Eat thyself future boy

My initial thoughts upon seeing the super-soldier of the future (2030) skirted the flippant nonsensical - bit like this particular post, to wondering why they were wasting so much money, time and unnecessary duplication; when a flash of perspiration dribbled down my chin.

Images and photo courtesy of newscientist  usarmy although for some strange reason the photo image from the usarmy only popped up after been accessed via google, and not direct - so had to do a bit of shopping... eek!

   

Someone had solved all those particular problems (if in a slightly less hi-tech way) thousands of years ago. Just point a stick and say your cause is just and true.  Voilà! Before you know it a crusade or jihad.  Problem solved. Instant, thoughtless (apart from what you tell them to think), fighting machines.

Doped up - so as not to think.  Shocked - to know when to think. But they forgot to include the micro-bacterial food implants which would provide months of nourishment at a time.  The little critters will be taking all the energy they'd need from available light, the soldiers recyclables (yes in keeping with the tone of a previous post, what i meant to say is; shit, piss) and moisture from the air. 

Oh yes, nothing nicer than nourishing yourself.

Perhaps it's me but i'm thinking, just change the colour slightly...   and...

its a starship trooper.

Tale of two stories

So here are two different takes on the same breaking story, from two organisations that are not really known for their barking at the moon mentality! 

The guardian

The bbc

And the paper that's been breaking on the trough snufflers over the past few days?

The telegraph

So as with all things that fly across the; ether, net, air, papyrus or other, not only needs a pinch of salt, but very own personal quarry.

Tits above

Warning! Content contains rude words - eek!

I've never really understood why it's fine to watch dismemberment, or send people abroad in our name to die, or allow the continued construction and research into ever more horrific weapons; yet we get all up-tight when it comes down to sex or bodily functions? 

What a fucked up, twisted around, arse above tit global society we've become.

I mean, when people pick their nose they say they're picking their nose, and not excuse me whilst i re-align my mucous membranes; although the way things are going, even that might be taken the wrong way.

Instead of saying i've just had a colon cleanse, what's wrong with saying i've just had my arse cleaned!  Obviously something financial institutions and political parties forgot to include in their respective recruitment clauses.

How big do your nuts grow?

Yes summers ongoing march is slowly fritzing the last few cells of responsibility and it's nearly time to get ready for those paunches over belts, wobbly knees and smelly public transport links that makes you wish for the return of nosegays.

But in the meantime the nuts i'd planted, that finally poked their heads above soil and looked like...

... at the start of april.

Now, nearing the end of may, all seven are still growing and are looking more like ...

... and I think six will soon be in need of new homes.

Now we wait

The LTTE have been defeated.

How will the Tamil minority now be treated? 

If the Sri Lankan majority treat them with respect - despite the past two decades war and numerous horrors, they will as a people have taken a major step forward. 

Time.

Online tents

Good to see that the empire is getting its thoughts around to making a few more millions.

So we have a paper - let's say the Times, about 70 pages with 50 pages of adverts, cost 85p?  So average article's about 1/3 a page so that'll give us a grand total per article of £0.01p per article.

At a cost of a penny per article, I might just be tempted to pop down to my local library and read it there, if i must. But i'm sure there'll be countries around the world more than happy to provide a feed.  Either that or some smart alec will twitter the best bits.

And like tents in a gale, there goes another one...

A paucity of pygmies

The government's been more than happy to bail out banks to the tune of $2.26*tn, yet they have thousands of people on the streets who are homeless.

Imagine if they took 1 percent of that whopping £1.5tn.  They could, at let's say £80k per new built flat (bit more expensive for a house), build at least 187,000 new flats. 

But that would hit the housing market, and people would lose money they've sunk into treating housing as just another commodity.  But there'd be no homelessness!  Everyone, or at least nearly everyone in the country, would finally have a roof over their heads.  It'd be cheaper than constantly having soul destroying meeting after soul destroying meeting carping on that there's just not enough housing, what are we to do. 

Who know's whole new towns with new infrastructure, new jobs (the new tech's) could be created, and with the mistakes learned from the disasters of the past, perhaps they could be avoided this time around.

Imagine 187,000 new flats, with the fastest easily upgraded broadband service, excellent public transport links, excellent community facilities, excellent green spaces, the latest environmentally efficient technologies, recycling, solar heating, solar powering, if done properly these could be feeding electricity back into the grind, and for how the old pollution ridden cities could be.

But as vision is the one thing seemingly lacking in today's uk, it'll probably only happen when things really freeze over.

Oh yes, how much would 187k homes contribute towards council tax payments alone per year?  £172mn.

* $/£ rate of 1.5069 as at 13:15 8th May 2009

Glorious

Last nights glorious sunset just had to be snapped.  And like Douglas Adams' fabulous sheep, every sunset's a new day.

