I know I lay awake at night felling terrible, thinking maybe i shouldnt have made that head shot. Or was it right I dragged that guy from his car and carjacked it,then ran over that hooker.
In Buddhist philosophy, thought IS action.
In scientific terms, when we respond to stimuli and survive to the next moment of our lives, our brains and bodies consider that particular response to have been a good one. --The nervous system then works to alter the chemistry and then the very structure of the brain itself so that it is more able to replicate such successful responses and thought patterns. You, literally, become the choices you make.
--One's ability to communicate clearly, (through a keyboard or otherwise), is a direct reflection of one's state of mind. Yours appears to be quite messy. You made something like six spelling/grammatical errors in only two sentences.
If you are skilled enough to make a head shot and overcome tough challenges in a video game, then you have a strong, capable mind. This being the case, you are also able to learn how to spell properly and type out sentences which express thoughts and structures which don't make you appear so stupid and ugly. Ugliness and stupidity are choices, and you deserve better. Love and respect yourself; nobody else is obligated to do it for you. Your spirit is just waiting! Set pure goals which will make you feel better about yourself, then achieve them with the same enormous skill you have used to aim virtual game weapons. Your mind is able to do anything. Love the world around you without judgment. Do this, and the world will soon start to love you back, your luck will change and you will quickly move away from the vicious cycle of human misery.
While it can be difficult, it is very important to never hate yourself. Self-punishment is pointless. You can only fix yourself and the world with positive action, not negative!
Some use games as escapism; to tap into their narcotic-like effects, others capitalize on the possibility of games to further explore their understanding of reality.
When playing D&D, some like to beat a bunch of orcs around the ears and take their stuff, (which in itself provides a series of lessons). Others are cognizant of the fact that D&D allows a group of players to project themselves into a simulated reality and learn different kinds of lessons in social dynamics without the fear of getting killed for real. A lot of personal growth can take place, (usually, without the players intending it), during a good roll playing session. In my opinion, these are the most exciting and satisfying games, the ones I remember most fondly.
There's zero evidence for number 2. To think otherwise is ignorance and wishful thinking.
Actually, I'd say the opposite is true. The general belief to the contrary is a product of fear and malicious cultural programming which stems from both our largely malfunctioning scientific community, and that human herding mechanism better known as Religion. Religion and Orthodox Science both teach people to think within artificial boundaries, both using fear and false nationalisms (of surprising similarity) to shut down legitimate lines of questioning which would undo the ego and money-driven power structures which drive both Orthodox Science and Religion.
It is up to the seeker to open his or her eyes and take a look around on their own. The news channels and various religious organizations will only confirm lies about the bars of your prison. --The bars are only there if you believe them to be; millions of humans are crouched tightly in illusory cages. It is each individual's task to stand up using their own free will and powers of observation about what is really there.
Unfortunately, despite all the mountains of proof which are available to any who honestly look, nobody is owed proof of the soul (or anything else for that matter.)
Individual awareness must be won on an individual basis. --That is, freedom can only be self-acheived. If you refuse to walk free until you are told you may do so by an authority on the subject, then you are automatically placing yourself within another's power. You must look for yourself. If asked nicely, however, those who have already begun to move past the area of confinement will generally offer help in where and how to start looking. The rest is up to the individual adventurer.
This name conjures up several images in my mind. ..
1. A game reserve filled with hunting stock. The psychological message here seems to be one of many fat and juicy users all ripe for the plucking by the various predators of the web.
2. Dear Tick. The sound is similar enough to make my emotional muscle twitch just a little bit. If everybody else is like me, then that's a hundred thousand gallons of stress micro-siphoned from your brain into the Matrix.
1. To stand at attention during a dumb national anthem, thus learning the meta-lessons of fear and hatred for other nations, as well as a false sense of history and superiority. Mind-programming to keep the massively profitable fires of war burning.
2. To sit in rows for hours at a time doing repetitive, menial tasks despite the natural impulse to run around and play and learn directly how young bodies and brains can interact with each other and the physical world.
3. To thoughtlessly obey authority figures who give endless streams of ridiculous instructions as well as to learn to react automatically to all the fnord words and terms, like "Fire Drill" "Stand in Line" and "Detention" thus preparing people for a smooth transition and series of ready-made emotional responses to the adult fnords such as, "Terrorist", "Insurgent" and "Bomb". --As well as to connect self-esteme and ego to an often arbitrary system of marks and grades attainable only from authority figures.
4. To separate parents from their children and thus break down familial bonds which might prove a hindrance to the state. (Love for the State must come before love of Family if total obedience is to be achieved.)
5. To Teach Lies. --Lies about history, lies about science and technology, lies designed to limit human potential and growth. When kids believe in false limits, then those limits are as good as real. Cages with no bars.
6. To Program Social Competition. School structures are set up in such a way as to reward stupidity and beauty through the promise of sex, and to punish the pursuit of individuality and creative passion.
Luckily the system does not always succeed. A small handful of individuals always manages to squeeze through the system and manifest, dropping all the programming. Though, adding another four hours to the school day is probably not a great way to improve the odds, I'd say.
