-Prime Commonalities? Definitions/explanations? If you can do it without a search engine, you win a thousand points, and prove yourself worthy of this site.
Coke up the nose, money up the ass, 25 year old film executive
"--And the title should sort of sound like 'Matrix' because 'The Matrix' was popular and people are so dip-shit stupid, that we can actually bank on them paying $11 a view just because it sounds similar to another movie they liked."
Slicked-back, $100-blow-job-a-day, 37 year old executive who sort of looks like Kevin Spacey
"Right again, Todd!"
--Face it folks. T2 was good because James Cameron, a certifiable loony toon ego-maniac, happens to also be very good at his job. That's it. That's the only reason. Feed T3 to generic Hollywood, and you can pretty much bet on a BIG PIECE OF STEAMING SHIT to come out of the other end.
Soon my nefariously brilliant plan will be complete! When the entire world is wireless, I will put my scheme into action. . .
I will march into the financial district 10 minutes before the end of trading on a particularly good day, and activate my powerful cross-spectrum white noise generator and shut down all wireless communication within three square kilometers!
HA HA HA!
Of course, if I don't want to get caught before I put my plan into effect, I should start wearing a turban so that the uber-authority New World Order choreographers will quickly forbid their street level FBI officers from arresting me. Now all I need to do is hail from some country the U.S. wants to annex, and I will be unstoppable. . !
You have just won the coveted, 2001 Lad Award for Excellence in Knuckledragging and Maintenance of Least Active Grey Matter!
Bravo!
That's right, Bob! Every year we present an award to the contestant for presenting us with the least intelligent response! Imagine if you will, the frustration experienced by our contestant when he found it impossible to formulate even the simplest words, being reduced to red-faced sputtering! A fabulous example of low-brow simple-mindedness! Back to you, Dale!
(Contestant: Please continue to the urine testing center where you will be examined for Lead Poisoning. --We can't allow for unfair advantage among contestants, now can we?)
-Fantastic Lad
-Remember kids, A toxin free sport is a fun sport!
Go to your library (this way it doesn't cost you anything except some of your time) and give this and _Left Hand of Darkness_ a try.
I must agree. Read everything for yourself before rendering judgement.
But I read that fish story and boy! I felt really gyped. I'd been looking forward to reading that book for a couple of years, (it wasn't part of my highschool curriculum), and when I finally got through my enormous In-Pile, I cracked the spine on Melville's work, it took me several chapters before I could believe my eyes.
While I don't subscribe to many 'rules' of writing, there are certain things which do irritate me.
Aside from the fact that it's a boring, bleak and grey story. . .
I can't STAND works filled with laborious, thudding metaphor, ESPECIALLY laborious, thudding, religious metaphor. (Particularly, when it was used, as it seemed in Moby Dick, to trick people into thinking that Melville was deep and thoughtful when really he was just as, if not more confused than his readership concerning life the universe and everything.) The characters were dull, the setting moody, the ultimate purpose behind this tragedy of a book was barely even there. ("Don't Obsess".)
Thanks, Melville! "Don't Obsess" Yeah, I'll make a note of that. --In fact, next time I'm writing a massive technical manual about the whaling industry, I'll think, "Oh yeah! I shouldn't obsess over obscure details the reader didn't sign up for and which could be found in a reference guide if they really wanted to know all this crap, and I'll get back to the actual story I set out to write, which only I can write, and which can't be found in a reference manual."
Moron.
The fact of the matter is that when the American government was charged with coming up with an education curriculum, they had to look around and find some out-standing American writers to pump at their children. And unlike the Europeans, (with their centuries of published writers), America was a young nation with very little literature to choose from.
Melville had, up until that time, been popular for writing pulpy high-seas adventure stories, (entirely unlike his whale bullshit). Then, at the height of his fame, he changed his tack and wrote his 'Oscar' nomination; His let's-get-serious-now "Schindler's-List" book, and everybody who read the damned thing, (and everybody DID read it, because that's what they did back before T.V.), had to turn in his or her best, 'seriously now', manner to his or her neighbor and say, "Yes, Yes. Brilliant work. Quite." --Compound that reaction with the heavy religious metaphoric overtones, (popular at the time for some stupid reason, and which you couldn't easily question because it made you not-a-good-Christian). . .
With all those bullshit, "See! I'm a smart, deep writer," buttons being pushed shamelessly, the wool was predictably pulled, and the damned book has until this day remained on a ridiculous pedestal.
What a joke!
Of course, this is just my opinion. I know some people like writing of H.M.'s style, and more power to them. I don't like to read goth fiction either, and that doesn't make people who wear black any less valid in their search for truth.
How long do you give the fine people of the intellectual elite before this story is rationalized into some explainable, head-in-the-sand, don't need to investigate any further because N respected organization of Y respected debunkers has given the final word with some half-assed smoke & mirrors explanation designed to make it easy to ignore certain worrying ideas. . ?
Hmm. Interesting problem, Fantastic Lad. I'll bet $20 on 1.5 years. That seems to be the amount of time they like to allow rumors to circulate and build up before beginning the propaganda run. -One year allows false concepts and truly ridiculous information to be seeded into the actual story, as well as providing the Learning Channel people, (makers of breast implant 'documentaries' paid for by the medical community which 'debunk' alarmist claims by women who have been disfigured, toxified or otherwise harmed by breast implants.), the time to produce some calming and reasonable sounding bullshit about how there's nothing to see here, move on citizen.
Well, I'll take that bet, Bugs! Except, I'll bet on only 9 months. (Although we might have to turn that $20 into credit slips. I'm not sure how long legal tender will be legal. ..)
Oh, you're such a cynic, Fantastic Lad! Next you'll be telling me that Iraq will be the next target in the American empire building scam! -And that those airplanes were remote piloted, and that the prayers and notes found written by the box cutters all indicated that they actually thought they were going to be spending time in jail rather than as sky-scraper dust! The terrorists were played, and Bin Laden was set up as a paper tiger!
Oh, Bugs! Oh ho! So you've been dipping into the mountain of research again which strongly suggests foulest play! How many times have I told you to stop doing that? If only you would listen to the accepted news sources, you'll be a much, much happier rabbit. Who cares if you'll drool more? A handi-wipe is all anybody really needs! Now off you go!
Ooh. Silly me! Well off I go! Good Bye, Fantastic Lad!
Good Bye, Bugs!
Another 'Really Good' Depressing as Hell book.
on
The Left Hand of Darkness
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Left Hand of Darkness was yet another book in that long list of, "Really Good, Oh You Simply MUST Read It, It's SOOO Good!," books, which also make me feel like a lump of grey, frigid & generally depressed clay after reading them. Yay for depressing, lifeless, "Really Good" books.
Is Left Hand, by any chance, part of the highschool curriculum in anybody's neck of the woods?
Wouldn't surprise me.
