Questions and Answers

There's a camera on every street corner, observing each person and looking into their soul. The cameras know you better than you know yourself; they don't get distracted, tired, hungry or bored. They know that you live your life alone, they know that you're tired and desperate trying to make a living in a job you hate. The cameras have more power than all the governments combined; they are our God.
I could stand for hours on the street looking into that blank, glazed stare of the camera, waiting for it to blink. But it doesn't.
I know that I can see, hear and smell. I know that I can taste and touch, but am I aware of it? Do I actually exist? Is this proof of my existence? I can sense but I don't know how; each touch is, to me disembodied. It's like someone else is feeling for me. Half of the time I'm not even aware that I'm seeing something, it's just a random sequence of images appearing somewhere, somehow making me aware, making me able to recognize shapes, forms, faces. Do I know what it is that I'm seeing? Or am I just drifting? When I hear things do I actually know that I'm hearing them and interpreting those electrical signals into something that I can actually understand? Do I exist at all, or is this just part of some cosmic plan? And if I'm existing, do I even know if I'm existing? I think therefore I am. But how do I know what I'm thinking? How can I interpret those thoughts? How can I hear what I'm thinking yet not at the same time? Why us? There are thousands of species of animal on this planet but why are we the only ones who can make concrete monstrosities tower up from the ground? Is the human race existing or are we all just imagining it? Could it be that we're all just one single mass of thought expressing itself through different mediums, forever in conflict with itself, fighting to express itself in different forms? If I'm alone in a room, how can I be sure that the others are still there? Do they cease to exist? And if I exit a room do I cease to exist?
I speak to someone. They reply. Perhaps they perceive what I said differently, and give an entirely different reply. Maybe I interpret that reply in order to satisfy my curiosity. Maybe we're all talking random shit to each other, but all making up our own definitions of what we're saying. Maybe that's how communication works: we don't understand each other but we make ourselves believe that we do.
If I continue to exist (hypothetically speaking, we've still not figured out if we DO exist) will my past cease to exist? Will it never have happened? And is my future predefined? Can it be changed, or does I already know what choices I'm going to make, is my subconscious aware of how and when I'm going to make the choices that I make? Therefore does free will REALLY exist? Am I already aware of how my life will turn out? Maybe I just don't realize it yet.

Confessions of a Deadbeat

"Why don't you get off your ass and get a job?!". Isn't that how it always goes in the movies, where the rebellious teen gets afoul of their parents for some reason or another? Yeah, they say "Why don't you get a job" and the teen stands up defiantly and shouts "Yeah, well maybe I will!" and slams the door. Then they get a job just to prove their parents wrong, and many humorous anecdotal things happen.
Well, wake up Hollywood. It ain't like that. I've had many a people tell me to get a job, seeing as I complain about the lack of cash from time to time. Sure! I'll get up, get a job, get a girlfriend! Fuck, it'll be easy! Then you actually get up off your ass and go to do it only to find out that you've not got the time and that cute girl you were eyeing already has a boyfriend. Welcome to my world.
I've thought about getting a job. No, really I have. Here in Béziers, the only work that you can really get if you're a teen is bar work or waiter work. Either way it amounts to pretty much the same thing; you work your ass off for a slave wage serving self-righteous Americans. The smug, self satisfied lot that you have to smile at, all the while imagining what it would be like embedding an empty coke bottle in their skull. Then comes the time issues; you work a full day at school with teachers busting your ass only to get home, change your clothes and work for another five hours. See, I weighed up all these pros and cons. I could be earning money, be proud to be making a living etcetera etcetera. Then again, I'd be tired, overworked and underappreciated as an employee (aren't we all?). No, thanks. I'd rather spend my evenings sitting in front of this machine watching High Fidelity. I admit it, I'm a deadbeat. Getting a job holds no interest to me whatsoever.
So now you're probably assuming I have a pretty active social life that takes up all of my free time? Well, you'd be wrong there, too. My social life is deader than Nelson. My days consist of school, then coming back here and pouring out all of my negative thoughts into this little box, for all of you to read and snigger. A guy I know keeps asking me if I want to hit the town with him and some friends, but I turn him down. He doesn't really know that I can't stand him. I'm just like that; it's not that I'm afraid of hurting his feelings or anything, it's just that I can't be bothered with the hassle that telling someone who previously considered themselves as your friend is actually a shallow asshole who should fuck off. I'm just like that. If anyone tells you that they're afraid of hurting someone's feelings, it's usually bullshit. They just can't be bothered with all of that emotional bombardement that follows the breaking up of whatever relationship... Sure, it's selfish, sure it's shallow. I admit it. In the long run, these sorts of relationships break up any way. I mean come on, how many of your school-mates do YOU still keep in touch with?
But where was I? Oh, yeah. People also seem to have this idea in their head that it's unnatural for a teen my age to be dating. I'd kindly ask those people not to lump me in with a stereotype. Sure, there are girls that I'm interested in, there always will be. It's the same with anyone my age. I just don't ask them out because I don't have the time for that right now. And I don't mean time in a metaphysical sense here, I mean more in an emotional sense of the word. When you're in a relationship, it takes up so much of your goddamned time and space, until you're effectively smothered by the primordial urges that wrack all of us. Or at least from my viewpoint. Cynical, isn't it?