On the up-side, I know of some teachers who recognize all these qualities of the school and quietly rebel against them. "What goes on behind closed doors is up to the teacher." The good teachers are the ones who only pay lip service to the state-installed curriculum and teach passion and individuality and the courage to find and follow one's true path in life.
There were only two good things school taught me; 1. Rebellion. 2. True friendship.
Will it be able to self-repair and come after Captain Blaze and Johnny Lunchpail and the rest of the Good Crew of the S.S. Intrepid with renewed and terrifying mechanical fervor?
Why, Oh why do we build these mad inventions? When will we ever learn the folly of mocking Mother Nature?
And the Iris scanner project, like the one currently being tested in Halifax airport!
And finger-print scanners!
And RFID chips in my passport, clothing, arm, etc.!
And unconditional wire-tapping authority by the FBI, CIA, Police, etc.!
And libraries, banks, the postal system and international travel organizations (among others) keeping tabs on the things I see, think and do, and being forced to report to law enforcement agencies!
And unconditional powers of arrest for suspected crimes based on no evidence and an easily applied 'Enemy Combatant' label!
And torture to derive needless/useless information should I be arrested for being suspected of being suspicious and generally mouthy!
And over-enthusiasm among the police resulting in things like lethal taser misuse and power-tripping cops!
And jail systems owned by corporate entities which make PROFIT by keeping and employing prisoners!
And Neocons who either don't see or who are profiting from the climate of artificially constructed FEAR!
And. ., well, that's enough for now. I can't WAIT to see what comes next! It's all just so exciting!
Get out now. Everybody knows it's here and that it's going to get worse. Looking the other way will only get you killed. Fascism is real.
That much RF in your home, especially around children with developing brains, is not wise.
It's not about high power microwaves causing ionization within cells. It's about something which is simply never discussed in any of the debates.
The fact of the matter is that animal cells and brain cells in particular are designed to respond to in a wide variety of ways to extremely low level electrical currents. This is why gyrating metallic acupuncture needles inserted into key spots on the body can turn pain on and off, affect healing, etc. Brain chemistry is definitely affected by RF. This is not in question, and it is why the debate has been deliberately side-lined into the barely relevant Cancer issue.
Fuzzy, groggy thinking is a direct result of RF pollution. You would be wise to do some research on this subject. There are demonstrable systems through which it is known that RF can affect cells. Pediatrician, Robert O. Becker had spent the last fifty years studying electricity and its relationship to living tissue and the human body.
comic book published through Dark Horse, based on a novel by Timothy Zahn.
The art was pretty good, and the writing was reasonably competent from a pulp sci-fi point of view. It just wasn't very exciting. Perhaps the novel was better. (Was it?)
In any case, I suspect this sort of book would be used as a base-line for future films. There seems to be a pretty reliable story canon being followed around the Ranch.
Like I said, I don't know about the novel, but the comic was just plain dull. Lots and lots of frantic energy spent on getting the plot from here-to-there while allowing very little time to develop and love the actual characters.
Luke and Leia swinging across a Death Star chasm and their brief interaction was development in my eyes as a seven-year old. The girl gave the hero a peck on the cheek. There was heart in that scene; the creators knew where to focus; on the people rather than the need to get to the other side. It's all in the journey.
Remember Luke in New Hope standing on Tatooine under a double sun-set with the strains of John William's orchestrations in the back ground? Those complaining of Luke's whining try too hard to make clever geek-jokes out of their observations, either that or they simply never had to grow up bored and lonely in the 'burbs. Luke was 18, and his story was clear and touching to me. Perhaps geeks are just squeamish and shy about being touched.
Heck, even in the Phantom Edit, (Yes, the EDIT, the good cut of that film), little Anikin leaving his mother was another scene with power. (Amazing that such a thing was created from thin air simply by removing junk footage!)
The only scene which I really liked in the comic, "Heir to the Empire," was after Leia and Han were nearly killed by assassins and made their escape thanks to Luke's intervention. Han commented to Leia, "By the way, isn't it time you had your own lightsaber?"
Luke, who was teaching his sister the ways of the Force nodded and replied, "I can make you one any time you want," but he was filled with worry, remembering how Obi Wan had screwed up with Anakin by teaching before he was ready to teach.
Just a short scene, but it utterly fascinated me for numerous reasons. (--Han was the guy who laughed saying he'd rather have a trusty blaster at his side rather than some archaic weapon.) The scene was less than one page among 150, but it grabbed me. The rest was just dull.
There are good writers out there, and maybe Zahn is one of them, but you certainly can't tell from the comics. If they make films out of his stories, then I won't be particularly excited about it.
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I think the poster did a good job. And remember, a highschool class is usually only about an hour long. --Certainly there are other bases which might have been covered with regard to the music industry, but frankly, he sounds like the kind of teacher I would have appreciated having as a kid.
I sometimes wish I'd taken up teaching. I don't know how long I'd last in the system, though. I'd speak openly about the giant mind control game which is media, politics and religion, and urge kids to disbelieve most of what the curriculum tries to serve them while encouraging free thought and exploration. I'd teach about corporate practices, how the government secret services work, the roots and practices of Zionism, the mind-fuck which is Christianity and monotheism in general, the mind-fuck which is modern science, as well as a whole bunch of other subjects certain to make parents cry out for my public hanging.