One of my long fostered conspiracy theories is that they give kids lame & dull books to read in school just to discourage their further intellectual growth by making reading seem like a soul draining pile of hard work which is best avoided. (See kids? Drinking is much more fun! Don't think. Thinking is bad. Let us think for you. Buy our hamburgers, electric garage door openers and DVD players. What? You want to read? Fuck you! Here. Read, Moby Dick, and the Scarlet Letter, you little puke! What? You want more? Have some Bronte Sisters, you little shit! Now, stop thinking, damn it!)
I'm not saying that every book should spark the spirit to life. --And not just because most of the stories out there which try to be uplifting fail miserably because they're also insipidly stupid, surface-only, retarded crap, (Shrek. Charlie's Angels. Jay & Silent Bob. Monster's Inc. Etc.), but I am saying that while I give LeGuin a nod for her intellectual prowess, I nonetheless thought Left Hand of Darkness was needlessly cold. Somebody as together as her should know better!
Smart writing doesn't have to be depressing writing. I don't get why so many people buy into that concept.
The best Trek films worked because they had Kirk, Bones and Spock. Kirk is truly larger than life.
The only good part in Generations, (an otherwise BAD, BAD, BAD film), was when Kirk made Picard look like a square school boy. (And I think Picard is a wonderful character!) But I hate, 'Good Parts' films. If it isn't all good, then it's a bad film. Period.
Truth is this: Giant casts of so-so actors all with contracts which guarantee X minutes of screen time regardless of the needs of the story, = Another SHITTY film.
The last good trek film was the "Undiscovered Country." Story first.
Everything since was boring shlock. The Odd/Even numbered movie thing is completely innacurate from my perspective. I loved the first film. I liked the fifth film. I despised the eighth film. I don't understand people.
Finally: Watching Data say "Shit" was everything Trek was not supposed to be. Thanks Berman. You can't write. Please turn in your pen and go home before somebody wizens up and kicks your conceited ass.
The best thing about the next film is that Wil Wheaton will get some work and personal satisfaction.
He was convinced the USA would collapse before 2000. I'm not so sure he was wrong...
I don't know about you, but it's been a long damned time since I felt like I was living in a free nation. What we're experiencing now is merely the final tightening of the screws. By the time everybody wakes up to the fact that we're slaves, it'll be too late to do anything about it. It only gets darker from here on in, kids!
But I'm not a nihilist. This is exciting! And anyway, the black trench coat look is so Columbine.
I like to think of this period of history as a cross between the final exam for one's personal integrity, and a kick-ass fireworks show. Buckle up and enjoy! Ten points to any objective & rational non-pod-person who lives to see, say, 2015.
Okay, having read through all the posts here, I feel the need to highlight a couple of points which were not mentioned.
1. George Bull.
2. To those who say that moon mining is going to de-orbit the moon: I really don't think so. No more than Earth mining is going to de-orbit the Earth. The Moon is bigger than it looks; (it's not a whole lot smaller than Mars, actually. -Not that Mars is particularly big, but it's certainly not small enough to push out of orbit with our tiny human affairs and giant human egos.)
3. "Cha"
4. According to this website, moon-mining has already taken place.
Okay. That's enough to chew on. Get back to work, all of you.
From some recent material I've been reading, it sounds as though the street level FBI officers are ignored by their superiors when it comes to the crunch anyway.
It seems that FBI officers knew well in advance about the terrorist activities regarding Oklahoma, 9/11 and on-going events; the higher ups forbade FBI officers from shutting the terrorist cells down. Sounds amazing, but the lead lawyer responsible for the Clinton impeachment, (David Shippers), is representing FBI officers who are outraged by the corruption which allowed the terrorist actions to proceed when they could easily have been prevented.
Who is David Shippers? Here's a brief link explaining.
And after you've glanced at that, an interview with him regarding the above claims.
From some recent material I've been reading, it sounds as though the street level FBI officers are ignored by their superiors when it comes to the crunch anyway.
It seems that FBI officers knew well in advance about the terrorist activities regarding Oklahoma, 9/11 and on-going events; the higher ups forbade FBI officers from shutting the terrorist cells down. Sounds amazing, but the lead lawyer responsible for the Clinton impeachment, (David Shippers), is representing FBI officers who are outraged by the corruption which allowed the terrorist actions to proceed when they could easily have been prevented.
Who is David Shippers? Here's a brief link explaining.
And after you've glanced at that, an interview with him regarding the above claims.
if ms is really trying to be more 'popular' - their method won't be watching hackers hack the xbox in every way, but instead their method will be trying to bring over some of the titles that the 'playstation generation' grew up on to their do-it-all console.
Actually, I think Microsoft is more interested in maintaining market dominance in terms of OS's and software licensing. Having a popular, hackable game box is a great way of affecting this. Keeps MS planted in the public awareness.
But the coup de grace is that it focuses all the best and brightest minds in programming into development for a Microsoft chassis and OS, which will significantly polarize the direction of the content industry for the next few years. For the most part, I'd certainly believe the MS representative quoted; --the xbox is primarily a piece of aggressive advertising and market manipulation. Quite a formidable play, if you ask me.
I under-estimated you. Pardon my hubris, but for every guy like you, I run across a hundred others who really are as tiresome and pre-programmed as you first appeared in your initial post. Very good!
My approach, (mostly through compunction rather than planning), tends to be one made up from acidic remarks and brow beating unfairness and even a touch of hypocrisy just to see if I can't make people stop and think along a slightly different track for a second or two. Almost trolling, I suppose. --Though in truth, I feel I am exploding with tons of amazing knowledge; things I've seen and done, a great deal of which I don't like to share because of how crazy I know it sounds. But I digress. . .
I should mention up front that I dislike debate a great deal. I find that two debaters will often jump into silly duels of hair-splitting. Many of the points you raised, while valid, like your complaint that narcotics are in fact stored in the body, are for the most part, quite beside the point. I find debaters tend to very quickly lose sight of the big picture and the purpose of their discussion in order to 'win points' from one another by dissecting the minutia. Language is not an exact science, so it's entirely possible to mis-interpret one another, (usually on purpose), indefinitely rather than look at the core of what a conversation is really about. I find debate, with its scoring mechanics, and established confrontational nature runs very much counter to the purpose of real communication. (And you'll pardon me if I open myself up like this to easy blows by attempting to take this up to the level of a discussion proper and treat it like one.)
Nonetheless, I'd like to clarify what I meant when I used the heroin (heroine? Erg.) analogy, because I think it's a useful way to describe what I'm talking about in regard to EMR and how it can affect people:
From my understanding, and very simply, when a drug enters the system, the body produces chemicals required to counter-act and neutralize the drug. When the drug is used regularly, the body responds by maintaining a level of self-produced anti-toxicant in order to maintain a balanced body chemistry. This is why it takes larger and larger doses of a given narcotic to achieve the same 'pleasurable' effects; you're trying to keep one step ahead of the body's balancing mechanism. This also explains the cravings for a regularly used drug; the natural anti-toxicant when unused against the drug, are often themselves toxic and cause the shakes and erratic emotional behavior and similar.
While there is certainly no question that measurable tissue damage is one result of regular drug use, the unbalanced body chemistry resulting in shakes and cravings and erratic moods is not the primary result of tissue damage or of quantities of the drug which have been absorbed into fat cells, but rather of the body's own response to the repeated stimulus of a foriegn agent in the system. And that's where I was trying to draw the parallel.
