for any shit you wanna stick up, from female form threads, political debates, to anal rampage, to your thoughts of the latest game you borrowed for free and hated and feel the need to express... ANYTHING!
See what youes think, its very rough and ready right now but everyone can be admins and change any shit they want. Not sure what people really wanna use it for so there's not really sections apart from a music one i made to see how it was done. There IS a female form thread tho... which i'm told is wrong already!
Stumbled on this story on a Christian website.... * A preacher and an atheistic barber were once walking through the city slums. Said the barber to the preacher: "This is why I cannot believe in a God of love. If God was as kind as you say, He would not permit all this poverty, disease, and squalor. He would not allow these poor bums to be addicted to dope and other character-destroying habits. No, I cannot believe in a God who permits these things."
The minister was silent until they met a man who was especially unkempt and filthy. His hair was hanging down his neck and he had a half-inch of stubble on his face. Said the minister: "You must not be a very good barber because you wouldn't permit a man like that to continue living in this neighborhood without a haircut and shave." Indignantly the barber answered: "Why blame me for that man's condition? I can't help it that he is like that. He has never come in my shop; I could fix him up and make him look like a gentleman!"
Giving the barber a penetrating look, the minister said: "Then don't blame God for allowing the people to continue in their evil ways, when He is constantly inviting them to come and be saved." * >Grumble Grumble Grumble< The Very fact the Barber does verbally tear the bullshitting Preacher a new one, taking his flimsy 'man if only these losers would LET god help them' argument has rankled and ruined me for the rest of the day!
"Alright Bay Team, Horror. Lets see what you've got... Yeah scary kid, cool. Make him scarier... NO NO! I said scarier, that means like a Dickensian kid. yeeeeeessssss... Okay put him in the reflection... Oooohhh scary. But something's missing... Does she look scared enough to you...? >sigh< RETORHICAL! Bay does not ask for help! Weak weak weak. No I'm missing SOMEthing... No, I like the title, it's weird and scary, like maybe its about aborted foetuses returning to attack their drunken, hot, teen mothers that murdered them (by the way get me the script writers on the line)... No its not saying "BAY" to me. ... Oh mikey, you've done it AGIAN. get Michael Bay some HOT ASS. ...AWESOME." The UNBORN
Al might be pleased to know that that ass is the ass of Odette Yustman from Cloverfield
So Gears of War 1 pretty much MADE 'Mad World' a hit some Christmases ago by using it really well in their ad(I have no idea if this is true but it sounds about right) and if you've caught the GOW 2 trailer they do a similar thing. It works really well and at the very least catches your attention, and I only just got around to looking into the music
Turns out they did the music to Little Miss Sunshine and have in fact been around for a wee while now. Downloaded their album with the Gears song on it and it's awesome! Been listening to it several times today, it's at times like a Mexican, Eastern European Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds mixed with Sigur Ros backing. On Crack! And Acid! Well no. Not really. Sounds nothing like they're on crack. Or Acid. Sorry. Just sounded good. But it's worth downin'... or, if you have "copyright sensitivity issues", buying!
looks interesting, Forest Whittaker, Ray Liotta, sweet music, and... wait a minute, is that copious amounts of Jessica Biel pole dancing and throwing water on herself...?
Plus while looking at the cast list i notice that not only does this film have all of the above but also Patrick Swayze (who doesn't appear to have a character name, Swayze playing Swayze?) AND a guy call YODA!
I couldn't sleep last night and at about 1.30am I had a crazy thought - I am going to delete everything from my hard drives. So I did. All my mp3's, all my movies, tv shows, porn, pdf books, fighting instructionals, everything I downloaded over the years. I just though “fuck copyright and closed licensing, i'm through with it”. I will still buy books and stuff that are under copyright, but I will be more looking for material with more progressive licensing, such as creative commons or open source. Like good old Neil Gaiman, he's cool!
At this rate I will be living in a farm community before long. Downloading all this stuff just felt hypocritical, and it feels great to be rid of it all! I didn't finish series 2 of The Wire, so I need to watch it with someone AdamandAl. In fact, we should all watch The Wire again, I could watch series 1 again, and I think it is a show we would all enjoy.
ARG, is the only way to describe the past 8 days. But with particular emphasis on the 8th.