Education is not really about education, but robot manufacture. Any teacher brave enough to throw a spanner in the works is worthy of quiet praise.
With a bit of effort, you can educate yourself in any subject, find meaningful employment perfectly suited to your mind-set, great happiness and health, all while avoiding debt-slavery in the trap of formal education.
Like television, while University does provide some fringe benefits, it is largely a scam designed to limit human potential.
While 'Right and Wrong' often have very little to with the Law, I think your approach is generally worthy.
The fact of the matter is that a great deal of popular media is just plain bad for you. Most of the popular music I've ever heard is loaded with messages which reinforce unhealthy behavior patterns, as does nearly all the television programs on the air. The same thing goes for video games and nearly all popular film. Media produced by big corporate money is, very simply, addictive and unhealthy for both the individual and large populations. They keep people locked in highly limiting belief systems regarding employment, relationships, education and health choices, all of which lead to misery and stunted spirits.
Whether current copyright law is fair or not is entirely beside the point. It's like arguing about which side of the American political system is better. Neither is relevant within the big picture and the petty squabble merely serves to distract from the truth.
Throw out your television set. --I did this some years ago, and my life immediately became much more rich than it had ever been. Every hour is golden, and I find it amazing that I wasted so many thousands of hours in front of a television for so many years. There are countless experiences to be explored in this world; I am constantly immersed in life and I wish I had more media to throw away so as to win more time for myself.
"Judge the tree by the fruit it bears." --Or in this case, reverse it; A toxic tree can only produce toxic fruit. Stolen or 'legitimately' acquired, the fruit will still make you sick.
Look around you: The healthiest people are not consumers of shit. Everybody I know who absorbs crap media is sick in both body and soul. There is a direct link. Addicts, naturally, will want to deny this.
Despite some damaged artistic circuits, Lucas may still have a bit of grey matter running intact after all. These are his words at Cannes regarding the latest Star Wars installment. ..
"When I wrote it, Iraq didn't exist," Lucas said, laughing. "We were just funding Saddam Hussein and giving him weapons of mass destruction. We didn't think of him as an enemy at that time. We were going after Iran and using him as our surrogate, just as we were doing in Vietnam.... The parallels between what we did in Vietnam and what we're doing in Iraq now are unbelievable."
-FL
The above was modded off topic? Ahh. Perhaps I should have opened my post thusly. ..
"The Star Wars film recently reviewed by a famous film critic was also commented upon (two days ago) by its director with the following words. .."
You know; just to make sure the people in charge of moderation today really had the relavent points clearly deliniated in big, fat, red marker. Okay? Okay.
Despite some damaged artistic circuits, Lucas may still have a bit of grey matter running intact after all. These are his words at Cannes regarding the latest Star Wars installment. ..
"When I wrote it, Iraq didn't exist," Lucas said, laughing. "We were just funding Saddam Hussein and giving him weapons of mass destruction. We didn't think of him as an enemy at that time. We were going after Iran and using him as our surrogate, just as we were doing in Vietnam.... The parallels between what we did in Vietnam and what we're doing in Iraq now are unbelievable."
The Light Saber is not a laser device. This much is obvious.
Here's how it might work. ..
A light saber is a force field functioning on two vectors instead of three. Sabers do not burn or cauterize when they cut. There was blood on the floor of the cantina when Obi Wan liberated that spaceport scum of his arm. My guess is that what is happening when you see melting blast-doors is that the atoms of blast-door metal are being moved around and compressed when the saber is pushed through them, and that the metal heats up and gets red-hot and sludgy as a result of this.
But how does a forcefield work?
Well, think of it this way. ..
All matter is connected to an energy body. --Like the aura around a human, even a stick of wood is directly linked to its energetic reality. Those who are sensitive to such energies can feel where a person or object is without normal sensory input, and even people who are not consciously sensitive to energy are nonetheless affected by it. When energy is dense enough, one's experience of it can easily manifest as tactile.
So. ..
If you used a crystal to hold the 'memory' of a physical weapon shaft and if you were able to project that energetic memory while adding power to it from an energy-cell, as well as use technology to regulate the qualities of the energetic expression of that shaft, you might get something which behaves rather like a light saber.
I like this solution as it exists nicely along side the concept of the Force.
Is it just me, or is that a ridiculously sum of money for Adobe to be able to come up with? We're talking about a company which sells a limited line of CD Roms and badly written computer manuals!
I seem to recall during the crazy buy-out race in the eighties and nineties, that purchase figures were rarely that huge. Viacom buying Blockbuster, (or was it the other way around?) and giant media corps never dealt in that kind of price range!
Anybody who tells me Adobe products aren't insanely over-priced is nuts. Pirating is clearly not a problem to Adobe's bottom line! Sheesh.
Real companies which build physical items need significant price tags to keep their factories working. Software, by contrast, is infinitely reproducible for pennies. Selling a $10 package (Box, disk, manual), for $800-$1,200 per unit is morally bankrupt!
3.4 BILLION? I mean. . , come on! Not to mention, it's only been quite recently that their products didn't crap out all the time. --In the print bureaus I've dealt with, they called it "Ragemaker" because the layout package had so many bugs.