Phew! All that from a little hair splitting. (And my original point was. . ?) Well. . , I've had quite enough of that! I'm going to assume from now on that you will try to reach to catch my points in the future rather than play tennis with them, and that if you do single out a piece of language which can be turned on its ear and made to sound silly, that I really wasn't clear and that you really do need clarification, which I will happily offer. I will, of course, extend you the same courtesy.
Anyway. . .
Yes. I do indeed believe in what my friend can see and do. I am far beyond the point where I need to have the existence of magic proven to me. The fact of the matter is that I've seen and done some astonishing things which have no analog in the pseudo-science realm sold to us as the 'real' thing. I have held extended conversations and practiced martial arts while in dreaming, all fully verifiable when awake on the following days. I even have the limited faculty to see auras glowing an inch or so around people myself, (not just in dark rooms or with extended straining eye exercises or any of the other techniques people often use to fool themselves). This, actually, was the primary reason for my shifting from debunker to the other camp, and for seeking out people who could explain what was happening to me. I regularly experience a list of other peculiar things. (And no, I don't and never have taken drugs beyond very limited alcohol use or the rare dose of headache medicine. I am in excellent health.)
The problem is that nothing I have seen or done, while it has all served to make a massive and very positive difference in my life, can be shared with, or much less, proven to somebody who has been hammered with the scientific method since birth. "If you can't prove it, then I refuse to believe it!" And I suppose that's fair enough, but it is very frustrating to not be able to talk about this stuff. It's even worse when I see people being actively shut down and directed away from higher awareness by the harsh and pervasive constraints placed upon people by that which is Western culture.
A big hurdle is one of faith; one of the many sorcerer's contradictions. Seeing is believing, and vice versa. --Unfortunately, faith has been made into a filthy, filthy word. Sometimes I think that the world-spanning cult of Christianity has been fostered to such nauseating levels specifically to make the more sensible people knee jerk too far in the opposite direction. --This takes care of practically everybody: the fools are religious and thus blinded and controlled, and the smarter people blind themselves by throwing the baby out with the bathwater, locking themselves within the limits of incomplete scientific knowledge as it is fed to us piecemeal by institutions which place humanity's best interests very, very low on their list of priorities.
Anyway, that's a little snapshot of where I'm coming from.
Take care, and many thanks for your being interesting and for entertaining with humor my trollish behavior!
But you didn't say how your energy pattern changed after walking around town with a shaman all day...
There's good change and bad change, and hanging around with a shaman is certainly going to change you.
For my part, I tend to find that I feel healthier and stronger and more focused; I seem now these days to dwarf everybody around me in terms of physical and mental acumen. Everyday life gets much, much easier when you start learning how to allow the spirit to move through you; when you learn to dispense with self-centeredness and negative emotion. The only trouble, is that non-everyday challenges start popping up. Nobody gets out without breaking a sweat! --Not even a shaman.
I wonder how many people out there are NOT using cell phones, just in general. Your friend probably had, at worst, a good shot at 85% accuracy. That's enough to sell any average joe on something, and a slam dunk to sell to someone who already wants to buy.
Yes, yes. I've worked extensively behind the scenes with 'rabbit out of the hat' professional magicians. I know the drill. I know all about 'cold reading' and similar. I've studied this stuff for years, in all liklihood, in far greater depth than you have. And I've learned two things from my studies; 1) People can indeed nearly always be fooled. 2)A creative thinker can rationalize his or her way out of ANY corner in a convincing manner regardless of actual facts.
Do you get what I'm saying here? I'm saying that it's a two-way street. I'm saying that if the genuine article came up and bit you on the nose, you could through creativity and an unbending faith in science, rationalize it into dust or swamp gas or whatever. --Which is just as moronic as True Believer syndrome.
I'm not saying that there aren't hucksters and fools aplenty. There are. But I'm not one of them. Indeed, I come from a background rooted heavily in the sciences, and I began studying the esoteric long ago in an attempt to 'debunk'. But I promised myself I would perform always in as unbiased a way as possible, and as such, I've explored, experienced and 'seen' enough on both sides of the fence to conclude that there is actually much more going on in the world than the average Western tunnel vision allows for. Clearly, you'll not believe me, so I'll ask you this: have you ever actually studied and experimented with any esoteric material to determine its validity, or are you basing your beliefs on a few convenient examples of how people can be fooled, --and on what you have been told is the 'right' thing to believe?
Sheesh... and your friend considers it rude to test him? Gosh, we wouldn't want to offend his sensibilities.
My friend has been tested and bullied by people like you since the day he was born simply because he is able to see more than you can, and because people have the arrogance to think that they have the right to demand 'proof' from anybody rather than go out and find it on their own. --Try to imagine if you were the only person whose eyes were sensitive to light; how would you feel if the blind populace constantly demanded proof of your ability, and then refused to believe you no matter what evidence you offered. Imagine even having your life threatened over it.
As he puts it: "Your faith is your problem. I don't care what you believe, but if you believe I'm full of lies, then please just go away. I won't waste my time forcing people onto the path who are not ready. It's actually wrong to do that."
BTW, you might ask your friend how the cells 'store' EM interference. If the effects are cumulative, there must be a way for cells to retain the EM interference they receive... and does it fade if you stop using a phone? If so, what's the 'half-life' of an EM interfered cell? How long does it last? How does cellular lifespan affect your total EM accumulation?
Now, don't be silly. I didn't say that cells 'store' EM interference, although I can understand why you would jump to the nearest least logical conclustion regarding my post. --You are clearly predisposed to finding hucksters and fools under every rock. But I'll explain in any case:
Living systems adapt over time to the repeated exosure of ANY strong enough stimulus, electromagnetic or otherwise. EM doesn't have to be stored; all it has to do is change the way a system functions for long enough for the system to alter its electrochemical qualities to satisfy whatever demands it percieves are being placed upon it. Like drug use; Heroine is not 'stored' in the body, but it's affect on the body accumulates nonetheless. --Or in keeping with the EM example, in a similar way it is just as ridiculous to say that hard drives 'Store' the electricity used to alter the polarity of the molecules in the magnetic substrate. Hard drives don't do this, but the net effect is still one of an altered state.
Do you see how silly this is getting? Of course, your friend would be offended by objective (read: non-believer) types, so maybe you shouldn't mention all this stuff to him...
Don't kid yourself. You are nowhere nearly as objective as you would like to believe. --It is far easier for you to believe that I am a fool who thinks that, 'cells store EM interferrence,' than face the horrifying possibility that I might actually know what I'm talking about. If I knew something which you did not, (impossible!), then that could potentially begin the unraveling of your safe little 'reality'.
As Mark Twain once put it; Denial ain't a river in Africa.
Good luck out there. You'll need it if you're ever going to grow up and wake up. --You've been so bamboozled, that even the slightest crack in the cage makes you jump into auto-pilot denial. I bet you even think that your reactions are your own, and are not the result of extensive cultural pre-conditioning. Silly rabbit.