For those of you who dunt know, me and katie's was broken into pretty much exactly as i stepped off the flight from the Shit Cararys. Added to this stress my colleagues, in there supportive way, seem to be acting like I've made it up to avoid work i didn't need to do in the first place, and I appear to be straight back into the masses of work I left, and my supposed 4 days "off" have turned into LOTs and LOTs of work. I say "ARG!"
But look, to cheer me up, Xbox has gone all Wii!! here I am It seems in keeping with the Xbox Live 'Community' their Miis, sorry Xbiis, are as "Faggy" and "N00by" as possible. Presumably so when a Small thirteen year olds exclaim about your BIG gay N00BYness, you can now log straight your dash' and see the evidence grinning mindlessly at you in his wee fag outfit and Americanised demeanour.
Its shocking just how Wii-ish it is. I'm surprised Nintondo aren't getting legal action ready right now. Serving Microsoft with "Unique custom Controls!" that won't quite work the fist time but wait wait, just tip the mote back a bit... NO! less speed and more dip in your legs!
Plus it turns out we could've had our own pictures as backgrounds ALL THIS TIME instead of spending 150ms on them! THINK OF THE RED ALERT GIRLS I'VE WASTED MONEY ON! I could've had ANY delightful image FOR FREE! ARG!!!!!!!!!!!!
LIVE from spain! exhausted, tired, and stress from spain.
Gran Canaria looks EXACTLY like Sergio Leone stuff, all barren and tumble weeds... EXCEPT for the huge hotels and resorts and hundreds of tourist. EVERYWHERE. I swear the only locals I've come across are serving me! there's more tourist than Gran Canaries. It's depressing. Plus my client is being lots of work and the heat is hot. HOME MONDAY! YAY! Happiness will follow. and with all this Flaming Lip Spinning around this was the first thing I looked up with my 20 mins of internet (costing a whole 2 euros!)
and this too
I can't wait to see how much my Fable 2 character has earned while I've been away!
I'm off to part unknown tomoro, and am not back for a good week! Back monday night and then off for a whole four days! Including Lorenzos bday celebrations... see youes there!
...I expect to have many posts of a political, scientific, gaming, and movie related nature to catch up on. Plus lots of sweet pics.
Mentioned this website to Adam, your classic anti mass consumerism stuff. However they do seem to have it together and the above is a link to all their publications which are free to download. Hurrah! They champion the rights of those on the wrong side of our capitalism, not so much the 'stuff doesn't make you happy!' stance.
Some of you may find them an interesting read, especially on the run up to the Christmas Consumerism Buffet om nom nom.
A Danish Mag asks the new Lara Croft model some joke Archaeology questions and she (and Lara's PR) freak out.
It's a fairly awkward moment but what I find really interesting is how "it'd make Lara look bad", and then Some of 'Lara's People' step in and shut it down. How weird is it that 1. they take this so VERY serious 2. 'Lara Croft' appearing daft is more important than the model appearing to not know about archaeology.
It's like Lara Croft is sitting in her control centre building her gaming empire, and not having it all ruined by this ditzy model saying she don't know no Indiana Jones! Or maybe I should say the Eidos control centre...
I mean all it took was an global economic recession, two unbelievably dumb, costly wars, and a general crumbling social infrastructure for your average american joe to get down with the brown. As the Onion Put it "Nation Finally Shitty Enough To Make Social Progress" One of there reported CNN polls said that 40% of voters were 'frightened' enoguh by the various crises to look past policies on gay marriage.
Highlighted days mean I start at 21:00 that day, finishing at 07:30 the next day (So, I don't finish until 07:30 on the day after the last highlight).
I'm generally out of action until 15:00 the next day, and i'm free until 20:30-20:45. That's a reasonably good window for some action - for instance, I can make a film starting between 17:00 and 18:00 depending on the length of said film.
I'm sure you all understand that when doing these crazy nightshifts it makes a pretty big difference to actually be able to do something with the little spare time I have, so please feel free to slightly modify future plans to include a socially excluded Shafto!
Missed this tonight.....would've been an awesome avant-garde fest. Stupit noises, Lorenzo loves it! Sigh. There is this on Halloween though:
with a self-professed "Halloween supergroup." I'm always amazed, and pleased, at the amount of "experimental" musical events going on in Glasgow. Makes me happy.
