not to mention soldiers dying for that "peace" (not that I´m saying that the Afghan war is leading to peace... because its not), Mr. Jones here goes ahead and undermines them all. He, in what I believe is his hut, in Florida, thinks he has the right to do and say whatever he wish.

If you now are thinking: "but the american constitution, blablabla, freedom of speech, blabla." you are naive. Freedom of speech is an illusion. There are simply some things that are wrong to do. The founding fathers never considered people to become so stupid as this guy, and if they had known that human idiocy could go that far, I think they would have re-written the damned act.

Fact is that he is f***ing with discussions and dealings where he has no right, no place and absolutely no understanding of. If I were Obama I would have caught his funky mustache in a revolving door and ripped it off before turning him over to one of the preliminary schools so he could learn some f***ing manners.

Can´t he see that what he did gets us NO WHERE?! If anything it puts us back 50 steps, not to mention the lives of UN officials that were lost in Afghanistan because of his burning! Blood of the people who are working to build bridges is on HIS hands. But he is probably to arrogant of a douche, to occupied with burning holy-books, to notice!

For further reading: Link

3. The good name of Terry Jones:

Terry Jones is not ever ever... ever to be confused with Terence Graham Parry Jones who is his exact opposite in every way, from awesomeness to righteousness... to shining self-irony, which is their biggest difference altogether: while Mr. "Imawfullyhandsome" makes fun of religious people (and religion) because of all their (our) gibberish and loud-mouthed problems, the other Jones A.K.A "Imitchinginmymustache" is a parody of himself and making it perfectly clear the first Mr Jones was right in his humorous parodies. 

He has the right idea. As do all the Monty-Python cast. Some people are just funny and in need of critique.

But sadly they share the same name. The difference is that while the pastor holds this:

 to his legacy, the other Terry Jones holds this:

Shut up and bring me a bucket, idiot.

Suffice to say that the second Terry is both more handsome and more mature.

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To be fair I have to see the pastors actions in an objective light for a moment. 

Obviously his actions are born out of actions taken by Muslims in the past. This makes him angry, but not right. He, and many others, may think that this makes them right, but if they do, they have to find something else to hide behind than christian belief... because you know... love thy neighbor and all.

What I´m saying is that the whole west is tired of the ongoing war against terror, the wars, the lives lost and the paranoia, but while we (the developed world) are focusing on finding a solution, some take matters into their own hands without thinking, and puts fuel on the ongoing fire of hate. 

Again: anger does not make anyone right. 

America (while acknowledging that there are more intelligent people than the idiots living there) may have another way of thinking than Europeans and Asians and Africans and Latin-Americans and Australians, but whatever they might think; government are probably more capable of handling international relations than any individual. So if you have to base whatever basis of reasoning into your religion, call it something else than Christianity... call it "bombabomb" or something, and stop pretending to be governed by righteous actions instead of the real reason, which is hurt, and anger.

To tell you the truth, I feel bad for the pastor. He is guided by instincts more than anything else. And now the whole international community can´t stand his face. Indeed, if I were him I would have caved some time ago, so at least that is to his credit. Still doesn´t make him right though.

Terry Jones is not into the peace bit of his religion... He wears a GUN for Christ's sake... which is another religion than Christianity. He is a pastor of hate with no regard to the well being of neither troops, people or international relation.

Rant and quote end.

oh, and: what

Hello there. I´m plowing social boundaries through humor. What are you doing?

The Perfect Beat

One of the ways I define myself is as a music lover. 

I´m not one of the people that says that I´m listening to everything... because I don´t and I believe that anyone who says that is a liar.

No. What I´m saying is that I love the concept of music. Its something to our cultures which is pure in many ways where words and poetry fail us. 

No matter what kind of music is playing, there will always be someone loving it and understanding it in a different way than others who are listening. That's mainly the reason why I think of it as a sore subject. 

Let me explain. 