Did you ask your shaman friend to point out people who have "good" energy and query them about cell phone usage? How does he feel about flying? How about tv?
It worked like this:
He'd only point out people who were not using a phone and did not have a phone visibly on their belt or in another obvious place. Then I'd go up and ask them how many hours they used their cell phone, not even bothering to ask if they had one or not. They always answered that their use was high.
To be fair, though, we were just playing around while walking. It wasn't a carefully organized double-blind test designed to prove anything. While it is bad science, we were both working from the belief that cell phones caused the distortions to one's pattern. We were mostly just interested in how long people had owned a portable phone and how many hours daily they needed to spend on the phone in order to achieve such significant levels of pattern alteration. My insistance on discounting people with visible phones was just my way of subtly testing my friends' abilities, which I like to do just for fun, and although it's considered rude and tiresome, he puts up with it.
How's sitting in front of that monitor workin' out for ya?
The effects of monitor EM are certainly not wonderful. Regular, extended use seems to have an effect on one's ability to dream, either reducing or entirely nixing the ability to recall. There have been a few interesting clinical studies on how R.E.M. states and similar are affected by EM which support this, but they have been limited in their scope. I'd like to see more study.
In any case, after switching to using laptops or thin-screens exclusively a year ago, (and after moving the big screen television which lived in the adjoining room so that my head was no longer only a single sheet of plaster away from being directly behind it when I slept), I did find that dreaming returned with great lucidity and vibrance after several years of experiencing nothing during sleep. --And I'd thought that losing one's dreams was just a fact of growing up. In my case, anyway, it was not.
I was walking through the city the other day with a Shaman friend of mine. We played this game:
He'd point to people and say, "Yeech! That guy's energy is severely messed up." And I'd run across the street and ask how often s/he used a cell phone.
9 for 9. Each individual canvassed reported using a cell phone for, on average, two hours every day.
Altered energy patterns were described as the following. . .
A separate, small bubble of energy now integrated into the side of the person's larger bubble at the side of the head where the cell phone 'plugs' in; weird effects on the rest of the energy pattern, especially when the phone is in use. ('Bubble', being the loose term meaning a 3D version of a pattern which somewhat resembles that seen when iron filings are sprinkled around a magnet).
My friend notes that the alteration of people's energy patterns appears to be a cumulative effect, and that people with energy patterns altered in this way seem much more prone to 'fliers' and similar.
This is a relatively new twist on my old mis-trust of wireless technology which up until recently was based purely on the disturbing and much pooh-poohed reports of weird effects to the nervous system resulting from EM radiation in the bandwidths common to Cell and PCS phones.
Of course, the above is rather far to the left of where most Slashdotters are. Nonetheless, I'd like to point out the following;
The human brain and nervous system are electrochemical in nature; this is why things like stun guns and EEG machines work. We emit EM radiation. Everybody knows this. Conversely, it is foolish to think that EM radiation when pumped through us will have absolutely no effect whatsoever. --And the straight mechanical heating of cells doesn't seem to be the issue in any of the lab reports I've read; the true issue appears to be that the functions of brain and nerve cells are in part mitigated by various electrical wave forms, and like AC and magnets, this is a two way street. That which emits EM can be affected by EM. Simple as that.
Of course, those who stand to make billions of dollars from the entrenching of wireless technology will tell you a very different story; one which sounds a great deal like the "There's no proof," thing that the cigarette companies piped at us for decades.
Okay. Enough. Do some of your own research before knee-jerking based on what you've been tricked into believing is true by Corporate media, bought & sold Governments, and school books provided by said interests.
I could never understand the sheep-bandwagon, "I hate Wesley" nonsense.
People, en-masse jump on the lamest bandwagons.
"Luke's such a pussy. --Waah. But I wanted to go get new power converters."
Or whatever the line was.
Ferkrist's sake! Why do people obsess over LAME shit like that? It's not funny. I guess maybe it just gives nerds something to rally around. "Joke 137" --And they all laugh, as though they were all part of something important. Shut UP, already!
Actually, when I discovered Wil's site, I was amazed at how cool he was, and being forced into the unfair and moronic Ghetto of 'Un-Cool' actor-hood, I thought his response to the scenario was really well balanced and very sane. It was almost as though the process of having to live on the outskirts of popularity forced him into a kind of higher-awareness.
In retrospect, I thought that the final episode of TNG which featured his character was really interesting in this regard. --Ditching the rules and regs of Starfleet to pursue higher-awareness. Interesting parallel.
Somebody told me once that people around here beat up on Katz because he's not a geek, has never lived the highschool hell of being geek, yet writes with a, "We, the geeks," kind of approach which turns the stomachs of true geekdom.
Yeah, maybe. Whatever.
While his essays and general observations are not up to the standards of hardcore journalism, I nonetheless enjoy his passion and the general leaning of his biases, which are often close to my own.
And I like his film reviews as well. I don't often agree with him, but then I don't often agree with any reviewer. It's fun to read people's opinions nonetheless.
This whole site has an attitude and quality which I think his hack-style fits with very well. If you want plastic-people news, there's plenty of other sites you can go to.
Slashdot rocks, it's reliable and constantly updating, and it wouldn't be the same without Katz.
Just my opinion.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be hunting for a warez site to snag a copy of K-Pax.
-Fantastic Lad -I swear! I'll not give another dime to Hollywood until I feel properly compensated for all the crap they've tricked me into paying over-inflated ticket prices to watch!
Well then, you won't mind if a member of YOUR family gets killed in the next attack. . .
. . . This is exactly the sort of paranoid crap I'm talking about. You REALLY believe that the CIA/NSA/FBI etc would allow 6,500 people to die and cause US$x billion of damage? If you do, then you've already surrended your freedom anyway. If you can wind yourself up enough to think like this, then how do you even step outside your home?
Ah. . . I see.
I thought for a second there that I was typing to somebody who had his own thinking faculties. Didn't realize you'd already been bought and sold.
Listen pal, (or at least try to make an attempt at listening; I don't know what passes for a mind in that head of yours, but anyway. ..):
Until you do the research, you don't have any ground to argue from. You're just spouting from the heart and from the crap you've been fed by the media. Go do some reading. Go look under some rocks. The information is all out there for anybody who truly wants to know what's actually going on.
Of course, if you want to remain in your little day-dream world where there are no bad people in America, (except of course, for the turban wearing populace CNN tells you about, and whatever other bad-guy of the week you've been told not to trust), then that's your prerogative.
As has been admitted, Echelon collects far more data than could ever be sorted and used in any effective manner.
Duh.
The only people who could tell you that with any authority are the people who work with and maintain Echelon. Do you honestly believe that they are going to give you an accurate analysis, or do you perhaps instead think they might not be eager to exercise a little Public Relations misdirection?
I would be very surprised if there weren't extremely efficient systems for sorting through and creating lists of 'hot' suspect numbers.
Keep in mind that Echelon isn't just a giant sniffer. It's a way of eavesdropping on any conversation happening anywhere, at any time. Who needs wire taps when you can do it from a central location?