I'll thank you to get your facts straight next time.
I believe they are straight. --Paraffin soot contains numerous poisons and according to the studies I've looked at, all the various paraffin candles tested created measurable soot which enters the air flow of a room regardless of how 'clean' they burn.
I've directly experienced the effects of being in closed rooms with standard paraffin emergency candles burning, and I've seen the effects on people who didn't have biases or opinions one way or the other. Nobody could figure out why we were feeling sick, (coughing, dizziness, head ache and drowsiness), until somebody thought, "Oh! The candles". We switched to beeswax candles the next evening in the same room conditions and none of those symptoms were produced. Perhaps the beeswax candles were less sooty in burning, but I don't recall seeing soot coming from either candle type.
We had a three day power outage over the winter, and a few things became apparent.
Without power, many people seem to turn into hopeless wrecks.
People burn their entire supply of toxic paraffin candles in about two days, (if they have them), they run out of food, and they start to freeze. If the power had gone out for more than a couple of weeks without emergency help or without a shift in how people arranged their lives, I think we'd have seen some serious Darwinism in effect. --Luckily, when people get motivated, they also tend to be quite resilient; two weeks without power is like getting kicked out of bed. "Okaaay. Fine. I'll go do something about the situation rather than gripe and eat all the easy food."
But anyway. .,
I found myself hurting for a decent lighting solution. With no power, and time to kill, people like to read and they play social games like D&D! Except, without reliable lighting, these things are possible only during the daylight hours, (which in the winter time are in shorter supply, plus if you have your windows covered up with blankets for extra warmth, the lighting situation isn't so good). --And a room filled with paraffin wax smoke gets toxic and trippy in a bad way after about half an hour. Yuck. --Bees wax burns non-toxic and smells really nice, but those kind of candles are usually expensive and in short supply.
Enter the LED flashlight! After the power out-age I ordered a 'Lightwave 4000'. It runs on 3 D-cells, and you can expect about 900 hours of solid run time. (2000 hours, if you believe the packaging, which I don't.) Still, 900 hours is 37.5 days of solid 'On.' Cut that in half for night time use only, and you're looking at over two months of lighting on 3 batteries. That's 9 batteries to last you all through winter. Not bad!
Then just toss in a few of those small, $10 Dorcy single-LED lights which run on AAA cells for 200 hours or so. --Keep those in supply, and you're fine. --For a social setting, just set up a Bee's wax candle to throw a little nice color, and you're surviving in style.
Wrap up in blankets, get an alcohol burner for teas and soups, or better, a wood stove, and you're laughing. Life is fun when you're prepared!
For electric house lighting, I'd never use anything other than a good ol' incandescent for several of the reasons you quote.
But when it comes to hand-held flashlights, nothing beats LED technology in terms of operating hours! The 'Lightwave 4000' I picked up, on the conservative side, gets about 900 hours on a set of three D cells. (2000 hours if you believe the packaging.) It's darned bright, too.
The little 'Dorcy' singe AAA cell is supposed to get about 200 hours. It's darned bright as well. --I used it during a night-bike ride through unlighted back roads, and it was illuminating road signs fifty meters away.
--At least in practice. (The bad bits of communism, anyway.)
Think about it. ..
State sanctioned, state protected monopolies allowed to bleed the public with over-priced, shoddy products? There's nothing competitive about a handful of giant psychopathic corporate entities holding all the cards. --Though, also in practice, this is a very American trend and has been for the last hundred years or so.
Big utilities which do zero investment in maintaining the infrastructure while the fat cats at the top bleed the wealth into personal holdings? Yep, that reeks of the essence of Foul Communism as well! (Only the powerful at the top of the structures get to eat something other than boiled cabbage.) Except in the West, we call it the American Way!
Though, to keep the illusion up and running, there's this sort of slush fund. About 20% of the wealth is allowed to trickle down into the middle class, and everybody is allowed to buy fun toys, like CD players, televisions, video games and toxic food and expensive drugs for a bunch of made-up diseases (which are often the result of toxic foods). --That way, things sparkle in the West and consumerism becomes a numbing way of life which appears to be a form of freedom, but which in reality sucks the spirit, brains and life out of people so that they don't realize that they are just a bunch of glorified boiled-cabbage eating worker drones. With CD players and funky running shoes.
Communism with a twist of lime!
If you want real freedom, you gotta define it yourself. That part is actually quite easy. Seeing the box you're in is the hard part. Most people are happy watching their televisions and eating their Taco Hell foodstuffs.
If you manage to break away from that, then you begin to grow in amazing ways which are barely even conceivable until you start the actual process of growing. Awareness is funny that way. Until you have awareness, you cannot understand awareness; awareness needs awareness to be understood. This is where the much-abused concept of faith comes in.
Take the leap. Unplug from the American Way of life, start to direct your own mind, and just watch what happens! It's better than Star Trek, Quake, McDonnald's, Gap clothes, Disney and a New Car all rolled into one!
(Oooh. I've never done that before. That's stunning. I think I just defined the Meaning of Life for a hundred million people in six corporations or less.)
I hope that Canada does pick up Enterprise. The latter seasons were like sunshine compared to the previous, "Torture is Okay," seasons.