If you are on a first date, one of the most common things to ask about when the conversation stalls is music. "What music do you listen to?" then he or she is almost bound to answer "Well... everything"- in order to save face and situation. Both you and the other person knows its a fail-bait to talk about it, even if you don´t think it, and therefore tread lightly before answering, trying to uncover the other persons taste first. 

The catch is that the chances of you going home with that person falls dramatically after he or she finds out you like something that they do not. And the other way around.

Of-course, you may get lucky, I´m not making a rule here, but I will venture out and say that music is important. God knows what happens if you find out the person in front of you is a madman and doesn´t listen to music at all!

This is interesting though. Why is music so personal and secret? A person studying musical theory might answer that question more clearly than I, so I won´t go to deep into it. 

What I find fascinating though, is the fact that as people, we love putting other people in boxes... Sum them up out of what little information we get from them. And music? Thats a huge and important box in most cases. "Oh, lord. She listens to Aqua. That shit was popular in 1985 so shes clearly crazy! RUNAWAY!"... or at least that would have been my response. Some people like that crap. And I don´t blame them. We all know what its like to put our list of favorite songs on the speakers in front of friends. The gentle tugging of uncertainty. The thought of what will be said about you if the majority in the room hates your choices. 

I recon most people think they don´t care much. Or at least I think they think they don´t care much, when really; they do. Its easy to glips the sudden defensive posture put up when you start to comment a song, and the person you are talking to happens to be the one who vouched for it. 

Like the guy that wanted me to play Macarena the other day. He´s still pissed at me for rejecting him. WHY is that? I wasn´t impolite to the douche... I just said "No" slowly and with care to make sure it got through his drunken skull... then I may have turned away and resumed whatever it was that I was doing, trying to ignore the fact that he just asked me for Macarena.

Weird reaction of me, though. It was like I was taken offense at his request. But he didn´t do anything really. He just asked me for a crappy song he could jerk of to. So why the stern rejection and cool attitude?

But that´s beside the point. The point I´m trying to make here is that music is important to us on many different, and rather intimate, levels. Much like religion and politics... and values...?

Its interesting to observe though. How music can draw people together. How it can make them sing and dance and become close even though they met a few seconds before. Ah, no, you don´t have to be drunk to achieve this. All you need is the ecstasy of the moment.

People who can´t dance dance like hell. People who can´t sing, sing like they were kings and queens of the opera. People who don´t have a shred of impulse get inspired to rap... the list goes on.

I like to think its because music is a way of communicating that goes beyond language. As I think of it, language in itself is a hindrance, a barrier where we force our mouth to translate whatever we are thinking. It´s both our greatest tool and our greatest catalyst for confusion. But music in itself rids us of that and lets the individual draw his or her own picture. It allows us to draw different meanings out of it and makes us use other senses in order to draw meaning.

Thats why I´m always looking for the perfect beat. And I think thats why I like music without vocals the best. Its like a painting being made in front of you, but you are the only one who can see it... which makes us vulnerable when we tell of our perspective to others.

The picture may look like a blob of poo to the other person you know.

Khan Academy

The Khan Academy. Fast growing educational program, all based on the web and videos.

And to think I didn´t know about this! I´m late to the game once again...
Watch the TED video to get the introduction of the concept. Its brilliant. I can´t get the video to function properly so if you want full-screen visit the TED homepage HERE.

I have a few problems (as always with anything) with the notion of video taking over for regular teachers. The problem with this does not lie with the method itself, but rather the person developing the video. Notice that Mr. Khan is from America... most people there talk english, right? Most people in the world does not however. This leaves a small hole, but one that should be easily overcome. All there is to it is for one teacher from each country to translate the lectures. A lot of work, but easily done... not to mention cheap.