Michael Bay's totally legit, not made up, all 100% BAY twitter.
Just shut your eyes and imagine your under a tree, by a river bank, meditating. And sitting with you, full lotus, with a halo of light around his perfect hair, is Master Bay. He utters tranquil mantras to help you on your journey thro life...
"Here's a tip: its not about yelling harder. Its about yelling smarter..."
have had a new album out for the last month, called Snowflake Midnight. I've been listening for the last few weeks. You must obtain. Crank it or headphone it! It is easily the best album released so far this year.....and maybe ever. Every time it finishes I can't put on another album because nothing I can think of can hold up to it. Seriously. Everything's just a big disappointment now. It's also very different from what they used to do. So I only have a meager 9 perfect songs! I want more!
Watchmen was test sceened last week, and from all reviews put on the web, the ending has been changed.....to something rather pish in my opinion. You can find out here, or just do a google search for many more reports of the same thing. Slightly alternate version here, but much the same consequence. Looks like some people have confused the rumour, since all reviews were removed almost immediately so only a few people actually read them to remember them. However, they are very similar, with exactly the same result. Don't want to spoil it in case any of you chumps dont want it spoiled, but it completely changes the meaning of the narrative, for me anyways. And it is also a stupidly obvious thing to do within the context of the story and one of it's many themes. In a bad way. Very American. Looks like they're removing all subtelty and layering and just smashing it on the head with a sledgehammer. Disappointing. I try not to play a fanboy blinded by love of source material, but I really can't help it in this case. Think I'll be burning down a cinema early next year....unless the ending shown or the reviews are faked by the director Snyder, which is a theory going round. I had heard the ending was completely faithful. But Kevin Smith has been shown the film, and said it was different. He might have been lying or shown a fake one too, thus setting up an awesome conspiracy within a conspiracy. Unlikely, says I. NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Well, I'm not that crushed, I thought it would suck ass any way.
THIS??!! I had completely forgotten about it for the last few months....I now have that terrible "Satan lives among us" feeling again now that I remember it. NO! I WAS HAPPIER BEFORE I KNEW!!!
BEHOLD! HASSELHOFF AS NICK FURY AGENT OF SHIELD!!!
And, dear lord, Batman and Robin is a masterpiece after remembering this. James and I subjected ourselves to it back in the day. And now, I subject a portion of it on you.
It's with some delight that I see we're hitting the streets to take this shit to Shity City Shity Hall!
And it's with some grim creases in my forehead that i read Lorenzo's New Scientist article where Current Economy = no more world (of course i mean to say xbox) cause it's scary jazz.
And Brido continues my burden by reminding me that modern science is just as ruled by profit as any market or company.
ye all gone and bummed me out! Way i see it, doesn't matter what economy we have or how we govern it, people are greedy motherfuckers and short sighted ones at that. Any rioting is because its affecting our wallets now and as soon as we get our comfort back it'll be back mortgages, credit cards, and sweet, sweet consumables!
Weren't we supposed to be aiming for that Star Trek future a young impressionable Adam was told about?!? You lied to me Picard.
(I was really disappointed, i thought i'd found a cover of this by Avril Lavigne of all people, and I was totally gonna get Avril to tell it like it is! damn.)
I didn't mean to imply that I think that scientists should rule the world....sorry. Just thought the articles raised some pretty good points. However, the figures and stuff quoted aren't from an experiment but based on current values of consumption, and some relatively simple number crunching gives the inputs and outputs required if we grow economically. So it's actually really simple(for their peers) to check those figures and verify them. Every respected article is "peer-reviewed," which whilst not removing fraud of basic results and data, which as you mentioned does happen more often than you would expect in respected publications, pretty much keeps anyone drawing stupid or erroneous conclusions from whatever data has been collected. Since the data used in the articles I referenced is actually taken from freely available stock values and the like which are used daily to calculate banks income etc, it's highly unlikely it's falsified. The conclusions and figures are then derived, which you or I, if our maths is up to scratch, should be able to look at. Economists use the same basic data every day. And the figures of consumption due to market growth in the near future are very, very scary indeed. However a world run by scientists is also a scary prospect. And I totally agree with everything you said, I've had some 2nd hand experience through my supervisor of the work done in scientific research and the amount of absolute fannies he has to deal with somehow. Everyone has a political agenda, and some stuff that is pulled is actually quite sickening in the world of highly expensive physics that I work in, because the stakes are higher. Some people already predict a violent revolution that'll take place as more and more people become aware of just how much the government and finance system needs to change to sustain everything. I'm game. You?