Canada is still in the process of choosing and defining what part it will play in the new world order. If the U.S. rejects an anti-government message which can find support in Canada, then this says something.
Just another attempt by mainstream news to stop people from looking beyond the defined parameters of the corporate reality. There will probably be a time when if you ask a kid about blogs, s/he'll automatically respond with, "They're bad! What's a blog?"
You must be joking. Maybe the later 'Treks, but this one was W's wet dream. At the point I stopped watching (season 2/3 cliffhanger), an unknown enemy made an unprovoked attack on earth, killing massive numbers of people and Archer & Co. were right up there with the "Kill 'em all", "With us or against us", "Fuck the rules, we have guns now" attitude. Subtle, real subtle.
I hear you loud and clear, but no, I was not joking.
--The show wasn't cancelled during the 'Dark-Enterprise' seasons where torture and hatred were rationalized through a host of idiotic story contrivances. It was cancelled during the pendulum swing where the writing turned back into real Star Trek and the exploration of worthy ideas.
Slashdot Mirror
In Buddhist philosophy, thought IS action.
In scientific terms, when we respond to stimuli and survive to the next moment of our lives, our brains and bodies consider that particular response to have been a good one. --The nervous system then works to alter the chemistry and then the very structure of the brain itself so that it is more able to replicate such successful responses and thought patterns. You, literally, become the choices you make.
--One's ability to communicate clearly, (through a keyboard or otherwise), is a direct reflection of one's state of mind. Yours appears to be quite messy. You made something like six spelling/grammatical errors in only two sentences.
If you are skilled enough to make a head shot and overcome tough challenges in a video game, then you have a strong, capable mind. This being the case, you are also able to learn how to spell properly and type out sentences which express thoughts and structures which don't make you appear so stupid and ugly. Ugliness and stupidity are choices, and you deserve better. Love and respect yourself; nobody else is obligated to do it for you. Your spirit is just waiting! Set pure goals which will make you feel better about yourself, then achieve them with the same enormous skill you have used to aim virtual game weapons. Your mind is able to do anything. Love the world around you without judgment. Do this, and the world will soon start to love you back, your luck will change and you will quickly move away from the vicious cycle of human misery.
While it can be difficult, it is very important to never hate yourself. Self-punishment is pointless. You can only fix yourself and the world with positive action, not negative!
Good luck to you!
-FL
When playing D&D, some like to beat a bunch of orcs around the ears and take their stuff, (which in itself provides a series of lessons). Others are cognizant of the fact that D&D allows a group of players to project themselves into a simulated reality and learn different kinds of lessons in social dynamics without the fear of getting killed for real. A lot of personal growth can take place, (usually, without the players intending it), during a good roll playing session. In my opinion, these are the most exciting and satisfying games, the ones I remember most fondly.
-FL
In many cases, you may be closer to the truth than you realize. .
-FL
Actually, I'd say the opposite is true. The general belief to the contrary is a product of fear and malicious cultural programming which stems from both our largely malfunctioning scientific community, and that human herding mechanism better known as Religion. Religion and Orthodox Science both teach people to think within artificial boundaries, both using fear and false nationalisms (of surprising similarity) to shut down legitimate lines of questioning which would undo the ego and money-driven power structures which drive both Orthodox Science and Religion.
It is up to the seeker to open his or her eyes and take a look around on their own. The news channels and various religious organizations will only confirm lies about the bars of your prison. --The bars are only there if you believe them to be; millions of humans are crouched tightly in illusory cages. It is each individual's task to stand up using their own free will and powers of observation about what is really there.
Unfortunately, despite all the mountains of proof which are available to any who honestly look, nobody is owed proof of the soul (or anything else for that matter.)
Individual awareness must be won on an individual basis. --That is, freedom can only be self-acheived. If you refuse to walk free until you are told you may do so by an authority on the subject, then you are automatically placing yourself within another's power. You must look for yourself. If asked nicely, however, those who have already begun to move past the area of confinement will generally offer help in where and how to start looking. The rest is up to the individual adventurer.
-FL
This name conjures up several images in my mind. .
1. A game reserve filled with hunting stock. The psychological message here seems to be one of many fat and juicy users all ripe for the plucking by the various predators of the web.
2. Dear Tick. The sound is similar enough to make my emotional muscle twitch just a little bit. If everybody else is like me, then that's a hundred thousand gallons of stress micro-siphoned from your brain into the Matrix.
What's going on over there at Mozilla?
-FL
Kids learn the following. .
1. To stand at attention during a dumb national anthem, thus learning the meta-lessons of fear and hatred for other nations, as well as a false sense of history and superiority. Mind-programming to keep the massively profitable fires of war burning.
2. To sit in rows for hours at a time doing repetitive, menial tasks despite the natural impulse to run around and play and learn directly how young bodies and brains can interact with each other and the physical world.
3. To thoughtlessly obey authority figures who give endless streams of ridiculous instructions as well as to learn to react automatically to all the fnord words and terms, like "Fire Drill" "Stand in Line" and "Detention" thus preparing people for a smooth transition and series of ready-made emotional responses to the adult fnords such as, "Terrorist", "Insurgent" and "Bomb". --As well as to connect self-esteme and ego to an often arbitrary system of marks and grades attainable only from authority figures.