I'd be wary of anybody telling me not to worry. Especially when I've just caught them out behind my house tampering with the phone jack with a pair of headphones and tweezers.
I was under the strong impression from everything I've read, that email and the like are already an open book to the Powers That Be. --Why else would the government be so pissed off about public access to encryption?
Heck, the reduction in how much the government now seems to care about encryption technology indicates to me that they've most likely found some way, either directly or indirectly, to overcome the problem of not being able to read a person's mail whenever and however they want.
Slashdot Mirror
2. "Bioroid" (That's a gimme.)
3. Carla Speed McNeil
-Prime Commonalities? Definitions/explanations? If you can do it without a search engine, you win a thousand points, and prove yourself worthy of this site.
-Fantastic Lad
Scene 1: Grand offices of "Crappy Films Are US!"
"--And the title should sort of sound like 'Matrix' because 'The Matrix' was popular and people are so dip-shit stupid, that we can actually bank on them paying $11 a view just because it sounds similar to another movie they liked."
"Right again, Todd!"
--Face it folks. T2 was good because James Cameron, a certifiable loony toon ego-maniac, happens to also be very good at his job. That's it. That's the only reason. Feed T3 to generic Hollywood, and you can pretty much bet on a BIG PIECE OF STEAMING SHIT to come out of the other end.
Mmm! Hand me a bun!
-Fantastic Lad
Soon my nefariously brilliant plan will be complete! When the entire world is wireless, I will put my scheme into action. . .
I will march into the financial district 10 minutes before the end of trading on a particularly good day, and activate my powerful cross-spectrum white noise generator and shut down all wireless communication within three square kilometers!
HA HA HA!
Of course, if I don't want to get caught before I put my plan into effect, I should start wearing a turban so that the uber-authority New World Order choreographers will quickly forbid their street level FBI officers from arresting me. Now all I need to do is hail from some country the U.S. wants to annex, and I will be unstoppable. . !
HA HA HA!
-Fantastic Lad
Suck magma, assmaggot.
Congratulations!
You have just won the coveted, 2001 Lad Award for Excellence in Knuckledragging and Maintenance of Least Active Grey Matter!
Bravo!
That's right, Bob! Every year we present an award to the contestant for presenting us with the least intelligent response! Imagine if you will, the frustration experienced by our contestant when he found it impossible to formulate even the simplest words, being reduced to red-faced sputtering! A fabulous example of low-brow simple-mindedness! Back to you, Dale!
(Contestant: Please continue to the urine testing center where you will be examined for Lead Poisoning. --We can't allow for unfair advantage among contestants, now can we?)
-Fantastic Lad
-Remember kids, A toxin free sport is a fun sport!
I must agree. Read everything for yourself before rendering judgement.
But I read that fish story and boy! I felt really gyped. I'd been looking forward to reading that book for a couple of years, (it wasn't part of my highschool curriculum), and when I finally got through my enormous In-Pile, I cracked the spine on Melville's work, it took me several chapters before I could believe my eyes.
While I don't subscribe to many 'rules' of writing, there are certain things which do irritate me.
Aside from the fact that it's a boring, bleak and grey story. . .
I can't STAND works filled with laborious, thudding metaphor, ESPECIALLY laborious, thudding, religious metaphor. (Particularly, when it was used, as it seemed in Moby Dick, to trick people into thinking that Melville was deep and thoughtful when really he was just as, if not more confused than his readership concerning life the universe and everything.) The characters were dull, the setting moody, the ultimate purpose behind this tragedy of a book was barely even there. ("Don't Obsess".)
Thanks, Melville! "Don't Obsess" Yeah, I'll make a note of that. --In fact, next time I'm writing a massive technical manual about the whaling industry, I'll think, "Oh yeah! I shouldn't obsess over obscure details the reader didn't sign up for and which could be found in a reference guide if they really wanted to know all this crap, and I'll get back to the actual story I set out to write, which only I can write, and which can't be found in a reference manual."
Moron.
The fact of the matter is that when the American government was charged with coming up with an education curriculum, they had to look around and find some out-standing American writers to pump at their children. And unlike the Europeans, (with their centuries of published writers), America was a young nation with very little literature to choose from.
Melville had, up until that time, been popular for writing pulpy high-seas adventure stories, (entirely unlike his whale bullshit). Then, at the height of his fame, he changed his tack and wrote his 'Oscar' nomination; His let's-get-serious-now "Schindler's-List" book, and everybody who read the damned thing, (and everybody DID read it, because that's what they did back before T.V.), had to turn in his or her best, 'seriously now', manner to his or her neighbor and say, "Yes, Yes. Brilliant work. Quite." --Compound that reaction with the heavy religious metaphoric overtones, (popular at the time for some stupid reason, and which you couldn't easily question because it made you not-a-good-Christian). . .
With all those bullshit, "See! I'm a smart, deep writer," buttons being pushed shamelessly, the wool was predictably pulled, and the damned book has until this day remained on a ridiculous pedestal.
What a joke!
Of course, this is just my opinion. I know some people like writing of H.M.'s style, and more power to them. I don't like to read goth fiction either, and that doesn't make people who wear black any less valid in their search for truth.
And I'm not being facetious
-Fantastic Lad
Well, what do you think, Bugs?
.)
About what, Fantastic Lad?
How long do you give the fine people of the intellectual elite before this story is rationalized into some explainable, head-in-the-sand, don't need to investigate any further because N respected organization of Y respected debunkers has given the final word with some half-assed smoke & mirrors explanation designed to make it easy to ignore certain worrying ideas. . ?
Hmm. Interesting problem, Fantastic Lad. I'll bet $20 on 1.5 years. That seems to be the amount of time they like to allow rumors to circulate and build up before beginning the propaganda run. -One year allows false concepts and truly ridiculous information to be seeded into the actual story, as well as providing the Learning Channel people, (makers of breast implant 'documentaries' paid for by the medical community which 'debunk' alarmist claims by women who have been disfigured, toxified or otherwise harmed by breast implants.), the time to produce some calming and reasonable sounding bullshit about how there's nothing to see here, move on citizen.
Well, I'll take that bet, Bugs! Except, I'll bet on only 9 months. (Although we might have to turn that $20 into credit slips. I'm not sure how long legal tender will be legal. .
Oh, you're such a cynic, Fantastic Lad! Next you'll be telling me that Iraq will be the next target in the American empire building scam! -And that those airplanes were remote piloted, and that the prayers and notes found written by the box cutters all indicated that they actually thought they were going to be spending time in jail rather than as sky-scraper dust! The terrorists were played, and Bin Laden was set up as a paper tiger!
Oh, Bugs! Oh ho! So you've been dipping into the mountain of research again which strongly suggests foulest play! How many times have I told you to stop doing that? If only you would listen to the accepted news sources, you'll be a much, much happier rabbit. Who cares if you'll drool more? A handi-wipe is all anybody really needs! Now off you go!
Ooh. Silly me! Well off I go! Good Bye, Fantastic Lad!
Good Bye, Bugs!
