Tripoli – Libyans all over Libya and Tripoli rejoiced as NATO anounced victory over the evil tyrant Moamar Kadaffi. People on the streets where anxious to welcome their new rulers. A local Libyan phrased it best: “Why settle for a single autocrat who rapes pillages and plunders when one can be raped pillaged and plundered multiple times by multiple autocrats.”
The U.N attack in Nigeria, qualified as ‘an attack on the world” is only the last lassie to join the dance in a row of unpopular popular acts world wide. Some of forms of insurrections get a green light and are supported by the public opinion, some aren’t. The nasty kids either don’t get proportional news coverage ( see protests in Israel) or are labeled as Islamic terrorists (when possible) and there for excluded from a political point of view.
Although the talk back in the civilized world’ revolved around responsible investment and partnership with the African countries for a sustainable development and mutual benefits, that discourse seems just a calming pep talk. Well, since the general public is comfortably dreaming of Eco-fuels and fair businesses and eating nationalist discourse about how their forefathers worked hard to build the nation’s wealth, the following facts aren’t going to disturb them.
Appleville – In the twilight of capitalism appleism is set to be the new ism to rule the world. In these troubled times no one seems to head the wise words of Benjamin Franklin: ”Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain coolness will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann said today that Americans “fear the rise of the Soviet Union” during an appearance on a conservative radio talk show.
The Soviet Union broke up into 15 separate republics 20 years ago. Boris Yeltsin was the first freely elected leader of Russia, the largest of those republics.
“What people recognize is that there’s a fear that the United States is in an unstoppable decline. They see the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the Soviet Union and our loss militarily going forward,” Bachmann said on Jay Sekulow’s radio show.
This totally makes sense! Damn commies are on the rise and somebody has to do something about it! I call for immediate doubling of U.S. military expenditure and invasion of the Soviet Block, North Korea and the Republic of China. And France. Just in case. Or mark my words, the desolator troopers and mammooth tanks will soon be rolling into Washington. Man, if i was not a communist dog myself id vote for her! Three times! At least!
Full article here.
If critics would review my dreams, and they’d be the pretentious type, they probably would name them “surreal” and “kafkaesque.” I dreamed being in a sort of witness-protection kind of deal, where I had to live under another identity.
It was hard to do, not because of who I am, but because what I had to leave behind. I realized that identity doesn’t have to do much with who I am, but with the context I’ve been placed in. My friends. My belongings. My job. Letting all that go felt really difficult. Then I woke up. Sleep like that isn’t that restfull, so I woke up somewhat late. Time to rush. I’ve still got some ground to cover and I have to be in time for the train.
The Trainstation
Red light, waiting for green to cross. To get to the trainstation I have to cross a road, which is full of other commuters, each rushing to their jobs, like I did. Waiting. Hurry. Green. Go. I managed to get to the trainstation just in time. The train was already rolling in. The people didn’t even bother standing in line to rush into the train and join their other fellow commuters, pushing each other out of the way to get a seat.
Finding a seat for myself, I looked at the clock, waiting for the doors to close. I have a tight transfer later on, which I’ll miss if my train is late, so I all I was thinking was “go! go! go!” when the doors hissed into action, then made a satisfying click as they locked. I was on my way.
Astronaut
When I was little, I dreamed about becoming an astronaut. More than that, one night I dreamt that I actually was an astronaut. Sitting in the small capsule waiting for the countdown. Then, the engine exploded and I took off as Mother Earth rushed away below me, leaving me alone with the stars. I realized that space was empty, and I was not really in it, but in a tiny room strapped to and explosion and that was the reality of being an astronaut. Nothing to write home about, really. I like science and technology and stars and planets, but in my dream it was already lonely, claustrophobic and violent.
That’s when I gave up and decided that being an astronaut wasn’t something for me.
A Break
The weather is nice so I decided to go outside for a smoking break. Not on the roof of the building, as we where told to do -I don’t like that because of vertigo- but below, outside, away from the building taking a walk. I like walking. I recently met someone who likes walking too, who says it feels so good and relaxing because it ties into the whole ‘fight or flight’ instinct. After a hundred meters, near the trainstation a van pulled up. It read ‘cleaning services’ and a man jumped out. Hooligan type, not to bright, bald, tattoos.
“Can I ask you something?” he says. I nodded. “Can you give me a smoke, I feel really stressed.” I nodded again and handed him my pouch of tobaco, grabbed the smoke out of my mouth and asked why he was so stressed. “It’s my boss.” He picked a rolling paper and some tobacco and started rolling while elaborating: “Lots of graffiti today. I’m already behind.” He’s the guy that cleans up graffiti. The anti-grav guy. And he’s stressed.
“My GPS broke down. I had to pick up a new one, then go by all the places I cleaned up this morning to de-report them into the system.” he complains, “now it looks like I’ll be working ’till seven.” Lighting the freshly rolled cigarette. “My boss said, well, do it in your own time, then. Can you believe this? It’s friday. Today is my day. Fucking hell.”
Human Doing
He didn’t become an astronaut either. He’s hardly saving lives here. He’s cleaning up expressions and he’s just as stressed out as the rest of us, doing this unthankful job for an unthankful boss. Because after the job is done, it’s time for food. And somewhere, somehow he’s actually happy doing it on some level. Otherwise he would just tell his boss to stick the overtime somewhere where the sun doesn’t shine.