Sure, people sometimes accuse me of being overly cynical. I suppose that I see the world in a different way to most people, I somewhat exaggerate the realism of life and the world in general. Jokingly, I'd say I hate everyone and everything in this world, but I don't mean it. I just have an open disdain for modern culture in every single way. I don't like what it's become, where someone is judged on the artificial qualities in themselves, and where they're willing to change at the drop of a hat just to please a social clique. Did you know that most teens these days talk to more people online than they do in real life? Fuck, I used to be addicted to that shit. Then I realized that I was turning myself into a nervous wreck. Suddenly this urge comes along to meet real people, not just some anonymous guy behind the screen. So then I started to make real friends.

This is where my fingers die.

Here's what i'm trying to learn on bass. The Awakening Bass Solo

First of all, the original version



Now a faithful reproduction of it:



Wish me luck...

Chernobyl

The 26th April 1986 is burned into our memory, and will stay there for many years to come. The Chernobyl disaster has become perhaps one of the most dramatic arguments supporting the end to nuclear proliferation. Surprisingly enough, within the past decade or so, the 30km exclusion zone surrounding the NPP and Pripyat has become an increasingly popular tourist destination among those who wish to visit the exclusion zone and soak up some of the history and the atmosphere.

A Little History

It was April 25th 1986, and the technicians working in Reactor 4 were in the process of preparing the reactor for shutdown, so that maintenance could be performed on the reactor and various performance tests could be exacted. The head of the maintenance operation decided to test the efficiency of the fail-safe systems, making sure that the reactor could generate enough electricity to power up the safety protocols preventing a meltdown of the reactor. The reactor itself was an RBMK-1000 model which required water to be continuously circulated through the core, in order to cool down the nuclear fuel and prevent any accidents.
The plant's reactors themselves had back-up generators as a precaution, though it would take 40 seconds for the generators to power up to full speed in case of an accident. Nevertheless, the maintenance team went ahead with the preparation, as they felt they could react in time lest something go wrong, despite a test run already coming up negative. The reactor output (in other words, the amount of electricity the reactors produced) had been gradually reduced to 50% causing a regional power generator to go offline. This was an unexpected complication for the team, as they had not projected that this would happen. Nevertheless, it wasn't a massive setback so they continued with the test. The grid controller at Kiev furthermore requested that the team stop the reduction of the output rate, as they needed electricity for rush hour and the like in the evening. The plant director agreed and postponed the testing, and left a skeleton crew to watch over the plant during the night. The crew itself had very little experience when it came to these types of tests, and were indeed insufficiently advised concerning reactor safety, this was one of the main factors responsible for the meltdown, yet the worst was still to come.
The crew were unaware of the postponement of the reactor shutdown, whether it be through communications errors or simple incompetence. They therefore followed the original test protocol that had been planned out prior to the decision to postpone the testing. This meant that the power level supporting the safety protocols that safe-guarded the reactor were decreased too rapidly, leaving the reactor incredibly vulnerable. The reactor started to produce more nuclear toxins (Xenon-135) which further dropped the power output, further endangering the integrity of the reactor core. The operators, through sheer inexperience simply believed that this was a malfunction in the automated power generators and not because of reactor poisoning. They then decided to try and increase the productivity of the reactor by extracting the control rods from the reactor's core.