Lets not go and advocate that Scientists should lead the world. Scientific thinking is all well and good, but not all Scientists strictly follow this. They are not free from Bias. Huge pressure for results from their financiers, or for prestige for themselves and their organisations (think tanks, Universities ect) means that Science is by far no means free from fraud.
Remember Hwang Woo Suk? The Korean Scientist who claimed to have cloned a human embryo and successfully extracted stem cells? The journal Science, one of the most esteemed out there, published the two fraudulent papers out into the public domain. Donald Kennedy, Science editor-in-chief at the time, says "Scientific fraud is not new and is not rare, luckily it's not common either." in regards to the incident.
While looking for an article on Robert Slutsky, another scientist found to have fabricated data, I sound these two articles. The first is a summary of a paper stating in its conclusion that "Scientists do not, and probably cannot, identify published articles that are fraudulent." I also found this, which seems to be a course named Responsible Conduct of Research, which looks an excellent read. It cites more examples of scientific fraud.
Now sure, the very idea of scientific method involves independent experiments to replicate findings. Sounds great, but in the case of the LHC, who had another one to try and falsify its findings? When scientific experimentation runs into the millions, and often billions, then it becomes impossible to independently check results. You have to take the data presented at face value, which as we have seen above, can lead to problems. Can you imagine the LHC finding absolutely nothing? While no results would still further human understanding, the outcry would be massive. The pressure these guys must be under to get results must be staggering. However, being wrong is fundamental to science. You publish a theory, and someone improves upon it, or even eventually proves you wrong. It is an important stepping stone, but who wants to be the guy to be improved upon, or even worse, shown to be wrong? With such financial and career pressure, I don't think most want to be that guy or girl.
Shafto, Adam and I had a very interesting chat with UKHotDave regarding this in medical science. He was saying that the vast majority is funding and research is made into slightly improving and modifying current medicines. The reason for this is the patent of medicine is 7 years (I believe he said, perhaps Adam or Shafto can correct me), so if it is modified slightly then they can renew the patent on the medicine. The other reason, as I mentioned above, that looking for the next big miracle cure is expensive, takes many many years of research and usually yields absolutely nothing. It isn't seen as cost effective, lots of money is used up in a big gamble. To me this is the essence of science, but in you results dependent world this isn't satisfactory. Dave went as far as to say that all the big medical breakthroughs have happened. The ideal and the reality is very different.
That's what I am essentially talking about. We have an ideal about the scientific method, and how it can lead us to a new and beautiful future, but in reality it isn't the case. Bear in mind, much of science is speculative, just like economics. Lorenzo, you said here that the LHC exists to find dark matter, that thing that has speculated on that has been made up by scientists to make current theory work. Just think of all the science that is speculative. I don't think speculation is bad, it is just predicting an outcome based on past trends and current knowledge. Wasn't Darwins Theory of Evolution through Natural Selection speculative in his time? We now have much more evidence that supports it.
Economists are no more fallible than Scientists. What we need is a public of critical thinkers to keep all these so called 'experts' in check. We need to take the power back! Who wants to join me?!
I've been away 3 weeks....and you idiots actually bailed out the banks?!
Here's some articles about why the economy must be drastically revised. Not written by filthy stupid economists, but by scientists who look at evidence and data and come up with reasonable conclusions.
The free articles are labelled as such at the bottom. I've got the printed issue if anyone wants to read the "not-free" articles(hypocrite capiltalist swines!). I can mention interesting not-free parts here:-
1. If an economist tells you that growth is essential to lift the poor from poverty(always their last line of defence), he is a fanny, and by any reasonable assessment is claiming the impossible. In today's financial system, for the poor to gain a tiny bit of wealth, the rich have to get much, much more richer, and increase all consumption to ridiculous levels. Some simple number crunching shows that to get the poorest onto just 3 dollars a day, we need 15 PLANETS WORTH of biocapacity. We need a new model, clearly.
