The Titanic Conspiracy Theory

One for the conspiracy theorists out there.

Ken Kesey Interview

Ken Kesey, spoke with Chris & Rob in 1999 prior to an engagement to take the Merry Pranksters and their bus, Further, on a tour of The United Kingdom. Kesey talks about his home in Oregon, the famous bus Further, upcoming pranks on the UK tour and the magical side of reality. Go here to listen.

The Educated White Slave

This an extract from a thought-provoking article by Billy the Dancing Moose on Salient.

“Keep you doped with religion, sex and tv/and you think you’re so clever and classless and free…” – John Lennon, Working Class Hero

Debt is the modern form of slavery. When you are in debt, someone else owns you – your time, effort and labour – and calls upon you to make whatever sacrifices necessary until the debt is serviced on terms they dictate. (Upon a moment’s reflection language reveals much which is hidden – we “service” debts. Servants give service to their masters. Mortgages, literally, are a contract signed “on death terms.”)

How the system works to enslave the Educated White Slave

“Well you get what you pay for/And freedom’s real high priced” – Axl Rose

So they tell you that to escape a future of menial labouring tedium, you need an education. And to get an education, you need to go to university. And unless your family is rich and your parents generous, that means getting a loan, often committing to $30,000+ of debt before you have the faintest idea what debt means.

However, that qualification you are getting into debt for is itself merely a qualification to become a cog in someone else’s machine. As Bill Gates noted frankly when speaking to a graduating class at an Ivy League university, they were never going to be as rich as him. They had wasted years of their lives training to become his employees. He had spent those years of his life starting his own company out of his garage.

Anyway. Once you have the loan, and whether or not you are lucky enough to graduate, you will need to get cracking on paying off that loan.

That right there is where your loss of freedom becomes apparent.

They’ve got you.

Instead of leaving university, fresh faced, full of bright ideas about how to do awesome things and effect positive change in the world, and eager to get out and make a difference (as we might hope would occur when our brightest hopes for the future leave institutes of higher learning), you need to get a job to pay off the loan.

Read more here.

The Shock Doctrine

From The Thought Kitchen

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, syndicated columnist and author of the international bestseller No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. She is a former Miliband Fellow at the London School of Economics and holds an honorary Doctor of Civil Laws from the University of King’s College, Nova Scotia. She was voted 11th, the highest ranked woman, in the Global Intellectuals Poll-a list of the world’s top public intellectuals compiled by Prospect Magazine, in conjunction with Foreign Policy Magazine.

Klein recently published a controversial best seller entitled The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. In it she defines shock doctrine as “the use of public disorientation following massive collective shocks-wars, terrorist attacks, natural disasters-to push through highly unpopular economic shock therapy.” The metaphor of “shock” is important because her thesis stems from a contention that what works on a person also works on a nation. Think 9/11 and fear-induced politics that have eroded some of the fundamentals of what we knew as American democracy.

Inspired by Klein’s book, director Alfonso Cuarón created the short film, “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.” Klein explains how the film came to be made,

“When I finished The Shock Doctrine, I sent it to Alfonso Cuarón because I adore his films and felt that the future he created for Children of Men was very close to the present I was seeing in disaster zones. I was hoping he would send me a quote for the book jacket and instead he pulled together this amazing team of artists — including Jonás Cuarón who directed and edited — to make The Shock Doctrine short film. It was one of those blessed projects where everything felt fated.”

You are likely to find the film interesting for a number of reasons, including the historical footage of patients receiving shock treatment.

These anti-piracy ads are getting really mean

Like me, many of you are fans of the British comedy show The IT Crowd. If you are unfamiliar with the show it was created by Graham Linehan of Father Ted fame and it is well worth a view.

The IT Crowd is set in the offices of Reynholm Industries, a fictitious British corporation in central London. It focuses on the antics of the IT team who live in a untidy and dingy basement away from the more civilised surroundings of their colleagues.

Moss and Roy, the two IT technicians, are portrayed as complete geeks and they are despised by the rest of the staff. Jen, is the newest member of the group and she is hopeless with technology, despite claiming on her resume that she has “a lot of experience with computers”.

Series 2 has recently finished in the UK and I hope it won’t be too long before it is shown here. A highlight of the first series was the parody ad for the emergency services, “0118 999 881 999 119 725 … 3”

For series 2 they have made another ad, this time it is a parody of the anti- piracy ones. Be warned, not suitable for sensitive viewers!

The Mega-Lie Called the “War on Terror”

I thought that some of you would be interested in an article by Richard W. Behan called The Mega-Lie Called the “War on Terror”: A Masterpiece of Propaganda. Behan believes that the fraudulence of the “War on Terror” is clearly revealed by looking at the pattern of actions that preceded and followed its launch. Behan’s article:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the state can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie … The truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the state.” –Joseph Goebbels, minister of propaganda in Nazi Germany, 1933-1945

Since Sept. 11, 2001, the administration of George W. Bush has told and repeated a lie that is “big enough” to confirm Joseph Goebbels’ testimony. It is a mega-lie, and the American people have come to believe it. It is the “War on Terror.”

To read the rest of the article go to AlterNet.

Led Zeppelin

I am feeling really generous today, first Rubik and now Zeppelin. In this video they are performing cover versions of C’mon Everybody and Something Else. I am not sure but I think the songs were originally performed by Eddie Cochran. If memory serves me correctly Eddie Cochran died young in a car crash.

Rubik’s Cube by a Nose

This is for the guys who keep bugging me to show them Rubik’s cube videos. Enjoy.