Chesties

No, nothing to do with spare pork ribs, fried avian wings or bbq'd legs.  But, there is a lovely picture of bubbling beans.

Horse chesty seedlets, 30th April 2009

Bubbling beans

An extra, stray

In to the out

It's always funny listening to the arguments been used to keep the 48 hour opt out, and keeping it going come hell or high water.  

At one stroke - whilst blaming it on those lazy arsed european politicians - you could ensure that no one in the country has to work more than 48 hours per week.  

What better way of ensuring wealth, equality and increasingly scarce work is distributed amongst those who have been left out in the current cold clime.  I doubt - but naturally I could be wrong, whether it's the vast majority of employees scrambling to hoist the repel-all-borders-flag up a flag post, or going 'of course I want to work a 100 hours a week, I really really really love my job.' 

Those who enjoy ticking off the hours are usually the ones whose pension pots makes the income of a small city visibly pale in comparison.  Whose main thoughts lay on the side of accruing huge wealth simply for the sake of it. 

But spare a thought for those whose working hours miraculously merge into unpaid overtime hours, who believe they have no choice, and no option.  If they're lucky, they'll have seen that innocuous bit of paper hinting at the concept of loyal paternalism; of course you want to work more than 48 hours to make this the worlds greatest and successful company, don't you?

Indicating that you wish to keep your legal opt-in, immediately marks you out as a glass-ceilinged shirker.

But in the meantime they really should drop the name Working Time Limits and give it its proper title; let's work the buggers till they drop.

Now then, who mentioned flu sniffing?

Washing hands?

With the not yet pandemic scale of what's turning out to be an interesting outbreak of flu, It's a bit disturbing that people have to be told; don't sneeze on someone, and wash your hands.  Eew, eew, EEW!

Perhaps they should start teaching the basics in schools and religious institutions, before even bothering to wonder where the flu came from, how it evolved, unless of course its been created by some intelligent designer with a great big designer laboratory behind him or her.

Ban it

Ban everything, as we've finally discovered that everything - in one way or another - is bad for us.  We should, on that fact alone, ban everything!

Ban going outside.  As thunderous hailstones or lightning or a falling plane might put an end to a life.

Ban cars, and not only from the obvious the amount of pollution they exude, but for the cars habit of bursting into flames, careering into drivers, pedestrians, bollards and eventually ending up as scrap in a river somewhere poisoning a food source.

Ban watching tv.  As too much tv watching rots the brain and has it oozing out and down the dead persons double chin.

Ban food, due to its toxicity and the fact people only end up stuffing their face, and taking up more than one seat in economy.

Ban flying, just in case a toilet comes hurtling out the sky.

Ban anyone who wants to ban anything.

Parachutes ahoy

So those who are earning more than £150,000 are boo-hoo-ing that they'll have to pay an extra £2,900 per year, in tax.   Are they aware that that £2,900 they are paying is the equivalent of 87% just over two million people have to live on? 

So will the new 50% tax rate produce the threatened mass exodus of talent from the city of london?  Hopefully.  Just feel sorry for the next city the talent decide to land on and improve.

The real beneficiaries from this budget are the under 25's and those isa savers who are, or will be 50 by the time october 2009 comes around, and can take advantage of the higher saving levels. 

Oh yes and those who buy the gilts and bonds to pay for it.

22-04-09

 

for more

Prick that nutty bubble

As bubbles come and go, it's surely time for the fundamental bubble to be pricked before it pops and takes half the world with it. 

Did anyone really expect pres. mahmoud ahmadinejad to do or say anything else?  I'm sure he's one of the escaped spitting image puppets that's had some life breathed into it and and is running amok, wrecking revenge.  And then we have the unfolding debacle in pakistan, give us what we want and we'll think about giving up arms... ha, no we won't.  If they (fundis) believe those of their same delusional belief system who have no truck and wish to have no truck with their delusions should be eradicated, as well as those who believe in a different version of the same delusion should be eradicated; how did the authorities ever believe they could agree anything that didn't, at some stage, involve that time honoured tradition of having fingers crossed behind your backs.

Onto happier and more lighter moments.  The horse chestnuts are doing remarkably well.

Let's have a quick recap of the timeline so far...

2nd april 2009	12th april

... and now how they look today.

21st april 2009

Nails

"At what stage will you wake up to realise you no longer have any freedom?

Perhaps you never will, as you no longer know, what freedom is."

Ambassadorial duties

I wouldn't know a past participle from a split infinitive if it hit me over the head with a pa... damn, used that one already.

But moving on to other pointless things, its a bit of a slap in the face when your nominees are rebuffed by the representative of the word.  Perhaps pres o. is looking at it in the wrong way.  As the pontiff obviously only wishes to be surrounded by nodding ducks, then perhaps he (obama) should just send a sack-full of them.  Which should be more than sufficient for the amount of sense which would be exchanged anyway.