Is Left Hand, by any chance, part of the highschool curriculum in anybody's neck of the woods?
Wouldn't surprise me.
One of my long fostered conspiracy theories is that they give kids lame & dull books to read in school just to discourage their further intellectual growth by making reading seem like a soul draining pile of hard work which is best avoided. (See kids? Drinking is much more fun! Don't think. Thinking is bad. Let us think for you. Buy our hamburgers, electric garage door openers and DVD players. What? You want to read? Fuck you! Here. Read, Moby Dick, and the Scarlet Letter, you little puke! What? You want more? Have some Bronte Sisters, you little shit! Now, stop thinking, damn it!)
I'm not saying that every book should spark the spirit to life. --And not just because most of the stories out there which try to be uplifting fail miserably because they're also insipidly stupid, surface-only, retarded crap, (Shrek. Charlie's Angels. Jay & Silent Bob. Monster's Inc. Etc.), but I am saying that while I give LeGuin a nod for her intellectual prowess, I nonetheless thought Left Hand of Darkness was needlessly cold. Somebody as together as her should know better!
Smart writing doesn't have to be depressing writing. I don't get why so many people buy into that concept.
-Fantastic Lad
The only good part in Generations, (an otherwise BAD, BAD, BAD film), was when Kirk made Picard look like a square school boy. (And I think Picard is a wonderful character!) But I hate, 'Good Parts' films. If it isn't all good, then it's a bad film. Period.
Truth is this: Giant casts of so-so actors all with contracts which guarantee X minutes of screen time regardless of the needs of the story, = Another SHITTY film.
The last good trek film was the "Undiscovered Country." Story first.
Everything since was boring shlock. The Odd/Even numbered movie thing is completely innacurate from my perspective. I loved the first film. I liked the fifth film. I despised the eighth film. I don't understand people.
Finally: Watching Data say "Shit" was everything Trek was not supposed to be. Thanks Berman. You can't write. Please turn in your pen and go home before somebody wizens up and kicks your conceited ass.
The best thing about the next film is that Wil Wheaton will get some work and personal satisfaction.
-Fantastic Lad
I don't know about you, but it's been a long damned time since I felt like I was living in a free nation. What we're experiencing now is merely the final tightening of the screws. By the time everybody wakes up to the fact that we're slaves, it'll be too late to do anything about it. It only gets darker from here on in, kids!
But I'm not a nihilist. This is exciting! And anyway, the black trench coat look is so Columbine.
I like to think of this period of history as a cross between the final exam for one's personal integrity, and a kick-ass fireworks show. Buckle up and enjoy! Ten points to any objective & rational non-pod-person who lives to see, say, 2015.
-Fantastic Lad
1. George Bull.
2. To those who say that moon mining is going to de-orbit the moon: I really don't think so. No more than Earth mining is going to de-orbit the Earth. The Moon is bigger than it looks; (it's not a whole lot smaller than Mars, actually. -Not that Mars is particularly big, but it's certainly not small enough to push out of orbit with our tiny human affairs and giant human egos.)
3. "Cha"
4. According to this website, moon-mining has already taken place.
Okay. That's enough to chew on. Get back to work, all of you.
-Fantastic Lad
It seems that FBI officers knew well in advance about the terrorist activities regarding Oklahoma, 9/11 and on-going events; the higher ups forbade FBI officers from shutting the terrorist cells down. Sounds amazing, but the lead lawyer responsible for the Clinton impeachment, (David Shippers), is representing FBI officers who are outraged by the corruption which allowed the terrorist actions to proceed when they could easily have been prevented.
Who is David Shippers? Here's a brief link explaining.
And after you've glanced at that, an interview with him regarding the above claims.
-Fantastic Lad
It seems that FBI officers knew well in advance about the terrorist activities regarding Oklahoma, 9/11 and on-going events; the higher ups forbade FBI officers from shutting the terrorist cells down. Sounds amazing, but the lead lawyer responsible for the Clinton impeachment, (David Shippers), is representing FBI officers who are outraged by the corruption which allowed the terrorist actions to proceed when they could easily have been prevented.
Who is David Shippers? Here's a brief link explaining.
And after you've glanced at that, an interview with him regarding the above claims.
-Fantastic Lad
Actually, I think Microsoft is more interested in maintaining market dominance in terms of OS's and software licensing. Having a popular, hackable game box is a great way of affecting this. Keeps MS planted in the public awareness.
But the coup de grace is that it focuses all the best and brightest minds in programming into development for a Microsoft chassis and OS, which will significantly polarize the direction of the content industry for the next few years. For the most part, I'd certainly believe the MS representative quoted; --the xbox is primarily a piece of aggressive advertising and market manipulation. Quite a formidable play, if you ask me.
-Fantastic Lad
I under-estimated you. Pardon my hubris, but for every guy like you, I run across a hundred others who really are as tiresome and pre-programmed as you first appeared in your initial post. Very good!
My approach, (mostly through compunction rather than planning), tends to be one made up from acidic remarks and brow beating unfairness and even a touch of hypocrisy just to see if I can't make people stop and think along a slightly different track for a second or two. Almost trolling, I suppose. --Though in truth, I feel I am exploding with tons of amazing knowledge; things I've seen and done, a great deal of which I don't like to share because of how crazy I know it sounds. But I digress. . .
I should mention up front that I dislike debate a great deal. I find that two debaters will often jump into silly duels of hair-splitting. Many of the points you raised, while valid, like your complaint that narcotics are in fact stored in the body, are for the most part, quite beside the point. I find debaters tend to very quickly lose sight of the big picture and the purpose of their discussion in order to 'win points' from one another by dissecting the minutia. Language is not an exact science, so it's entirely possible to mis-interpret one another, (usually on purpose), indefinitely rather than look at the core of what a conversation is really about. I find debate, with its scoring mechanics, and established confrontational nature runs very much counter to the purpose of real communication. (And you'll pardon me if I open myself up like this to easy blows by attempting to take this up to the level of a discussion proper and treat it like one.)
Nonetheless, I'd like to clarify what I meant when I used the heroin (heroine? Erg.) analogy, because I think it's a useful way to describe what I'm talking about in regard to EMR and how it can affect people:
From my understanding, and very simply, when a drug enters the system, the body produces chemicals required to counter-act and neutralize the drug. When the drug is used regularly, the body responds by maintaining a level of self-produced anti-toxicant in order to maintain a balanced body chemistry. This is why it takes larger and larger doses of a given narcotic to achieve the same 'pleasurable' effects; you're trying to keep one step ahead of the body's balancing mechanism. This also explains the cravings for a regularly used drug; the natural anti-toxicant when unused against the drug, are often themselves toxic and cause the shakes and erratic emotional behavior and similar.
While there is certainly no question that measurable tissue damage is one result of regular drug use, the unbalanced body chemistry resulting in shakes and cravings and erratic moods is not the primary result of tissue damage or of quantities of the drug which have been absorbed into fat cells, but rather of the body's own response to the repeated stimulus of a foriegn agent in the system. And that's where I was trying to draw the parallel.
