Throwing stones in the glass house

watch out !!

2008-04-20T18:03:00.002+10:00

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.

François-Marie Arouet

there is no knowledge

2008-04-07T18:47:00.000+10:00

It's not what you know, it's what you can prove.

each one an original

2008-04-07T18:41:00.000+10:00

We are products of editing rather than authorship.

on speed

2008-04-07T18:19:00.001+10:00

Just when you think you've got the rat race licked - Boom! Faster rats.

The American Dream

2008-03-21T16:21:00.002+11:00

on Easter Friday: a modern day crucifix

2008-03-21T13:38:00.002+11:00

another inconvenient truth

2008-03-21T12:18:00.004+11:00

When Japan sends out a fleet to shoot whales, Australia is hugely outspoken and moves into action by helping fund and publicly support the anti-whaling actions of the Sea Shepherd's Steve Irwin. But when China sends in its troops to shoot Tibetan monks, Australia says little and does nothing. What a disappointment.

meet YOUR world

2008-03-09T17:29:00.004+11:00

Europe
China
USA
Icaro Doria is a Brazilian artist.

ah, the irony

2008-02-29T18:57:00.002+11:00

A US officer with the 101st Airborne Division learns Arabic at a combat outpost in the northern Iraqi town of Baiji, near the oil city of Kirkuk.

view from the outside in

2008-02-29T09:48:00.004+11:00

Two aliens are flying by our planet. One alien looks down and says, "It seems that the dominant life force here has been able to figure out satellite weapon technologies."

The other alien asks, "Do you mean to say there is intelligent life on this planet?"

"It does not appear to be so", the first replies. "They have it aimed at themselves!"

There is no gravity. The earth sucks.

2008-02-24T14:25:00.002+11:00

the 'power' of the media

2008-02-17T18:49:00.003+11:00

One death is a tragedy.
One million deaths is a statistic.

[35,000 children die every day in 3rd world countries; UNESCO]

the story of stuff

2008-02-09T16:06:00.001+11:00

enough spam e-mail for me!

2008-01-27T17:39:00.000+11:00

happy Australia Day

2008-01-26T17:08:00.000+11:00

I passed this guy sitting on George Street [Sydney] this week.

urban angel

2007-12-30T19:31:00.000+11:00

angel: n 1. a messenger and servant of God, usually represented as a person with large wings and dressed in white clothes 2. a spirit that watches and guards one -see also "guardian angel" 3. a person especially a woman, who is very kind, good, beautiful etc.

urban flower

2007-12-30T18:51:00.001+11:00

gilad

new york city ... no horizons, only up

2007-12-30T18:37:00.001+11:00

it's all about US

2007-12-28T10:42:00.001+11:00

When we hate someone,
it is because we hate some part of ourselves in their image.

[Herman Hesse]

knowledge = a glass house

2007-12-27T11:53:00.000+11:00

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.

[Isaac Asimov]

the Status Quo

2007-12-23T17:06:00.000+11:00

The order of the world is always right -- such is the judgment of God. For God has departed, but he has left his judgment behind, the way the Cheshire Cat left his grin.

[Jean Baudrillard]

the loneliest time of the year

2007-12-18T15:02:00.000+11:00

A woman spent all Christmas Day in a telephone box without ringing anyone. If someone comes to the phone, she leaves the box, then resumes her place afterwards. No one calls her either, but from a window in the street, someone watched her all day, no doubt since they had nothing better
to do. The Christmas syndrome.

[Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories]

the miniature earth

2007-12-18T10:27:00.001+11:00

charles atlas in 2007

2007-12-01T16:58:00.000+11:00

Bush Calendar; place your order NOW

2007-11-24T16:53:00.001+11:00

modern life

2007-11-24T16:47:00.001+11:00

addicted to modern life

2007-11-24T16:40:00.000+11:00

look, i have the seal of approval

2007-11-24T16:23:00.001+11:00

cheap labour = the new commodity

2007-11-14T09:07:00.001+11:00

could you bear the pain

2007-11-11T18:07:00.000+11:00

throwing stones in the glass house

2007-11-06T16:40:00.000+11:00

the rules of fight club

2007-11-06T16:09:00.001+11:00

television

2007-11-04T14:14:00.000+11:00

The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.

In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)

They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.

Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink --
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?

IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!

IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND

HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!

HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!

'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'

We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'

Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed

To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!

Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.

(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rate and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!

So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.

And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!

And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.

[Roald Dahl]

hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

2007-10-29T12:26:00.000+11:00

hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia = fear of long words.
Now who the heck came up with that one!

manufactured consent

2007-10-21T16:29:00.000+10:00

Noam Chomsky

much ado about nothing

2007-10-10T16:46:00.000+10:00

for thousands of years human history has been a magnificently futile conflict, a wonderfully staged panorama of triumphs and tragedies based on the resolute taboo against admitting that black goes with white.

the things we do to make a living

2007-10-07T17:18:00.000+10:00

You lie for a living.

You're not a bad person, not really, but telling the truth at your current
company tends to get people fired.

And you can't afford to be fired. You're thirty seven, you've got three
kids, you've got a big house to pay for, your wife would leave you within
nanoseconds if the cashflow ever dried up, and it's been well over over a decade since a cute, random girl in the street looked at you with anything even faintly resembling a sparkle in her eye.

Society only needs you because they need the product your company makes. Lose the job and you are no longer needed. Without your job you're just a mere stain.

So lying equals survival.

You have to lie because you have no other ideas about how not to be killed. How not to lose everything.

Lying replaced ideas long ago. Lying replaced great sex long ago. Lying relaced your marriage long ago. Lying replaced joy long ago.

Your lies became the painless cancer.

Yes, I've read your resume. Very impressive.

Look, I already said I'd get back to you next week.

gapingvoid

what's changed?

2007-10-06T16:11:00.001+10:00

what would you do if you found a dropped wallet

2007-10-06T15:12:00.000+10:00

[click on pic to find out]

political culture

2007-09-22T17:25:00.001+10:00

gaping void

me culture

2007-09-22T17:23:00.001+10:00

gaping void

company culture

2007-09-22T17:20:00.000+10:00

gaping void

the difference between reputation and character

2007-09-16T16:39:00.000+10:00

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is who you really are, while your reputation is merely who others think you are.

He who dies with the most toys is still dead.

2007-09-08T16:33:00.000+10:00

Mad world #3. Sydney under siege.

2007-09-07T11:49:00.000+10:00

mad world #2. APEC

2007-09-02T15:23:00.000+10:00

The first week of September is APEC week in Sydney. Bush will be in town; and so will everyone else. And the city has been preparing itself this week for the visiting 21 heads of state ...

... with water cannons; riot police buses; 3 meter high walls erected around the Opera House and vacinity; massive road closures; random police security checks on any person walking in certain areas of the city; military jet planes swooping overhead; soldiers wandering through shopping malls brandishing pretty serous military equipment; ads on TV asking everyone to be "alert"; and the city has been declared a virtual out-of-bounds this coming Friday-Sunday [by declaring Friday a NSW State Holiday].

I know most of this because I work in the city. Right in the middle of the city, on Barrack Street. And when, as per usual, i parked my ute [pick-up] on Barrack Street on Thursday afternoon, I did what I always do; i dropped my car keys in the back of my ute, under the cover [thus hidden from view]. When i returned to my ute 90 minutes later, the keys had been swapped with a note written on 'official' police paper; "report immediately to The Rocks Police Station."

The constable behind the counter knew who i was when i walked in, because i fitted the description. "Middle aged. Shaven head. Olive skin. Blue backpack on your back." And then he said to me, "You fit the description". No shit Sherlock.

Apparently some alert person had spotted me suspiciously park my ute, leave my keys in a suspicious place, walk off suspiciously in a suspicious direction, with a suspicious blue backpack on my back. I also had suspiciously dark skin colour and, as if all this weren't enough, I had two anti-American stickers on my rear window. He called the police, they strip searched my car, and took off with my keys.

I had to make account of myself to the constable on a number of key points 1. what is your name? 2. do you have proof of your ID? 3. is this your correct address? 4. why were you in the city at that time ? 5. what type of work do you do? 6. why did you leave your car keys in such a strange place 7. why do you carry a backpack? 8. why do you have a knife on your key ring? [a tiny, silver 3cm Swiss Army knife]. My answers were recorded in his little black book.