4. To separate parents from their children and thus break down familial bonds which might prove a hindrance to the state. (Love for the State must come before love of Family if total obedience is to be achieved.)
5. To Teach Lies. --Lies about history, lies about science and technology, lies designed to limit human potential and growth. When kids believe in false limits, then those limits are as good as real. Cages with no bars.
6. To Program Social Competition. School structures are set up in such a way as to reward stupidity and beauty through the promise of sex, and to punish the pursuit of individuality and creative passion.
Luckily the system does not always succeed. A small handful of individuals always manages to squeeze through the system and manifest, dropping all the programming. Though, adding another four hours to the school day is probably not a great way to improve the odds, I'd say.
On the up-side, I know of some teachers who recognize all these qualities of the school and quietly rebel against them. "What goes on behind closed doors is up to the teacher." The good teachers are the ones who only pay lip service to the state-installed curriculum and teach passion and individuality and the courage to find and follow one's true path in life.
There were only two good things school taught me; 1. Rebellion. 2. True friendship.
-FL
Why, Oh why do we build these mad inventions? When will we ever learn the folly of mocking Mother Nature?
-FL
And the Iris scanner project, like the one currently being tested in Halifax airport!
And finger-print scanners!
And RFID chips in my passport, clothing, arm, etc.!
And unconditional wire-tapping authority by the FBI, CIA, Police, etc.!
And libraries, banks, the postal system and international travel organizations (among others) keeping tabs on the things I see, think and do, and being forced to report to law enforcement agencies!
And unconditional powers of arrest for suspected crimes based on no evidence and an easily applied 'Enemy Combatant' label!
And torture to derive needless/useless information should I be arrested for being suspected of being suspicious and generally mouthy!
And over-enthusiasm among the police resulting in things like lethal taser misuse and power-tripping cops!
And jail systems owned by corporate entities which make PROFIT by keeping and employing prisoners!
And Neocons who either don't see or who are profiting from the climate of artificially constructed FEAR!
And. .
Get out now. Everybody knows it's here and that it's going to get worse. Looking the other way will only get you killed. Fascism is real.
-FL
It's not about high power microwaves causing ionization within cells. It's about something which is simply never discussed in any of the debates.
The fact of the matter is that animal cells and brain cells in particular are designed to respond to in a wide variety of ways to extremely low level electrical currents. This is why gyrating metallic acupuncture needles inserted into key spots on the body can turn pain on and off, affect healing, etc. Brain chemistry is definitely affected by RF. This is not in question, and it is why the debate has been deliberately side-lined into the barely relevant Cancer issue.
Fuzzy, groggy thinking is a direct result of RF pollution. You would be wise to do some research on this subject. There are demonstrable systems through which it is known that RF can affect cells. Pediatrician, Robert O. Becker had spent the last fifty years studying electricity and its relationship to living tissue and the human body.
-FL
The art was pretty good, and the writing was reasonably competent from a pulp sci-fi point of view. It just wasn't very exciting. Perhaps the novel was better. (Was it?)
In any case, I suspect this sort of book would be used as a base-line for future films. There seems to be a pretty reliable story canon being followed around the Ranch.
Like I said, I don't know about the novel, but the comic was just plain dull. Lots and lots of frantic energy spent on getting the plot from here-to-there while allowing very little time to develop and love the actual characters.
Luke and Leia swinging across a Death Star chasm and their brief interaction was development in my eyes as a seven-year old. The girl gave the hero a peck on the cheek. There was heart in that scene; the creators knew where to focus; on the people rather than the need to get to the other side. It's all in the journey.
Remember Luke in New Hope standing on Tatooine under a double sun-set with the strains of John William's orchestrations in the back ground? Those complaining of Luke's whining try too hard to make clever geek-jokes out of their observations, either that or they simply never had to grow up bored and lonely in the 'burbs. Luke was 18, and his story was clear and touching to me. Perhaps geeks are just squeamish and shy about being touched.
Heck, even in the Phantom Edit, (Yes, the EDIT, the good cut of that film), little Anikin leaving his mother was another scene with power. (Amazing that such a thing was created from thin air simply by removing junk footage!)
The only scene which I really liked in the comic, "Heir to the Empire," was after Leia and Han were nearly killed by assassins and made their escape thanks to Luke's intervention. Han commented to Leia, "By the way, isn't it time you had your own lightsaber?"
Luke, who was teaching his sister the ways of the Force nodded and replied, "I can make you one any time you want," but he was filled with worry, remembering how Obi Wan had screwed up with Anakin by teaching before he was ready to teach.
Just a short scene, but it utterly fascinated me for numerous reasons. (--Han was the guy who laughed saying he'd rather have a trusty blaster at his side rather than some archaic weapon.) The scene was less than one page among 150, but it grabbed me. The rest was just dull.
There are good writers out there, and maybe Zahn is one of them, but you certainly can't tell from the comics. If they make films out of his stories, then I won't be particularly excited about it.
-FL
The SpaceAD business plan:
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At its position of prime exposure, SpaceAD's premium celestial banner will appear larger than the moon itself!
Reach millions of viewers nightly! Companies will vie for SpaceAD's coveted spot in the sky!