Then came the day of the experiment itself. Officially, we know that it started at 1:23:04AM on the morning of April 26th. Through what was possibly an equipment malfunction, the unstable state of the reactor did not show on the control panel, therefore the team were unaware of the fact that there was something wrong. The steam leading to the turbines was then shut off, and the water cooling the reactor decreased in flow. The turbine was further disconnected from the reactor, which in turn increased the amount of steam contained therein, heating up the core. The reactor had an elevated void coefficient (the rate at which a nuclear reactor can change as steam bubbles form in the coolant) and the reactor started to become unstable.
At 1:23:40 AM the team noticed that something was going wrong and ordered an immediate shutdown of the reactor, re-inserting the control rods into the reactor core. The emergency shutdown was known as a SCRAM and Anatoly Dyatlov, who was the deputy chief engineer of the plant further stated in his book Chernobyl, How did it Happen? :

Prior to 01:23:40, systems of centralized control … didn't register any parameter changes that could justify the SCRAM. Commission … gathered and analyzed large amount of materials and, as stated in its report, failed to determine the reason why the SCRAM was ordered. There was no need to look for the reason. The reactor was simply being shut down upon the completion of the experiment.

The mechanism that inserted the control rods was incredibly slow, which in turn reduced the amount of coolant generated around the reactor, meaning that the emergency shutdown increased the reaction rate. At this point, nothing could be done to reverse the effects. A massive energy surge fractured several of the control and fuel rods, making it impossible to shut down the reaction. The reactor then suffered an immense steam explosion which blew the lid off of the reactor. The sudden surge of oxygen in the reactor then sparked a fire and the reactor exploded.


Crisis Management

Due to the fact that the crew were unaware of the immensely high radiation levels contained within the reactor itself, they performed several severe miscalculations. In the reactor building, the worst hit areas contained up to 20 000 Roetgens per hour (500R/h is a fatal amount). Nevertheless, a geiger counter measuring up to 1000R/h was unavailable at the time, due to the Soviet economy decline that the 80s experienced. The Geiger counters that were being used at the time read off-scale levels of radiation, therefore the crews only knew that the radiation contained in the area was somewhere over 3.6R/h. Alexander Akimov, the crew leader assumed that because of these low readings, the reactor was still intact, ignoring the fact that there was massive chunks of debris lying all around the reactor. Another Geiger counter was brought in, and read accurate readings, but they were assumed to be defective and the readings were disregarded. Akimov and his crew therefore stayed in the reactor building, and were dead three weeks later from radiation poisoning.
After the accident, several firefighter crews arrived at the scene, but were not told of the severity of the accident or of the nature of the accident; they assumed that it was a simple electrical fire, and therefore were in the dark about the toxic radioactive materials they would be handling. By 5AM the fires on the roof of the plant were extinguished, and the crew focused their attention on the fire in the reactor. They decided to try and drop sand, boron, lead and clay into the reactor in order to try and smother the fire. This did nothing, and in fact further fueled the fire. This can be evidenced by looking in the underbelly of the reactor; large lava flows were created thanks to the superheated material.
Pripyat was then evacuated. The residents were told that the evacuation would only be temporary. This means that you can still see many of the personal belongings of residents still in the city today. Having said that, many people have taken to looting, despite government warnings.
The liquidators were then sent in to assist in the clean-up. I have nothing but the utmost respect for these men; they were volunteers and they knew precisely what they were getting in to. Teams would work for up to two minutes each, running across the plant roof and clearing a small piece of debris off, then running back to safety. Hundreds of these men died not long after, all that remains of them is a large vehicle graveyard on the outskirts of the Zone, and a monument to their bravery in Chernobyl itself.