So my problem comes here: the teaching method is heavily dependent on the guy making the lectures, being able to communicate with a broad spectrum of audience. Khan himself is such a guy, but lets all agree that all teachers are absolutely not as easygoing and understandable as him. That puts a pressure on the others translating the lectures, a pressure so high that I recommend only the best teachers for the job... but that may make it into an elite concept. Something to be highly expensive should only the best of the best be hired to teach the lectures. And not everyone has a big heart such as Khan... so they probably would ask a lot (given that only a few teachers are fitted for the job of translating the lectures so the competition is low).

That makes the concept profitable, something that as a fundament should be avoided if it is ment to reach the porest of us.
But thats not really a critique of this system as it could be a critique of all education systems everywhere and their teachers. As you probably have guessed until now; I´m not a fan of privately owned schools... Something about making education into a profit just doesn´t sit well with me. Thats primarely why I think this is such a great, radically awesome, idea!

Then there is the debate of which education-system is best... Which I´m avoiding deliberately here.

Other than that, and the fact that people in underdeveloped countries have to have an agreeable level of technology, I see no problem with this. Its awesome.

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As a student of almost everything I´m easily fascinated by different things. Physics is one of them. Sadly I have never been good at it, and stopped trying after I got a C on a test where I was meant to find out my own weight on the moon. I failed terribly and gave up on physics after that... I now focus on social science since its much more understandable and fundamentally bereft of logic and answers. Fits me perfectly... Though I´ve always had an interest in other things more technical.

Here is Khans video of fundamental physics. I understood it again after years away from it. What about you?

Enjoy!

And here is the link to his site if you are interested.

A letter about the UN

Today´s monday post will be a mail I sent to a journalist regarding the UN and Libya. I have translated the text since it was originally in Norwegian and therefore hard to read for most of the people reading this blog.
It should be said however that I don´t see it as realistic that anything should come out of it. I just felt that I had to write it.
Anyway. This is the third serious post in a row, and I will try not to get to engaged to critical writing. People don´t want news from blogs obviously, yet there are too few blogs who does it seriously to begin with.... and somethings are left out of the mainstream media. Enter the internet.
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Hi.

I´m a student at ***. Today I woke up with “todays paper” outside my door, branded with large head liners about the controversial theme: Libya.

After having read your article I´m left with a couple of questions I feel are essential because they are left out of the general media.

Not to make the impression to be a “know-it-all” student; This is not critique of your article. If anything it was good enough to inspire me to write this e-mail.

I´m especially interested in the part of the article where you site **** ***** with the line “We can get a westernization of what has been until now, a genuine people uprising”.

This is about the first time I have heard a politician from any of the western countries, ask a question concerning the legitimacy of the recent bombing. The issue that get the hair on my arms to rise up is that the bombing itself is fronted by the UN. After what American (and Norwegian) media calls a “historic moment” in the UN, when they gave a go ahead to the No-fly-zone over Libya, there was immediately underlined that this was strictly for civilian protection. But does this not put the UN in an extremely poor position as a peace-keeping/building organization?

You have to consider the fact that the UN does not have juridical power, even though it wants us to believe it does, as a transnational sovereignty. They do not have the right to “go in” as a police force, especially when their only legitimate motive is “defend from violence with violence”. This puts them out from being a peace-keeping organization to become an organization that is used as a cover that the superpowers use to “cover” their real motives.

I mean; what happened in the security-council was like a poorly-made re-run of the iraq war. The same actors who pushed for a war for democracy that time, are the same now and we all know that there was alternate motives than “building democracy and defend civilian lives” that drove them that time. As a bonus this became an economic black-hole for the US in later times, where soldiers die because the local people don´t want them there... you obviously don´t need a reminder.

Last time the UN left with its integrity intact by saying NO to the warmongers, something they have failed to do this time. This was their only basis as a transnational organization even close to being legitimate! They have let themselves be manipulated and made it to look like a “humanitarian operation”. Ironically enough... no matter how you look at it, it will come back as “to bomb for humanitarian reason”.

POINT being that the focus has deliberately been shifted from the stabilizing of oil-prices (America), bad election (France), and a budget hole (England), and over on “protection of civilians” for a reason.

