War on Greed

Another little film that will annoy the shite out of you (it did me).

France's oldest WWI veteran dies

My friend wasn't impressed when I code named him "Brainiac" a little while back so after careful consideration I've decided to go for the completely non-offensive "The Brain" (pictured opposite) instead.

Anyway he directed me to this story on the BBC France's oldest WWI veteran dies which is exactly what it says on the tin. I particularly liked the quote;

"War is something absurd, useless, that nothing can justify. Nothing,"

And I also liked my friends opinion on the piece.

See this guy, 69 years in retirement, and on a state pension too I presume. Respect!

New Star Trek Teaser Trailer

Via theMovieBlog comes this teaser trailer for the re-imagined Star Trek movie due out this Decemeber. I like the trailer, it doesn't show anything but the mood seems right, it's darker and rawer than anything since TOS. Personally I don't have high hopes for this film, Star Trek has become more bland and spiritless with every incarnation but I have a little nugget of hope this will be good.

The Road

The road is the story of a man and his son traveling on foot through a post apocalyptic America. They must survive freezing temperatures, starvation, bandits and cannibals in a world that has turned to ash as they search for ... safety, "the good guys", salvation?

The road is a bleak novel, sparsely written and has the feel of a nightmare. Recommended.

Fascism Redefined

Strange. over the past week I have come across three separate cases of a redefinition of fascism. Fascism is the blending of state and corporate power to produce a totalitarian state whereby all interests are then subservient to the state. But, in what seems to be a coordinated spin, it is being redefined in the U.S. media as anything that could be called "social", be that health care, housing, environment or whatever. I suppose the oligarchy that runs the U.S. would naturally be against anything that involves working people organising and it seems they have taken the battle to the dictionary, after all, who would want to get involved in fascist activities?

This is why democracies need intelligent and informed citizens. It becomes so much easier to fool all the people when they are ignorant of even basic facts, never mind definitions.

I suppose I could just be paranoid, but have a look yourself and see. Thanks to Onegoodmove for the links.

Liberal fascism

Worlds Worst

Sorry can't find the third link (I'm beginning to think it might be the same guy and I am paranoid)

Spin

Spin was another spur-of-the-moment purchase. I had heard a lot about it and knew it won the Hugo in 2006 but the synopsis of the book put me off.

"[three teenagers] witness the erection of a planet-spanning shield around the globe, blocking out the universe. Spin chronicles the next 30 odd years in the lives of the trio, during which 300 billion years will pass outside the shield"

Don't laugh but it was the "300 billion" thing that put me off, I thought it was ridiculous, but I managed to overcome my misgivings and picked it up when i found it for €7 in a local bookshop.

When I started the book I happily discovered that whomever wrote the synopsis got it wrong and only 4 Billion years pass outside the shield (dubbed 'The Spin') which of course is way more plausible. Spin is a rare book in science fiction (at least in my experience) in that the many wonderful hard-scifi elements are keenly balanced by the protagonists reaction to them. How they cope with the inescapable fact that a vastly superior intelligence has taken an unexplained interest in humanity and the dawning realisation that outside the spin, the sun is dying and their prison is now a lifeboat.

Spin is a superb book, an exhilarating read and definitely recommended.

U.S. polical graph

Ok, so everyone knows that even the most left leaning U.S. politician would be considered a raving right winger here in Europe but it still interesting to see it graphed. I have to admit I was surprised by just how far to the right many of them are.

I got the link from seeingtheforest who also have this interesting piece about the long hours Americans work - according to some Republican nut, they like it..

At a press conference today unveiling the stimulus proposal, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) justified the conservative plan to give tax breaks to corporations — instead of working Americans — by arguing that people actually like working long hours:

I am so proud to be from the state of Minnesota. We’re the workingest state in the country, and the reason why we are, we have more people that are working longer hours, we have people that are working two jobs.

'Darkest ever' material created

This is pretty interesting news from the BBC , the 'Darkest ever' man made material has been created by scientists in the U.S.

The material was created from carbon nanotubes - sheets of carbon just one atom thick rolled up into cylinders.

Researchers say it is the closest thing yet to the ideal black material, which absorbs light perfectly at all angles and over all wavelengths.

The discovery is expected to have applications in the fields of electronics and solar energy.

Why people believe weird things about money

This here is an interesting article by Michael Shermer about loss aversion and perceived gain, its well worth a read.

Would you rather earn $50,000 a year while other people make $25,000, or would you rather earn $100,000 a year while other people get $250,000? Assume for the moment that prices of goods and services will stay the same.

Surprisingly -- stunningly, in fact -- research shows that the majority of people select the first option; they would rather make twice as much as others even if that meant earning half as much as they could otherwise have

Also on Shermer's website he has an excerpt from his new book "The Mind of the Market" here. I haven't read the excerpt yet but I plan to.

Muslim worker refuses to sell 'unclean' Bible book

Ok, this story is from the Daily Express (I swear I wasn't reading it - a friend told me about it) anyway that well known religion-of-peace is at it again. This time a Muslim worker refuses to sell a children's Bible book because it's 'unclean'. Its rare a short sentence contains so many crazy ideas.

Lets start with the notion of a "children's bible book". You've got your cult indoctrination (start 'em young as the Jesuits say), your editing of the bible to tone down all that sex and violence (theres a lot off it in there) and the dressing up of myths as "truth".

Next we move onto the notion of "unclean". WTF! Excuse me by unclean would describe public toilets and certain jokes, but not books, animals or other people. How the hell did the notion that that we should respect this crazy shit get started!? It absolutely infuriates me.

Finally we have a Muslim woman so brainwashed that not only is she entirely satisfied with her second class status but she flaunts and wallows in it to the extent that a book can be unclean. And please, bear in mind, this woman lives in the UK - just where is she getting these notions? Its not the BBC I can assure you.

Hitler explains the downfall of HD-DVD

Following on from Johnny K's post about the unexpected quick victory of Blu-ray, here's a quick synopsis of what happened.

The Death Van

An incredible story from China here about mobile execution vans, it's like something out of 1984.

CHONGQING, China — Zhang Shiqiang, known as the Nine-Fingered Devil, first tasted justice at 13. His father caught him stealing and cut off one of Zhang's fingers.

Twenty-five years later, in 2004, Zhang met retribution once more, after his conviction for double murder and rape. He was one of the first people put to death in China's new fleet of mobile execution chambers.