Phew! All that from a little hair splitting. (And my original point was. . ?) Well. . , I've had quite enough of that! I'm going to assume from now on that you will try to reach to catch my points in the future rather than play tennis with them, and that if you do single out a piece of language which can be turned on its ear and made to sound silly, that I really wasn't clear and that you really do need clarification, which I will happily offer. I will, of course, extend you the same courtesy.
Anyway. . .
Yes. I do indeed believe in what my friend can see and do. I am far beyond the point where I need to have the existence of magic proven to me. The fact of the matter is that I've seen and done some astonishing things which have no analog in the pseudo-science realm sold to us as the 'real' thing. I have held extended conversations and practiced martial arts while in dreaming, all fully verifiable when awake on the following days. I even have the limited faculty to see auras glowing an inch or so around people myself, (not just in dark rooms or with extended straining eye exercises or any of the other techniques people often use to fool themselves). This, actually, was the primary reason for my shifting from debunker to the other camp, and for seeking out people who could explain what was happening to me. I regularly experience a list of other peculiar things. (And no, I don't and never have taken drugs beyond very limited alcohol use or the rare dose of headache medicine. I am in excellent health.)
The problem is that nothing I have seen or done, while it has all served to make a massive and very positive difference in my life, can be shared with, or much less, proven to somebody who has been hammered with the scientific method since birth. "If you can't prove it, then I refuse to believe it!" And I suppose that's fair enough, but it is very frustrating to not be able to talk about this stuff. It's even worse when I see people being actively shut down and directed away from higher awareness by the harsh and pervasive constraints placed upon people by that which is Western culture.
A big hurdle is one of faith; one of the many sorcerer's contradictions. Seeing is believing, and vice versa. --Unfortunately, faith has been made into a filthy, filthy word. Sometimes I think that the world-spanning cult of Christianity has been fostered to such nauseating levels specifically to make the more sensible people knee jerk too far in the opposite direction. --This takes care of practically everybody: the fools are religious and thus blinded and controlled, and the smarter people blind themselves by throwing the baby out with the bathwater, locking themselves within the limits of incomplete scientific knowledge as it is fed to us piecemeal by institutions which place humanity's best interests very, very low on their list of priorities.
Anyway, that's a little snapshot of where I'm coming from.
Take care, and many thanks for your being interesting and for entertaining with humor my trollish behavior!
-Fantastic Lad
There's good change and bad change, and hanging around with a shaman is certainly going to change you.
For my part, I tend to find that I feel healthier and stronger and more focused; I seem now these days to dwarf everybody around me in terms of physical and mental acumen. Everyday life gets much, much easier when you start learning how to allow the spirit to move through you; when you learn to dispense with self-centeredness and negative emotion. The only trouble, is that non-everyday challenges start popping up. Nobody gets out without breaking a sweat! --Not even a shaman.
-Fantastic Lad
Yes, yes. I've worked extensively behind the scenes with 'rabbit out of the hat' professional magicians. I know the drill. I know all about 'cold reading' and similar. I've studied this stuff for years, in all liklihood, in far greater depth than you have. And I've learned two things from my studies; 1) People can indeed nearly always be fooled. 2)A creative thinker can rationalize his or her way out of ANY corner in a convincing manner regardless of actual facts.
Do you get what I'm saying here? I'm saying that it's a two-way street. I'm saying that if the genuine article came up and bit you on the nose, you could through creativity and an unbending faith in science, rationalize it into dust or swamp gas or whatever. --Which is just as moronic as True Believer syndrome.
I'm not saying that there aren't hucksters and fools aplenty. There are. But I'm not one of them. Indeed, I come from a background rooted heavily in the sciences, and I began studying the esoteric long ago in an attempt to 'debunk'. But I promised myself I would perform always in as unbiased a way as possible, and as such, I've explored, experienced and 'seen' enough on both sides of the fence to conclude that there is actually much more going on in the world than the average Western tunnel vision allows for. Clearly, you'll not believe me, so I'll ask you this: have you ever actually studied and experimented with any esoteric material to determine its validity, or are you basing your beliefs on a few convenient examples of how people can be fooled, --and on what you have been told is the 'right' thing to believe?
Sheesh... and your friend considers it rude to test him? Gosh, we wouldn't want to offend his sensibilities.
My friend has been tested and bullied by people like you since the day he was born simply because he is able to see more than you can, and because people have the arrogance to think that they have the right to demand 'proof' from anybody rather than go out and find it on their own. --Try to imagine if you were the only person whose eyes were sensitive to light; how would you feel if the blind populace constantly demanded proof of your ability, and then refused to believe you no matter what evidence you offered. Imagine even having your life threatened over it.
As he puts it: "Your faith is your problem. I don't care what you believe, but if you believe I'm full of lies, then please just go away. I won't waste my time forcing people onto the path who are not ready. It's actually wrong to do that."
BTW, you might ask your friend how the cells 'store' EM interference. If the effects are cumulative, there must be a way for cells to retain the EM interference they receive... and does it fade if you stop using a phone? If so, what's the 'half-life' of an EM interfered cell? How long does it last? How does cellular lifespan affect your total EM accumulation?
Now, don't be silly. I didn't say that cells 'store' EM interference, although I can understand why you would jump to the nearest least logical conclustion regarding my post. --You are clearly predisposed to finding hucksters and fools under every rock. But I'll explain in any case:
Living systems adapt over time to the repeated exosure of ANY strong enough stimulus, electromagnetic or otherwise. EM doesn't have to be stored; all it has to do is change the way a system functions for long enough for the system to alter its electrochemical qualities to satisfy whatever demands it percieves are being placed upon it. Like drug use; Heroine is not 'stored' in the body, but it's affect on the body accumulates nonetheless. --Or in keeping with the EM example, in a similar way it is just as ridiculous to say that hard drives 'Store' the electricity used to alter the polarity of the molecules in the magnetic substrate. Hard drives don't do this, but the net effect is still one of an altered state.
Do you see how silly this is getting? Of course, your friend would be offended by objective (read: non-believer) types, so maybe you shouldn't mention all this stuff to him...
Don't kid yourself. You are nowhere nearly as objective as you would like to believe. --It is far easier for you to believe that I am a fool who thinks that, 'cells store EM interferrence,' than face the horrifying possibility that I might actually know what I'm talking about. If I knew something which you did not, (impossible!), then that could potentially begin the unraveling of your safe little 'reality'.
As Mark Twain once put it; Denial ain't a river in Africa.
Good luck out there. You'll need it if you're ever going to grow up and wake up. --You've been so bamboozled, that even the slightest crack in the cage makes you jump into auto-pilot denial. I bet you even think that your reactions are your own, and are not the result of extensive cultural pre-conditioning. Silly rabbit.
-Fantastic Lad
It worked like this:
He'd only point out people who were not using a phone and did not have a phone visibly on their belt or in another obvious place. Then I'd go up and ask them how many hours they used their cell phone, not even bothering to ask if they had one or not. They always answered that their use was high.