It isn´t that I think of Gaddafi as anything else than a despot and a menace for his people and region, but I think the UN made a big, fundamental and eye-opening mistake when they approved the war-hungry countries, and gave them an incentive with ethical backing, to go on the offensive. This is what the media has forgotten to mention. Maybe because they are too afraid to make any other assumption, from fear of losing viewers, but I think they are making a mistake in not putting a light on the long term effect of what happened in the UN.

This paper ********* has an advantage there.

This is naturally a social scientific goldmine, and I can already see many a professor rub their hands eagerly together. Definitions are despite all what they are good at, and an opportunity to write new books and make students buy them for a bloody price, where they shift the term “peace-keeping” as a word thought of in a good sense to become something more like “war-incentive”, they applaud in their dark corners of their libraries. 

That Norway is going to partake in the coming battle/war (whatever) does not come as a shock. We are despite all Europa´s naive half-brother.

 

The repercussions of this remains to be seen. Everything depends on who wins down there. If Gaddafi wins, the west will have to crawl to the furnace (because of the oil involved) and lick his back for the next 30-40 years, and if the rebells wins there will still be 30-40 years before they get any resemblance of a agreeable democracy that functions, and this might not even be in the wests best interest. The ONLY thing we can be sure about is that civilian people won´t win. They will die be it bombs, persecution or torture anyway.

So here you have a case: the UN´s future legitimacy as a peace-keeping organization.

Have a good day and good luck with your article-writing

- Beornegard (www.thehavenforwords.blogspot.com)

 

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War: Libya, Japan, UN

Is it only me that asks myself; wtf?

Sorry about my straight forward outburst, but it seems to me that with all the catastrophes happening around the world, especially with Japan in its current predicament, that we don´t need a war on our hands as well.
The UN has a tendency to talk to much when it comes to matters of relative little significance but with huge amounts of people suffering. With Libya they have shown a totally new form of immaturity though. For once they take "sudden" action but at the cost of losing their legitimacy as a peace-keeping organization. Comon! Don´t hide behind the "protection of civilian lives". Its all about the stabilizing of oil prices... Again!
While Japan burns some of the Arabian countries takes the slip of media coverage as a chance to launch military help in Gadhafi´s favor. The UN responds with bullying through a No-Fly-Zone, which can easily be understood as another word for; Go-To-War-With-Our-Blessing.
I for one, am tired of being treated as a reflected pile of crap by the media in these matters. While the world is watching people fight for their lives in Japan, the biggest military powers of the world makes ready to go to war against a Hussein look-a-like. Are they going to find him in a hole as well?!

Fact of the matter is that the UN has a bad tendency to make their voice heard over all others. They are the manifestation of modernization theory.

Some general points of interest:

• Gadhafi is a dictator and a despot: fact.
• Roughly half of Libya wants democracy: relative. 
• The western countries seems to think democracy is the same everywhere: funny & sad. 
• Is it?: no. 
• Does western countries have the right to go in and force peace? : obviously they do.
• What is their real motivation?: money.

Would have thought that the UN would have a slightly better perspective of things.

The middle east needs another renaissance if you ask me. But implementing it through forceful - international action is close to despotic in it self, on a whole new level. We did it once, and that country is STILL technically at war with itself! Lets do the same with Libya! GOGOGO!

Something has to be done, but there is a slight difference of believing change will come by itself (like it has done all around the world throughout history) and taking forceful measures.
There is no excuse for war. Ever.

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The media has already taken sides on everything that's happening. For great Justice!

• They´ve decided that nuclear power is unsafe because they recon earthquakes of 9.0 as relatively likely to happen everywhere around the world, and have taken up the righteous fight of pointing blaming fingers. Fair enough.

• People are ignorant enough to not bother to read anything about nuclear safety before they jump to CNN´s close-to "genius" reasoning, and claim it as their own observation. Goodie.

Stupidity and the tea-party movement are going to be the undoing of us all.