2. Former senior economist of the World Bank Herman Daly explains that growth must be kept in sustainable limits, but all economists assume the Earth is an infinite well of resources. The Commission on Growth and Health earlier this year reported on 13 developing countries, including Brazil, China, Japan, etc, and suggests the entire world should follow their example of growth over the last 25 years. A global economy would be 5 times the size it is today in 25 years at this rate of growth. This is not sustainable by our planet.
3. One particularly awesome article is a report written from the point of view of a reporter 10 years in the future, in an alternate reality where we transform into a "steady-state" economy to save ourselves. It is intensely scary how different everything would be. It's a world run by scientists, who set rules for consumption and emission. Then economists work out how to achieve those limits. There's no income tax, but all resources are taxed at the point of removal from the biosphere. This increases prices encouraging their spare usage. The tax system is easy to enforce, and almost impossible to dodge(coincidentally, governments lose about 250 billion dollars a year in tax from rich cunts storing money in tax-havens). No fancy mobiles, or next generation wii's or xboxes i'm afraid. Things are buit to last, not to be replaced in 6 months - 6 years. Births are monitored and restricted. Everyone works part-time as a co-owner of a business rather than an employee. Incomes are lower, and we have much more time. It's also regressive: the poorer pay a higher proportion of their wage than the rich do to live. This is offset by benefits programmes from the awesome taxes we're collecting. It's interesting stuff, and illustrates a system which is not a socialist state nor the ultra-capitalist regime we have just now. It's still capitalism, but a relaxed kind.
4. The articles don't focus on the argument about whether global warming is caused by us, because at this stage it's a moot point, quite frankly. It's about the fundamental concept that an economic growth is sustained by inputs and outputs that banks refuse or are too scared to accept exist.
The article that Adam linked to below by an economist was one of the more hilarious rebukes of consumption by an economy I've read, the guy is completely deluded! I quote: " These myths were injected into the mainstream mainly by Keynesian economists or demand-siders who were trying to influence public policy." Hmmmm. Ecological Keynesianism is actually one of the few solutions to the problem of consumption, you fucking moron. And it is sustainable ecologically and economically. Far from hampering the economy, it was what lifted America out of the Depression during wartime thanks to creation of shite-loads of opportunities that weren't available before-hand and rationing of all food and oil.
His "Dependance on foreign oil" myth-busting misses point entirely. In fact, all his "myth-busting" seems to miss the point. Every argument he makes, in fact, the only argument, is that it is due to the control of central banks that everything went down the shitter. This is a complete and utter avoidance of the problem. It goes without saying that if the markets ran free there would be awesome unlimited growth. This has been proven many times mathematically. Awesome unlimited growth, however, is the problem, and it's only by a few smart individuals within the World Bank's efforts that there's still any constraints at all upon the trading system. The markets MUST be controlled and restrained to a much greater degree than they are at the moment to avoid running out of resources.
I haven't blamed the recent economic crisis on various different factors that I've been hearing in the news and on the street. It's speculation and rumour, all of it. The simple fact is, economists' maths failed them miserably after years of "innovation," and we've bailed them out like the capitalist pigs we are. They're all laughing, bet your dick on it. And they'll go on investing money that doesn't exist yet until one of two things happen: our planet collapses or the market dies due to lack of resources. Both will probably happen simultaneously
We are observing the first worldwide civilization dying under it's own weight, gentlemen. Nero fiddled while Rome burned: that is to say, there's not much we can do but point and laugh. I'm off to listen to some Manics: JOIN ME NOW!!!
Text messaging has fucked up on my phone, so don't expect a reply at the moment if you send me one as I am unable. We just have to chuff it out during these hard times.
Just noticed a wee 'AOL' under the Winamp on my player and those three wee letters knocked me for six.
So just in case you use WA and don't wan to use AOL, here's 10 alts ...ones itunes but that leaves 9 others! Oh and I hear Sonique got bought by Lycos.
Cause I watched this video and I don't remember like 85%... thankfully.
10 mins of the worst bit from Batman and Robin It's like some sort've horrible experiment where they took Adam West's Batman and locked it in a room to seduce Tim Burton's batman and this is the disfigured love child they created. With coloured lighting effects.
If you watch all 10 mins I'll you get a chocolate batarang!