Aftermath

Since the fatal experiment, Chernobyl has now become an internationally recognized symbol for the fight against nuclear proliferation. Many countries were affected by the explosion, and still are to this day.
One would expect Chernobyl and the 30km disaster zone surrounding it to be completely barren of life, though this couldn't be further from the truth. Ukranian authorities are reporting a surge in the Elk population, a species which were dwindling before the disaster, and it also appears that there are no serious mutations among animals except a slightly elevated cancer risk for mice.
The reactor core itself is still probed and explored by several scientists, trying to find out where the nuclear fuel went after the explosion. Ironically, they have suffered two deaths from heart related problems. One would expect radiation to be the culprit.
There are still problems though; the sarcophagus surrounding the reactor is slowly crumbling. Plans have been made to construct another sarcophagus around the reactor, but due to lack of funding this has been delayed. If the sarcophagus were to crumble, another accident could happen, resulting in another release of toxins into the air, which could affect many countries in Europe, such as Belarus, a country which already has an elevated child deformity rate as an direct cause of the radiation. In fact there is an orphanage in Belarus itself housing many children with mental deficiencies and Leukemia. Many people visit this place on their way to Chernobyl, to help the children and donate money to the orphanage.

Other than that, what's to say? It's easy enough to get into the Zone itself. It's an interesting place, regardless of what happened there.

Peace

The Internet is the Prankster's A-Bomb

We're now living in a veritable age of the Information Sensation. 93% of all information in the World is currently situated on the World Wide Web.
Besides being a constantly changing technological feat, the Internet is also a major player in the political game; freedom of information reigns here. The government can't stop it, as much as they try.
One prime example has been the latest riots and civil unrest in Burma; where the Internet became an incredibly useful tool in penetrating the media blackouts that the Burmese goverment implemented. The problem is, that the government were able to arrest citizens for supplying information about the situation in Burma, but they weren't able to intercept the information and stop it from getting to the rest of the world. Therefore, we were all able to learn about the atrocities and blatant abuse of human rights perpetuated by the Burmese government.
One thing that you must never do with the information you find, is settle for just one source. Don't be satisfied with just one news site telling you what's going on; search all over the place, talk to people. You'll often find that each source has a conflicting account of just what is going on. This is evidenced especially by the major news corporations (funny, how even information is controlled by money-hungry suits) such as CNN, BBC, NBC and the like. Become the media by talking to people; this is your most powerful weapon: the power of curiosity.
So just how could this technological sensation be useful to the political prankster? The answer is simple, all you have to do is take a look at the latest hacking sensations out there, where a young man broke into the government's computers and found out a bunch of information. The government is practically pissing themselves over hackers, and the new approaches they are taking daily to gain access to confidential files and folders located on computers. They say that a new way of gaining access to someone's computer is found weekly. Some of this is too much for the government to keep track of.
So just what can the hacker do, once they're in the government's computer? First of all, we need to differentiate between "malicious" and "benevolent" hacking. A selfless hacker is a rare thing to find these days. Most people that try and gain access to government computers seek to destroy the economy and cause general disorder. What they fail to realize is the fact that they're trying to destroy the very system that they themselves are dependent on: electricity grids, banks, the like. No, benevolent hacking merely entails finding dirty little secrets that your government doesn't want you to see and exposing it to the world. Remember: they can arrest you, but what about the hundreds of people that you send the information to?
And we need more of that, these days. Instead of phishing myspace accounts and creating viruses for personal gain, why not truely embody and ennact the freedom of information act the governments are so fond of waving about? The majority of classified information that you find on the net is the sort that could take down a president if it was made public. So think about that next time you decide to rummage around in the FBI's drawers...

Stay safe,

Jay

Are PETA Hypocrites?