Here is an idea: 
Instead of focusing on how a nuclear reactor is destabilized by a quake the size of a small atom-bomb and how "strange" that is, you could focus on how brilliant the Japanese people are handling the situation.
I´m talking about the Japanese as a whole, both civil and state. They have shown the world that it is possible to maintain ones sanity and humanity in a situation beyond panic. Although, I have my doubts that the rest of us would maintain that level of control if faced with the same catastrophe.

Maybe they cound need some help? ...UN?

If you want information I urge you to turn on the news about Libya or Japan. Hell. Turn on Fox. They have the answers for you. 


....


Or not.

Who controls the Internet

So I live in a country, indirectly a part of the EU. We are not directly under the EU, but have a separate deal with them which gives us basically the same rights, and trade-deals as the countries who actually are a part of the union. The only noteworthy difference is that we have control over specific parts of our internal and external market, and at the same time don´t get a vote in the EU Parliament.

With this quick summary of the situation it has to be noted that we still fall under many of the EU-regulatory legislation's. Short summary: we get trade but lose the ability to control some of our laws.
Yet some of the laws/deals spewed out of the EU, are left to the specific country whether to have or let go.
The Computer Regulatory Directive is one of them (that's what I call it in English anyway... what do you know... the official name is; The Data Retention Directive).

The (DLD) "Datalagringsdirektivet" or Computer Retention Directive, is a new system designed to save some of the information that we produce when utilizing the internet. When I say some, I really mean most. It involves everything from the use of mobile phones to the observation of IP-activity.
The campaign against the directive describes it as having a man stand beside your phone or computer and taking notes on who you are calling, and when you are calling them. Although this is a crude way to describe it because the actual monitoring of these kinds of information is close to impossible and it is therefore needed an extreme technological capacity not to mention a hard-drive the size of Japan.
That´s a lot of info...

The main reason, and the only reason I can see as the most logical as to why the EU let this "close-to-fascist" directive go through is the "crime" motive. They want to look in on peoples business in order to stop people from illegal activity. Before I go on, a couple of notes;

• FIRST: The "legality" of the internet is a relative term as to there is no international legal system as of yet, and it is therefore impossible if two countries has  separate sets of legal systems concerning online-activity. File-sharing may be illegal in one country, but not in another, etc... if the IP is located in one of those countries the person involved can´t be prosecuted in the other. The internet goes beyond borders. That's one of the magical tricks of it. Its impossible in this day and age to legalize or make things illegal on the internet. No one is in control of it.

•  SECOND: The people on the internet who are capable of terrorizing others are the ones in control. These people don´t work for any government and are always a step ahead of the law if they so wish. Even if you have complete control of the information going in and out of a country, they can bypass it easy as sex. They don´t even have to hack anyone in order to make a living hell out of a business´s workday. The normal way of doing this is through "Distributed Denial of Service"- attacks. See my explanation of DDoS from an earlier post, but the short summary is that its a form of online-blackmail where the attacker tells a site or a business that if it does not give X-amount $, they will effectively shut down their server. Funny thing is that its almost impossible to have any real statistics over how regularly these attacks occur because the businesses targeted will lose more in admitting they have a security-problem, than they would gain in using resources on finding the attackers. Even if you know where the IP´s are coming from, there are still 20.000 of them, and chances are that the guy directing/remote-controlling them aren´t even among the computers involved. Not to mention the loss of market-value. So whats the use?