Certain to earn billions every year, visit our capital investment website for more information. Our IPO will be coming in mid 2006!
Be ready!
-FL
I sometimes wish I'd taken up teaching. I don't know how long I'd last in the system, though. I'd speak openly about the giant mind control game which is media, politics and religion, and urge kids to disbelieve most of what the curriculum tries to serve them while encouraging free thought and exploration. I'd teach about corporate practices, how the government secret services work, the roots and practices of Zionism, the mind-fuck which is Christianity and monotheism in general, the mind-fuck which is modern science, as well as a whole bunch of other subjects certain to make parents cry out for my public hanging.
Education is not really about education, but robot manufacture. Any teacher brave enough to throw a spanner in the works is worthy of quiet praise.
-FL
So then why attend?
With a bit of effort, you can educate yourself in any subject, find meaningful employment perfectly suited to your mind-set, great happiness and health, all while avoiding debt-slavery in the trap of formal education.
Like television, while University does provide some fringe benefits, it is largely a scam designed to limit human potential.
-FL
The fact of the matter is that a great deal of popular media is just plain bad for you. Most of the popular music I've ever heard is loaded with messages which reinforce unhealthy behavior patterns, as does nearly all the television programs on the air. The same thing goes for video games and nearly all popular film. Media produced by big corporate money is, very simply, addictive and unhealthy for both the individual and large populations. They keep people locked in highly limiting belief systems regarding employment, relationships, education and health choices, all of which lead to misery and stunted spirits.
Whether current copyright law is fair or not is entirely beside the point. It's like arguing about which side of the American political system is better. Neither is relevant within the big picture and the petty squabble merely serves to distract from the truth.
Throw out your television set. --I did this some years ago, and my life immediately became much more rich than it had ever been. Every hour is golden, and I find it amazing that I wasted so many thousands of hours in front of a television for so many years. There are countless experiences to be explored in this world; I am constantly immersed in life and I wish I had more media to throw away so as to win more time for myself.
"Judge the tree by the fruit it bears." --Or in this case, reverse it; A toxic tree can only produce toxic fruit. Stolen or 'legitimately' acquired, the fruit will still make you sick.
Look around you: The healthiest people are not consumers of shit. Everybody I know who absorbs crap media is sick in both body and soul. There is a direct link. Addicts, naturally, will want to deny this.
-FL
Despite some damaged artistic circuits, Lucas may still have a bit of grey matter running intact after all. These are his words at Cannes regarding the latest Star Wars installment. .
-FL
The above was modded off topic? Ahh. Perhaps I should have opened my post thusly. .
"The Star Wars film recently reviewed by a famous film critic was also commented upon (two days ago) by its director with the following words. .
You know; just to make sure the people in charge of moderation today really had the relavent points clearly deliniated in big, fat, red marker. Okay? Okay.
-FL
Despite some damaged artistic circuits, Lucas may still have a bit of grey matter running intact after all. These are his words at Cannes regarding the latest Star Wars installment. .
-FL
Here's how it might work. .
A light saber is a force field functioning on two vectors instead of three. Sabers do not burn or cauterize when they cut. There was blood on the floor of the cantina when Obi Wan liberated that spaceport scum of his arm. My guess is that what is happening when you see melting blast-doors is that the atoms of blast-door metal are being moved around and compressed when the saber is pushed through them, and that the metal heats up and gets red-hot and sludgy as a result of this.
But how does a forcefield work?
Well, think of it this way. .
All matter is connected to an energy body. --Like the aura around a human, even a stick of wood is directly linked to its energetic reality. Those who are sensitive to such energies can feel where a person or object is without normal sensory input, and even people who are not consciously sensitive to energy are nonetheless affected by it. When energy is dense enough, one's experience of it can easily manifest as tactile.
So. .
If you used a crystal to hold the 'memory' of a physical weapon shaft and if you were able to project that energetic memory while adding power to it from an energy-cell, as well as use technology to regulate the qualities of the energetic expression of that shaft, you might get something which behaves rather like a light saber.
I like this solution as it exists nicely along side the concept of the Force.
-FL
I seem to recall during the crazy buy-out race in the eighties and nineties, that purchase figures were rarely that huge. Viacom buying Blockbuster, (or was it the other way around?) and giant media corps never dealt in that kind of price range!
Anybody who tells me Adobe products aren't insanely over-priced is nuts. Pirating is clearly not a problem to Adobe's bottom line! Sheesh.
Real companies which build physical items need significant price tags to keep their factories working. Software, by contrast, is infinitely reproducible for pennies. Selling a $10 package (Box, disk, manual), for $800-$1,200 per unit is morally bankrupt!
3.4 BILLION? I mean. . , come on! Not to mention, it's only been quite recently that their products didn't crap out all the time. --In the print bureaus I've dealt with, they called it "Ragemaker" because the layout package had so many bugs.
3.4 BILLION???
Wow. Just, Wow.
-FL
I believe they are straight. --Paraffin soot contains numerous poisons and according to the studies I've looked at, all the various paraffin candles tested created measurable soot which enters the air flow of a room regardless of how 'clean' they burn.