Before I start this blog, let it be known that I hate PETA with a passion. I think they are hypocrites, so the whole point of this blog is to try and justify my opinion. Nevertheless, as always it's up to YOU to decide what you think about them. You may agree with me, I don't know.
----

So what IS PETA? To you and me, they're the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, in other words an animal rights group. Over the past decade or so, their name has become synonymous with the whole concept of animal rights; they promote veganism, denounce animal testing and abstain from any product derived from an animal. No doubt most of you will have been told that they are dedicated to saving animals through clever campaigns and raids on animal testing laboratories. When you take away this layer, which is essentially a very expensive and cosmetic PR campaign, you see that not all things are good in PETALand.

First of all, I think it would be worth taking a look at the head and guiding light of PETA, Ingrid Newkirk. According to Wikipedia, Newkirk (pictured right) is a British born vegan who's experiences in India concerning the abuse of animals in circuses helped shape her philosophy as it is today. While this seems like a noble enough reason to campaign for animal rights (and believe me, I don't have a problem with animal rights), one only has to take a look at her will to know that something is wrong.

2. While the final decision as to the use of my body remains with PETA, I make the following suggested directions:

a. That the “meat” of my body, or a portion thereof, be used for a human barbecue, to remind the world that the meat of a corpse is all flesh, regardless of whether it comes from a human being or another animal, and that flesh foods are not needed;

b. That my skin, or a portion thereof, be removed and made into leather products, such as purses, to remind the world that human skin and the skin of other animals is the same and that neither is “fabric” nor needed, and that some skin be tacked up outside the Indian Leather Fair each year to serve as a reminder of the government’s need to abate the suffering of Indian bullocks who, after a life of extreme and involuntary servitude, as I have seen firsthand, are exported all over the world in this form;

c. That in remembrance of the elephant-foot umbrella stands and tiger rugs I saw, as a child, offered for sale by merchants at Connaught Place in Delhi, my feet be removed and umbrella stands or other ornamentation be made from them, as a reminder of the depravity of killing innocent animals, such as elephants, in order that we might use their body parts for household items and decorations;

d. That one of my eyes be removed, mounted, and delivered to the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a reminder that PETA will continue to be watching the agency until it stops poisoning and torturing animals in useless and cruel experiments; that the other is to be used as PETA sees fit;

e. That my pointing finger be delivered to Kenneth Feld, owner of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, or to a circus museum to stand as the “Greatest Accusation on Earth” on behalf of the countless elephants, lions, tigers, bears, and other animals who have been kidnapped from their families and removed from their homelands in India, Thailand, Africa, and South America and deprived of all that is natural and pleasant to them, abused, and forced into involuntary servitude for the sake of cheap entertainment;

f. That my liver be vacuum-packed and shipped, in whole or in part, to France, to there be used in a public appeal to persuade shoppers not to support the vile practice of force-feeding geese and ducks for foie gras;

g. That one of my ears be removed, mounted, and sent to the Canadian Parliament to assist them in hearing, for the first time perhaps, the screams of the seals, bears, raccoons, foxes, and minks bludgeoned, trapped, and sometimes skinned alive for their pelts; that the other ear be removed, preserved, and displayed outside the Deonar abattoir in Mumbai to remind all who do business there that the screams of the cattle who are slaughtered within its walls are heard around the world;

h. That one of my thumbs be removed, mounted upwards on a plaque, and sent to the person or institution that, in the year of my death or thereabouts, PETA decides has done the most to promote alternatives to the use and abuse of animals in any area of their exploitation;

i. That one of my thumbs be mounted in a downward position and sent to the person or institution that, in the year of my death or thereabouts, has gone against the changing tide of societal opinion and frightened and hurt animals in some egregious manner;

j. That a little part of my heart be buried near the racetrack at Hockenheim, preferably near the Ferrari pits, where Michael Shumacher raced in and won the German Grand Prix;

k. That anything else be done with my body that PETA believes will serve to draw attention to and so abate the plight of exploited animals.