So the only reason as to why you should put up a system overlooking the(some of the) information going through the internet, is the fight against child porn. Which in itself should be reason enough to set up a "virtual net"... which is impossible to argue against. Still... we should ask ourselves if its a legitimate enough of a reason when you think about the other implications the directive imply.
Yes. Child pornography is an abomination to the human race, and yes, everyone who says different are probably on their way to jail or should be. But have we thought on the other, larger implication involved if we choose to destroy it in this fashion?
Alternative 1: The internet is user-driven and controlled, so in the words of Mr TK; "we don´t want that shit here!" Most servers are privately owned, and since paedophilia is about the ONLY common ground in the justice systems world wide where everyone agree... all people have to do is call up the server owner and simply tell them; "hey... do you know what´s on your server?" and it will be removed. That's what happening in a perfect world anyway.
This however, is the only real reason I see, strong enough to argue in favor of the Direktive. The latest rumor from the Guardian is about an international-coordinated arrestation and outing of the worlds largest pedo online-ring as of yet, where over 70. 000 IP´s were registered and 184 people arrested all over the world. Though... they did it without a system overlooking our online-activity. They used regular bad-ass police-awesomeness.

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On the other hand, it may be because of the "terrorist" threat and its implications through a world wide information network such as the internet. All I have to say to this is that if we DO go through with this... they win.
PS: I do not count Wikileaks as a terror site/organisation although it may dismay some of you reading this.
If terrorists are going to make us spy on our own people they have done what their original goal was in the first place. Which is scare the living crap out of us and destroy our society at its roots.

The fact of the matter is that a system like the DLD can easily be abused even if the original thought was to fight crime. I hate to do this to my fellow radicals, but I have to site Lenin in a bad way here:
"Power is good, control is better."
Though Lenin himself never became part of the huge man-killing machine which was the Soviet, he certainly helped developing it and its immence paranoia... not to mention the DDR-era.

Ergo: Stop trying to control what you cannot, will not, and probably will lose votes in controlling. Hell.. even wikipedia agrees to this. Its on the internet... its got to be true.

What to do when in Doubt

As all human beings currently inhabiting this world, we are all riddled with doubt. I´m thinking of doubt that´s situation-based, the kind you get when you are in the mid of a predicament that's making you question yourself, your efforts and your understanding of a situation.What I´m Not talking about is the kind of doubt you get when you have a mid-life crisis... or the kind you get when you don´t understand a philosophical problem/question.

Nono. I´m talking about the mundane kind. The kind involving love, loss, car-parking, work, broken-condom-syndrome, etc...
Here are five easy, manageable, steps you can look to when in one of the above situations:

1. Don´t panic.
Fundamental law of the universe and everything. 
Whenever a situation arises that makes you question yourself, the first rule of engagement is to not panic, no matter how absurd the situation is. Time often resolves the situation for you. If you push the situation slightly away from yourself and take a position as a third party viewer, you will notice that time works in your favor. In this way, through observation and cooling down, you can act according to what the situation demands of you.  
Forget about the towel though... that doesn´t matter. 

 

2. Never act in anger.
Easier said than done, yet it explains itself. Nothing productive has ever come as a direct result of anger, so whenever you fruitlessly try to understand a specific situation and it begins to undermine and frustrate you, take it out on a pillow or the internet, before you address a predicament. 

3. Motivation.
Some of the more normal tendencies whenever in doubt, is to question your motivation. "WHY am I doing this? WHAT am I getting out of it? WHEN is the pizza arriving, and WHY did we order vegetarian?"
In this scenario it is best to just understand yourself as the power that drives the situation forward. When you have this perspective of things (you as the ultimate force), all you have to do is to let pros and cons weigh themselves out, and act according to the answer you get from them. If there are more pros than cons: Press forward! -without regards to the neighboring old woman, or the police knocking on your door asking you to turn down the volume. If there are more cons than pros: Stop doing what you are doing and leave while the rest of the gang is waiting for the vegetarian-abomination that they want you to chip in on.

4. Distractions.
Lets just face the obvious. Some times doubt can make you go mad and make you want to forget about sh*t.
Whenever you are in a predicament where the doubt involves another person, you have to be especially aware of the instructions in this list. Some situations involving doubt might be more hurtful than others. One effective way of dealing with the doubt in these scenarios, is to surround yourself by people. Alone you have unlimited access to thoughts, which some times might serve against its masters best interests. When this happens, friends, people, music, movies, books, work, work-out, food and alcohol are good substitutes for a working brain.
Some of the best places to find all of these things at the same time are either bars, cafès, work, gyms or libraries.