Time for me to go back. Ride the elevator back up. Press the button. Wait for the door of the cabin to open. Back to my place, back to my daily reality.
Aliens have been invading Hollywood and cinemas with unrelenting determination. Humanity hasn’t been in so much peril since Will Smith saved us from Alien invasion back in 1996. Van Damme vowed to counter the Alien and look stunning while kick(box)ing their green asses.
More info here[gallery]
Camping
This summer I went on a long cycling trip through Holland with my friends. We brought our tents so we could camp wherever to have the ultimate sense of freedom. We stayed on many different camp sites. From family camp sites to camp sites usually only older people spend their summers, enjoying their retirement. Inevitably we also stayed at a farmer’s camp site.
We totally didn’t mind that; it’s way cheaper and a good way to avoid mini playback shows, bingo and people trying to sing to the horrible tunes of Marco Borsato during late night karaoke. For me it was a good opportunity to see farm life from close by. As a vegetarian I’ve heard the most horrific stories for years. High time to find out and see for myself! So after we set up our tents I couldn’t wait to do some investigation.
The Dairy Farm
From the smell of it we were obviously on a farm where they kept cows. It’s easy to see the difference between a milk cow and a ‘meat cow’ (milk cows have much bigger udders and meat cows are usually bigger in shape and look more muscled) and after one look at the cows that were lazily grazing in the field nearby, we could tell we were on a dairy farm. The cows in the field looked at least happy enough… 
After a while we came to a huge barn and to our delight the door was wide open and we could enter it without anybody stopping us. Inside there were at least thirty cows. Most of them with their heads stuck between iron bars eating from food that was spread around on the wooden floor. They looked pretty relaxed and didn’t look disturbed by our unexpected visit. They seemed to be mainly focused on eating the food from the floor. When tired of eating, the cows could pull their heads back out of the bars and lay down, or walk around a bit. Although the barn was quite crowded with cows, they all seemed to have enough space to move around a bit. There was a lot of room between the wooden planks on the floors enabling cow shit to fall through. We assumed the farmer collected it every once and a while to add it to the huge smelly pile we saw outside.
Astronaut A3
As soon as we entered the barn, we could hear these bleeping sounds and I wondered where these sounds came from. A big red machine like object in the middle of the barn caught my attention. It had Astronaut A3 printed on the side in big black letters. That name immediately triggered my imagination. “Astronaut!” “Why would there be something called Astronaut on a farm??” While I was walking towards the Astronaut for further investigation, a cow entered the machine through what looked like one of these one way iron gates. They actually reminded me of the ones you have to go through when you take the tube in Paris.
The cow disappeared into the machine. When I came close by, I could see the cow standing behind a gate patiently waiting..for what? Suddenly the bleeps became louder and a big mechanic arm came out of the astronaut, halting underneath the cow’s udders. A little round brush came out, which started to turn around the udders, brushing all the dirt (if any) off. A few moments later the brush disappeared again and this time four tubes came out. By then it had started to dawn to me that I was actually looking at a robot about to milk the cow! In the dark we could see red lasers detecting where the udders were exactly positioned. Then after a few tries, the tubes connected to them. A loud pumping sound started to come out of the Astronaut and we could see the milk being pumped out with great force. The cow just stood there. Not making a sound, or a move. Just patiently waiting for the machine to be done.
Ethics
I didn’t really know what to think yet. This peaceful little farm was in fact a milk factory. Sure, it did look peaceful enough, but when I imagined how I would feel if it was me to be milked like that, my mind filled with scenes from several sf stories I’ve read. I shivered and asked my friend why they would voluntarily step into a cabin like that. He replied that cows want to be milked when it’s time, because the weight gets really heavy in the end.
When the machine was done, a gate on the other side opened so the cow could walk through. On her way out the cow had to go through a portal of brushes, like in a car wash, cleaning her back and sides. As soon as one cow left the cabin of the Astronaut, another cow took her place. We found out later through a news article that was pinned to the wall, that this farm was one of the first farms in the area to have the robot installed. The machine can milk about seventy cows three times a day and also automatically detects illness. The farmer doesn’t have to get up early any more, as the cows decide themselves when they feel like being milked. And they love being milked, because after that job is done, the cows gain access to the food they like so much. The cows were actually standing in line to go into the machine so they could join their other fellow cows, who were already enjoying the yummy food. So much for voluntarily milking!
Sleepless night
That night I slept uneasy and woke up in the middle of the night screaming. I had an awful dream about being kept with thousands of other humans on a huge farms ran by aliens. They had us all connected to these terrible sucking machines with long tubes sucking out our life essence. While hearing the bleeping sounds of Astronaut A3 in the distance, it took me a long time before I fell asleep again…
See the robot in action:
An analysis on some of our favorite subjects: Drones, cyborgs and war.
Barbara Ehrenreich elaborates on the intimate connection between warfare and welfare in the U.S, the War as business – switch being made from governmental liability to corporate liability by commissioning external companies and outsourcing non battle related affairs, replacement of soldiers by robots undermining the “passions of war”.
Ends up in a maybe too optimistic note but still a good read.
See full article on Alternet:
John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek debated in april this year if economic stimulus actually was a good idea. With economies slowing down and the US fearing a second recession, the answer is becoming clearer than ever.
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