Now, what is wrong with this picture? To me, a will that expresses the wish to be turned into a parody of fast food when I pass on, is a sign of mental illness. One needs to question whether Newkirk is quite in her right mind. And as El Sid herself stated, "who the fuck would want one of her severed thumbs mounted on their desk?!" It's this kind of delusional behavior that shuns people away from the animal rights movement. People see the will on the PETA website and assume that it's fronted by a mental patient.

But that's not all I have to say about PETA, oh no. Next in line is the "I'd rather go naked than wear fur" ads that they're so fond of. Again, it bases itself on a noble concept, the abolition of animal fur in clothing. Let's face it, we're in the 21st century now; polyester and artificial fabrics are cheap and easy to make. Sure, they wore skins back in the club-toting days, but they didn't have Ikea back then.
Again though, PETA have taken this concept and blown it out of the water. Take a look at this add:
Now, ask yourself, to whom does this ad seem marketed? Women? I doubt it. A bunch of lecherous men and sexually repressed teenagers? Likely. And at the end of the day, what does the viewer concentrate on the most; the message behind the ad or the fact that there's a naked woman on it? You tell me.

Possibly the most insulting part of PETA's entire campaign would have to be comparing the treatment of animals in mass-farming to holocaust victims. PETA states explicitly that

"like the Jews murdered in concentration camps, animals are terrorized when they are housed in huge filthy warehouses and rounded up for shipment to slaughter. The leather sofa and handbag are the moral equivalent of the lampshades made from the skins of people killed in the death camps."

While animals are perhaps mistreated in the mass farms, how on earth can anyone lack so much sense as to compare their treatment to that of holocaust victims in concentration camps? Believe me, there is a difference. For one, the concentration camps were specifically created to kill a large number of people, due to malicious intent from the Nazi regime. What is the aim of a farm? To provide food to a mass-consumer base. There is no emotion in a farm. None whatsoever.

And now for the finale, my friends. Did you know that PETA holds a policy on animal euthanasia? Our good old friend Newkirk tells us that

"Our service is to provide a peaceful and painless death to animals who no one wants."

One has to question her dedication to animal rights. Why doesn't PETA take it upon themselves to find homes for these animals? Why kill them? There is no logic in this act whatsoever. And do the animals have a say? No, of course they don't. For an organization who prides themselves on the ethical treatment of animals, they sure enjoy having the last say. But instead, PETA blames people not spaying their animals. Well, fuck me.
One well known case of unnecessary euthanasia concerning animals was in 2005 when the police found over 80 animals had been euthanized and thrown in dumpsters. Among one of these animals was a cat and her kittens. According to veterinarian Patrick Proctor, who had seen the cats before their death, they were adoptable and the PETA employees had specifically stated that they would have no problem finding homes for them.

So are PETA destroying the credibility of the animal rights movement? Here's my slightly biased evidence. Don't be content just with what I've said, though. Look around the net, find out for yourself and make your own damn mind up. I'm just presenting my point of view.


Stay Sane,

Jay

Pointless Bickering

Pray, do tell. Is there any point whatsoever to the right and the left debating and trying to put each other down 24/7? They spend so much goddamn time trying to get one over on the other, that the real issues become obscured by the debate, exaggerated by the media; "Who is best, the liberal left or the wacky right?"
I've noticed this recently on a forum I frequent. Every topic seems to transform into a debate of whether the left is better than the right or vice-versa. Take, for example, a topic on the war in Iraq. One person comments that Bush should be tried for war crimes, and the more conservative members of said forum jump on him/her like rabid animals, shrieking "YOU CAN'T SAY THAT, SHOW ME PROOF!" Each camp effectively tries to undermine the image of the other, claiming each other to be childish. Alas, they don't stop to consider the fact that their pointless bickering makes them both come across as angsty five year olds.

This also applies to the political domain, though thankfully not as extreme. Still, instead of debating policies, why don't the right and the left try to find a solution that is mutually beneficial for all parties concerned, and especially the public? That way pretty much everyone is happy, right? Or wrong? In a world full of contradictions nothing is certain.

Peace