5. Analyze? Time is what matters.
If doubt involves treachery, unfaithful-people, want or lack-there-of, the best thing to do is to ask your self as few questions as possible. When it all comes down to the marrow of things, there is just one thing that matters: do you care? This is as fundamental as it gets. Is the stress of it is messing up your personal life, you should just drop it, and find another problem to solve. Though most times its best to analyze. Not to recap or anything, but according to my understanding of doubtful situations its often paranoia that's making people think and act the way they do. Using time to your advantage solves most of everything, but while you are at it, it might be a good thing to just think; "Why am I in doubt about this? Its probably going to be awesome, jumping of this cliff into a pool full of pig-poop. I should just do it and claim the glory!"... A stupid metaphor, but that's the general spontaneous reaction to any situation.

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NOTE: I do not take responsibility for any actions taken on the basis of the steps written here.


Have a nice day.

Carroll

Twas brilling, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe

"Beware the jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

Long time the manxome foe he sought-

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,

The jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffing through the tulgey wood,

And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

He chortled in his joy.

Twas brilling, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogroves,

And the mome raths outbrabe.

- Lewis Carroll

Energy

 

I wanted you to see this lecture by Bill Gates. Not that I idealize the man in any particular way... apart from his innovative personality. But I figured that this area within the energy debate is (at least in my country) not focused on enough. 

I will go ahead and point out that I´m not either pro or against nuclear power even though it seems like the pro side of me is winning ground... before I saw this lecture by Mr. Gates.

It is important to have an understanding of both sides of any debate before taking a firm stand. The worst kind of debate is one where both sides are unable to answered questions directed to their opposite side. Like, If I asked a vegetarian: "Why should I eat meat?" and he/she is immediately answering "you shouldn´t" without even trying to put her/himself within the opposite sides point of view.

That goes for any kind of debate. And this is what is lacking in my society at the moment; a greater understanding of both sides of the energy debate... the only thing they all agree on is that we have to be rid of oil. And at the same moment they throw nuclear power on the scrap-yard based on Tsjernobyl, the only reactor in history to melt down fully and affecting the environment. Seen that the technology used in Tsjernobyl is 24 years old, we can only guess that the reactors used (everywhere in the world) today is of a different, better, more secure, sort.

There are more cons like; "what about the aftermath, the waste?". Well... This is a fundamental problem... right now. Its only a matter of time before it wont be one. 

Focusing on a constructive solution, like developing technology that can use the waste to make new energy (its called recycling), is better than not even thinking about the subject. 

If the technology isn´t here today... we should focus on getting it here faster. And that's the one big problem of any environmental debate today. 

I can almost hear them crying through the walls of my imaginary debate-room; "GET RID OF OIL! Co2 IS DANGEROUS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT! PANDAS!"

Well... based on the fact that the world is firstly driven by the economy, you should focus on a way of getting a renewable energy-source on the market that will force out oil, and not whine. Idiots.

I promise you this: The day we find a energy source that is more effective, less costly, environmental friendly, and more plentiful than oil, that is the same day the world stops using oil. 

So what do we have? nothing right now, but in my naive mind there is nuclear power... the only effective solution for a steadily increasing demand for energy (and it will only increase) without spewing out Co2 like a drunk on drugs.

Note: Even though I lean toward nuclear power right now does not mean I figure that it is a better alternative than furthering research in renewable energy. The sun gives us 10. 000 times more power each year than the total world consumption of power.... Research in solar panels is PROBABLY the best thing ever... but its just a though.

Point is: Its better to have a constructive conversation where we deliver solutions, than blind rambling by angry people.


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Due to recent events I felt I had to update this post a bit.
As some of you may already know, a reacor in Japan is having problems.
I have this to say on the matter.