I've directly experienced the effects of being in closed rooms with standard paraffin emergency candles burning, and I've seen the effects on people who didn't have biases or opinions one way or the other. Nobody could figure out why we were feeling sick, (coughing, dizziness, head ache and drowsiness), until somebody thought, "Oh! The candles". We switched to beeswax candles the next evening in the same room conditions and none of those symptoms were produced. Perhaps the beeswax candles were less sooty in burning, but I don't recall seeing soot coming from either candle type.
-FL
Without power, many people seem to turn into hopeless wrecks.
People burn their entire supply of toxic paraffin candles in about two days, (if they have them), they run out of food, and they start to freeze. If the power had gone out for more than a couple of weeks without emergency help or without a shift in how people arranged their lives, I think we'd have seen some serious Darwinism in effect. --Luckily, when people get motivated, they also tend to be quite resilient; two weeks without power is like getting kicked out of bed. "Okaaay. Fine. I'll go do something about the situation rather than gripe and eat all the easy food."
But anyway. .
I found myself hurting for a decent lighting solution. With no power, and time to kill, people like to read and they play social games like D&D! Except, without reliable lighting, these things are possible only during the daylight hours, (which in the winter time are in shorter supply, plus if you have your windows covered up with blankets for extra warmth, the lighting situation isn't so good). --And a room filled with paraffin wax smoke gets toxic and trippy in a bad way after about half an hour. Yuck. --Bees wax burns non-toxic and smells really nice, but those kind of candles are usually expensive and in short supply.
Enter the LED flashlight! After the power out-age I ordered a 'Lightwave 4000'. It runs on 3 D-cells, and you can expect about 900 hours of solid run time. (2000 hours, if you believe the packaging, which I don't.) Still, 900 hours is 37.5 days of solid 'On.' Cut that in half for night time use only, and you're looking at over two months of lighting on 3 batteries. That's 9 batteries to last you all through winter. Not bad!
Then just toss in a few of those small, $10 Dorcy single-LED lights which run on AAA cells for 200 hours or so. --Keep those in supply, and you're fine. --For a social setting, just set up a Bee's wax candle to throw a little nice color, and you're surviving in style.
Wrap up in blankets, get an alcohol burner for teas and soups, or better, a wood stove, and you're laughing. Life is fun when you're prepared!
-FL
For electric house lighting, I'd never use anything other than a good ol' incandescent for several of the reasons you quote.
But when it comes to hand-held flashlights, nothing beats LED technology in terms of operating hours! The 'Lightwave 4000' I picked up, on the conservative side, gets about 900 hours on a set of three D cells. (2000 hours if you believe the packaging.) It's darned bright, too.
The little 'Dorcy' singe AAA cell is supposed to get about 200 hours. It's darned bright as well. --I used it during a night-bike ride through unlighted back roads, and it was illuminating road signs fifty meters away.
-FL
Think about it. .
State sanctioned, state protected monopolies allowed to bleed the public with over-priced, shoddy products? There's nothing competitive about a handful of giant psychopathic corporate entities holding all the cards. --Though, also in practice, this is a very American trend and has been for the last hundred years or so.
Big utilities which do zero investment in maintaining the infrastructure while the fat cats at the top bleed the wealth into personal holdings? Yep, that reeks of the essence of Foul Communism as well! (Only the powerful at the top of the structures get to eat something other than boiled cabbage.) Except in the West, we call it the American Way!
Though, to keep the illusion up and running, there's this sort of slush fund. About 20% of the wealth is allowed to trickle down into the middle class, and everybody is allowed to buy fun toys, like CD players, televisions, video games and toxic food and expensive drugs for a bunch of made-up diseases (which are often the result of toxic foods). --That way, things sparkle in the West and consumerism becomes a numbing way of life which appears to be a form of freedom, but which in reality sucks the spirit, brains and life out of people so that they don't realize that they are just a bunch of glorified boiled-cabbage eating worker drones. With CD players and funky running shoes.
Communism with a twist of lime!
If you want real freedom, you gotta define it yourself. That part is actually quite easy. Seeing the box you're in is the hard part. Most people are happy watching their televisions and eating their Taco Hell foodstuffs.
If you manage to break away from that, then you begin to grow in amazing ways which are barely even conceivable until you start the actual process of growing. Awareness is funny that way. Until you have awareness, you cannot understand awareness; awareness needs awareness to be understood. This is where the much-abused concept of faith comes in.
Take the leap. Unplug from the American Way of life, start to direct your own mind, and just watch what happens! It's better than Star Trek, Quake, McDonnald's, Gap clothes, Disney and a New Car all rolled into one!
(Oooh. I've never done that before. That's stunning. I think I just defined the Meaning of Life for a hundred million people in six corporations or less.)
-FL
Canada is still in the process of choosing and defining what part it will play in the new world order. If the U.S. rejects an anti-government message which can find support in Canada, then this says something.
Metaphor is powerful.
-FL
Fear=control.
Same bullshit, different day.
-FL
I hear you loud and clear, but no, I was not joking.
--The show wasn't cancelled during the 'Dark-Enterprise' seasons where torture and hatred were rationalized through a host of idiotic story contrivances. It was cancelled during the pendulum swing where the writing turned back into real Star Trek and the exploration of worthy ideas.
-FL