More worth watching is this
not that I think it isn't dodgy, but still interesting.
My Morning Jacket playing at ABC on 14th Nov, 4 days before my birthday!!! Lorenzo is a pleased Mast0r of Science! All ye of good taste come! Loudest band I've seen.....Kirsty and I had to go to the back when they came out for the encore cos our ears couldn't take any more!! My ears were ringing for days! That's the kind o shit you WANT!!! BE there, or be mild-mannered!!
Look!! He wears a cape!!
That song actually sounds like this on good recording equipment.....
Some awesome guitar riffage that sounds like old school flaming lips....can't find any pro shot stuff of the songs I want...the guitar sound'll take yr teeth off!!
Some weird funk-ola....
which sounds like this on record
electronica:
spacy rocky stuff:
So really, there's something for most people, it's 4 days before my birthday, so everyone and their maw should come and we'll dance wer baws aff. Lemme know if you up for it...
I remember it being quite awesome, I read it a while back....don't be discouraged by the fact it's by Jeph Loeb, the chap who did Hush. He's a bit schizo in the quality department. He's doing Ultimates 3 just now and it's also rather gash. But when he works with Tim Sale they usually produce gold, and the artwork is probably THE MOST gorgeous Batman artwork ever. They also reference it in the Dark Knight; in the court room scene at the start, the mob family is the same family that are the main focus of this novel. Indeed, the Long Halloween is about Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face, and there's clearly an influence from this graphic novel on that element of Dark Knight. So you get the most interesting plot of that film, PLUS you also get a decent Batman doing proper Batman type things, UNLIKE in the Dark Knight. Ahem.
My favourite Batman, though, is the one in Grant Morrison's JLA run, a supercool gringo who has twenty backup plans for every plan, and another ten backup plans for each backup plan.
The best Batman story and moment is the first story arc, where martians(who have Superman-level abilities) invade and enslave the earth. The JLA tries to stop them and get slapped silly and captured except for Batman, and the handsome muchacho single-handedly infiltrates and CRUSHES the aliens in awesome stealth action one by one. If only THAT had been the latest Batman film.....Lorenzo can dream. But alas, due to stupid Frank Miller we'll never get away from the terrible "dark" and "edgy" Batman that's now expected and required for any credibility. Baws tae that, ah want silly men in tights slappin each other silly! POW, WHAP, KABLAMO! If you want that shit, you need to go back to the seventies Neal Adams Batman, where he was more like a millionare playboy James Bond type with loads of super-cool gadgets. Actually, that's what Morrison's latest Batman stories are trying to get back to. I've been meanin to check out Batman and Son etc for a while, I suspect I'll think it's the shit. First story: re-introduce Batman's illigitimate child. HA! Remember Rha's Al Ghul from Batman Begins? In the comics, the super-awesome back-in-the-day Batman boned his daughter. Phenomenal. You don't get THAT shit in Batman comics nowadays....don't get me wrong, NealAdams/GrantMorrison Batman is still dark and brooding, but he also has the awesome baws, tech, charizmateek and suave.....kind of veered off topic there....good Batman stories......if your lookin for good Batman as a result of Dark Knight viewage, I'd say you'd enjoy Long Halloween a lot. And it's got a sequel whose name I cant remember which is also pretty awesome, so maybe start with LH and go from there. Apart from that....it's a DC character at the end of the day. The only way DC characters really work is to have someone think up crazy shit that only ridiculously over-powered super-people can handle, which is why I like Grant Morrison at DC so much, he does that kind of thing best. Probably best to stick with Marvel for more character-driven men in tights action. You must've read Frank Miller's Daredevil, but I'll mention it just in case, it's pretty much Batman but with red on the costume, and very good.
So I've been trying to download some GOOD batman comics, cos to be honest most of what i've read is a bit not so good. Except Killing Joke, it was, of course, pure awesome. But Hush was average and maybe just plain rubbish. So i came across the latest arc, Grant Morrison's "Batman R.I.P" Presumably the Death of Batman. yeah, right! A handy catch up video
So a whole bunch of random, as you might expect, with no real direction or death talk.
rubbish? why mess with Bruce after all these years? or could it actually be a proper progression and change to long running staple comic legend. Sumit you don't really see at all.
Of course I don't read up to date batman comics so who cares!