Oh yes, forgot to show my support in the previous poke at religious nuttery.

Well better 3 ¾ years late to show some free speech solidarity than not at all.

Colour views

Extremist views on racism strangely coalesce when you reach the edges of the debate. 

Regardless of the the colour of a persons skin, the more extreme their particular view on race (whichever race), the more in common they have with their counterparts.  Sort of a racist code of diametric agreement.  The extremes of the brotherhood feel they are, or have been, or will be the victims.  Both feel to have been oppressed or held back or overlooked by those in power.  Invaded, discriminated against and the interlopers should be kicked out. 

And luckily, the web allows us all to be on our guard.  To say no.  Things can be different. 

Three cheers?

The problem with waking up and starting to early...

“I have to kill the children and my wife and send them to heaven. I don’t care about killing myself and going to hell.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/nyregion/13shoot.html?ref=nyregion

and in another part of the globe...

"Shop warned for selling offensive shoes

The customer protection section (cps) recently seized shoes with the name of god printed on them.

The department announced that the shop was selling shoes in direct violation of rules and regulations and could not be tolerated. The acting head of the cps, said that the department's inspectors acted swiftly following a report from one of the customers [read busy body, curtain twitcher, righteous angry, or another shop owner getting rid of the competition].

The department investigated the report on the spot and concluded the complaint was genuine, and inspectors acted immediately.

Inspectors raided and seized huge quantities of shoes and summoned the shop owner to the the Department. He was ordered to sign a pledge never to import that type of shoes in future and the shop was issued an official warning, a copy of which was kept in the shop's file.

The shop was penalised as per article no. 10 of the penalty scheme, which stipulates that those who circulate products that directly harm islamic laws and the decency code, are penalised.

This was not the first time, the department's inspectors had seized shoes with the name of god printed on them, in a way which badly harms muslim feelings.

She called on the public to be extremely careful when they make purchases in the emirate and to contact the department in case of any possible doubts."

http://archive.gulfnews.com/nation/General/10303246.html

and elsewhere, but a different time...

"They tell me to burn in hell and good riddance,"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7853325.stm

 

Reviewers noose

A reviewer (freelance mind) of Origins:Wolverine gets the chop by pasting a review, in which he also mentions, he'd seen it via the web. 

The actions of his erstwhile employer, fox, is to sack him.  The same fox which is now related to the old big daddy of usa news journalism, the new york times; yes incest's on the menu.  They and the film co's seem to have lathered an amount of free pre-fervour advertising for the film that, if otherwise conducted via usual channels, have added a good few extra zeros on top of an already large budget.  Maybe it's all part of the overall plan and he'll be back working for them in no time at all, or maybe he thought it would slip by unnoticed, especially with most of the industry snarling away in sweden barring - if only half - charges at the pirate bay.

But it jogged a memory. And I recalled the last time this occurred, admittedly only stargate sg1's final days - with way less budgetary requirements to claw back than origins will require.  But it was strange how and with it not happening before, the final two episodes (minus vfx or full sound fx) managed to escape carefully vetted security clutches and ping themselves online.  Surprisingly, the extra publicity pulled in more people than the studios expected, and - probably - helped to assist with the planned films.  Yes, all very strange.  And strangely to, that particular episode hasn't satisfactorily been solved to this day, well not that i've heard anything about.

So yes, x-men origins:wolverine is available for download via any p2p service - without the vfx.  Which, if it's any good, will wet peoples curious appetite ensuring the seed's successfully planted and ready for the films release.  And people will subconsciously prime themselves to experience the films huge sensation-numbing thx greatness.  After all, as tobacco companies have more or less been indicating publicly for years, "just because it's out there, and plastered on everything, of course people won't be influenced to buy."  If it's any good. 

Content producers will have to climb out of their bunkers and start engaging in a more meaningful way the very people they are supposedly producing the films, the books, music for.  Yes the consumers.  As opposed to just thinking "how much money can we make from the suckers." To engage them when they produce something that's really good, as well as admitting when they've produced a total dogs breakfast and not worth the popcorn squashed onto the cinema floor let alone cinema ticket, and give something back to those who have wasted good money.  But no doubt that would lead to another can of worms with people saying everything they've seen is crap and where's my next freebie!

The days when consumers were nose-led by old media dinosaurs is, hopefully, diminishing. But deep within darkened tunnels (golf courses) a rear guard action continues by those who want nothing more than to get back to the good old days of totally dictating how consumers can use a particular piece of media, then gouge them for as much as possible, all the while bringing out the most mediocre rubbish, minus the odd sparkling gem, as possible.

Silly mistake by roger friedman? Potentially, time will tell. 

Brilliant free advertising for the film?  Way beyond anything the companies probably hoped for. 

Will I see it when it's out?  Damn, should have booked front seat tickets.  x-men