To be fair, though, we were just playing around while walking. It wasn't a carefully organized double-blind test designed to prove anything. While it is bad science, we were both working from the belief that cell phones caused the distortions to one's pattern. We were mostly just interested in how long people had owned a portable phone and how many hours daily they needed to spend on the phone in order to achieve such significant levels of pattern alteration. My insistance on discounting people with visible phones was just my way of subtly testing my friends' abilities, which I like to do just for fun, and although it's considered rude and tiresome, he puts up with it.
-Fantastic Lad
How's sitting in front of that monitor workin' out for ya?
The effects of monitor EM are certainly not wonderful. Regular, extended use seems to have an effect on one's ability to dream, either reducing or entirely nixing the ability to recall. There have been a few interesting clinical studies on how R.E.M. states and similar are affected by EM which support this, but they have been limited in their scope. I'd like to see more study.
In any case, after switching to using laptops or thin-screens exclusively a year ago, (and after moving the big screen television which lived in the adjoining room so that my head was no longer only a single sheet of plaster away from being directly behind it when I slept), I did find that dreaming returned with great lucidity and vibrance after several years of experiencing nothing during sleep. --And I'd thought that losing one's dreams was just a fact of growing up. In my case, anyway, it was not.
He'd point to people and say, "Yeech! That guy's energy is severely messed up." And I'd run across the street and ask how often s/he used a cell phone.
9 for 9. Each individual canvassed reported using a cell phone for, on average, two hours every day.
Altered energy patterns were described as the following. . .
A separate, small bubble of energy now integrated into the side of the person's larger bubble at the side of the head where the cell phone 'plugs' in; weird effects on the rest of the energy pattern, especially when the phone is in use. ('Bubble', being the loose term meaning a 3D version of a pattern which somewhat resembles that seen when iron filings are sprinkled around a magnet).
My friend notes that the alteration of people's energy patterns appears to be a cumulative effect, and that people with energy patterns altered in this way seem much more prone to 'fliers' and similar.
This is a relatively new twist on my old mis-trust of wireless technology which up until recently was based purely on the disturbing and much pooh-poohed reports of weird effects to the nervous system resulting from EM radiation in the bandwidths common to Cell and PCS phones.
Of course, the above is rather far to the left of where most Slashdotters are. Nonetheless, I'd like to point out the following;
The human brain and nervous system are electrochemical in nature; this is why things like stun guns and EEG machines work. We emit EM radiation. Everybody knows this. Conversely, it is foolish to think that EM radiation when pumped through us will have absolutely no effect whatsoever. --And the straight mechanical heating of cells doesn't seem to be the issue in any of the lab reports I've read; the true issue appears to be that the functions of brain and nerve cells are in part mitigated by various electrical wave forms, and like AC and magnets, this is a two way street. That which emits EM can be affected by EM. Simple as that.
Of course, those who stand to make billions of dollars from the entrenching of wireless technology will tell you a very different story; one which sounds a great deal like the "There's no proof," thing that the cigarette companies piped at us for decades.
Okay. Enough. Do some of your own research before knee-jerking based on what you've been tricked into believing is true by Corporate media, bought & sold Governments, and school books provided by said interests.
Have fun!
-Fantastic Lad
People, en-masse jump on the lamest bandwagons.
"Luke's such a pussy. --Waah. But I wanted to go get new power converters."
Or whatever the line was.
Ferkrist's sake! Why do people obsess over LAME shit like that? It's not funny. I guess maybe it just gives nerds something to rally around. "Joke 137" --And they all laugh, as though they were all part of something important. Shut UP, already!
Actually, when I discovered Wil's site, I was amazed at how cool he was, and being forced into the unfair and moronic Ghetto of 'Un-Cool' actor-hood, I thought his response to the scenario was really well balanced and very sane. It was almost as though the process of having to live on the outskirts of popularity forced him into a kind of higher-awareness.
In retrospect, I thought that the final episode of TNG which featured his character was really interesting in this regard. --Ditching the rules and regs of Starfleet to pursue higher-awareness. Interesting parallel.
-Fantastic Lad
Yeah, maybe. Whatever.
While his essays and general observations are not up to the standards of hardcore journalism, I nonetheless enjoy his passion and the general leaning of his biases, which are often close to my own.
And I like his film reviews as well. I don't often agree with him, but then I don't often agree with any reviewer. It's fun to read people's opinions nonetheless.
This whole site has an attitude and quality which I think his hack-style fits with very well. If you want plastic-people news, there's plenty of other sites you can go to.
Slashdot rocks, it's reliable and constantly updating, and it wouldn't be the same without Katz.
Just my opinion.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be hunting for a warez site to snag a copy of K-Pax.
-Fantastic Lad -I swear! I'll not give another dime to Hollywood until I feel properly compensated for all the crap they've tricked me into paying over-inflated ticket prices to watch!
. . . This is exactly the sort of paranoid crap I'm talking about. You REALLY believe that the CIA/NSA/FBI etc would allow 6,500 people to die and cause US$x billion of damage? If you do, then you've already surrended your freedom anyway. If you can wind yourself up enough to think like this, then how do you even step outside your home?
Ah. . . I see.
I thought for a second there that I was typing to somebody who had his own thinking faculties. Didn't realize you'd already been bought and sold.
Listen pal, (or at least try to make an attempt at listening; I don't know what passes for a mind in that head of yours, but anyway. .
Until you do the research, you don't have any ground to argue from. You're just spouting from the heart and from the crap you've been fed by the media. Go do some reading. Go look under some rocks. The information is all out there for anybody who truly wants to know what's actually going on.
Of course, if you want to remain in your little day-dream world where there are no bad people in America, (except of course, for the turban wearing populace CNN tells you about, and whatever other bad-guy of the week you've been told not to trust), then that's your prerogative.
Your level of awareness is up to you.
-Fantastic Lad
Wrong thread.
I must have wandered into Trolling for Dummies 101 by mistake. Pardon me. I'll just take my soap-box rhetoric and be out of your hair.
Nice Crayon-ing, by the way! I'm sure your mom will be happy to put that up on the fridge!
'Kay. Bye!
-Fantastic Lad
Duh.
The only people who could tell you that with any authority are the people who work with and maintain Echelon. Do you honestly believe that they are going to give you an accurate analysis, or do you perhaps instead think they might not be eager to exercise a little Public Relations misdirection?
I would be very surprised if there weren't extremely efficient systems for sorting through and creating lists of 'hot' suspect numbers.
Keep in mind that Echelon isn't just a giant sniffer. It's a way of eavesdropping on any conversation happening anywhere, at any time. Who needs wire taps when you can do it from a central location?
I'd be wary of anybody telling me not to worry. Especially when I've just caught them out behind my house tampering with the phone jack with a pair of headphones and tweezers.
Come on now! Use your head!
-Fantastic Lad
I was under the strong impression from everything I've read, that email and the like are already an open book to the Powers That Be. --Why else would the government be so pissed off about public access to encryption?
Heck, the reduction in how much the government now seems to care about encryption technology indicates to me that they've most likely found some way, either directly or indirectly, to overcome the problem of not being able to read a person's mail whenever and however they want.
-Fantastic Lad