By the end of my interrogation I had been reduced to green alert - of the lowest possible threat to security - and the constable handed me back my car keys. But he had one final word for me before i could walk away a free man. "You DO know it's illegal to carry a knife, sir?" he said. And I, like a scolded little schoolboy, said "Yes", and took the Swiss Army off my key ring.

mad world

2007-08-19T16:36:00.000+10:00

-- Tears for Fears

nibbled to death by ducks

2007-08-19T15:05:00.000+10:00

In our world there is an agreed-upon reality of values. More is better. Bigger is better. Faster is better. And modern technology will achieve all three of these desirable goals.

Slowly but surely, we are being removed further and further from nature, from the soil, the weather, the sun, the wind, and all natural processes.

In other words, we are being ‘nibbled to death by ducks’.

[click to enlarge]

i was born itleiigennt

2007-08-11T17:40:00.000+10:00

education spoiled me

he's a material boy living in a material world

2007-08-11T17:29:00.000+10:00

comedy of the absurd #3.

2007-08-11T15:21:00.000+10:00

Copy from one, and it's called plagiarism. Copy from many, and it's called research.

comedy of the absurd #2.

2007-08-11T10:29:00.000+10:00

comedy of the absurd #1.

2007-08-11T10:26:00.000+10:00

the dice man

2007-08-11T10:24:00.001+10:00

the axis of mediocrity

2007-07-29T17:19:00.000+10:00

The great affliction of our age is not the axis of evil –
it is the axis of mediocrity.
We’re far more likely to die from a lack of passion
than from some great evil.

What do I believe in?
What do we stand for?
Take on these questions
and you will start to transform the age,
as well as your life.

walking the line

2007-07-29T16:46:00.000+10:00

In our quest for proof, evidence, and ‘the facts’, we have lost our trust in our own experience as the basis for living our lives.

powder for modern, busy people

2007-07-22T14:03:00.000+10:00

[click to enlarge]

i've seen a praying mantis loose faith

2007-07-15T14:46:00.000+10:00

how america really took over the world

2007-07-15T14:26:00.000+10:00

Economic hit men [EHMs] are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development [USAID], and other foreign "aid" organisations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalisation. I should know: I was an EHM.

My job was to encourage world leaders to become part of a vast network that promotes U.S. commercial interests. In the end, those leaders become ensnared in a web of debt that ensures their loyalty. We can draw on them whenever we desire - to satisfy our political, economic or military needs. In turn, they bolster their political positions by bringing industrial parks, power plants, and airports to their people. A condition of such loans is that engineering and construction companies from our own country must build all these projects. The owners of U.S. engineering/ construction companies become fabulously wealthy.

The recipient country is required to pay it all back, principal plus interest. If an EHM is completely successful, the loans are so large that the debtor is forced to default on its payments after a few years. When this happens, we demand our pound of flesh. This typically includes one or more of the following: control over United Nations votes, the installation of military bases, or access to resources such as oil or the Panama Canal. Of course, the debtor country still owes us the money. In this way another country is added to our global empire.

[John Perkins]

status anxiety

2007-07-14T16:38:00.000+10:00

gotta get me a pair of three hundred dollar shoes
made for twenty seven cents in a child labour sweatshop
so i can impress people i don't even know

Shane L Koyczan

it's all about OIL

2007-07-02T18:17:00.000+10:00

a brief essay on american healthcare

2007-07-02T18:15:00.000+10:00

[click to read]

how much more can one person be worth?

2007-06-16T19:54:00.000+10:00

Source: United for a Fair Economy, Executive Excess 2005, based on annual CEO pay studies conducted by Business Week (1990-2004) and the Wall Street Journal (2005).

death of the individual

2007-06-11T11:26:00.000+10:00

[click to enlarge]
Serious, important decisions are made not through democratic discussion or participation, but through negotiation between the relevant groups based on expertise, interest and the ability to exercise power. I would argue that the Western individual acts first as a group member. As a result, they, we, exist primarily as a function, not as an individual. We are rewarded in our hierarchical meritocracies for our success as an integrated function. We know that real expressions of individualism are not only discouraged but punished. The active, outspoken citizen is unlikely to have a successful professional career.

[John Ralston Saul; The Unconscious Civilization]

war is dangerously contagious

2007-06-03T14:24:00.001+10:00

death by a 1000 ducks

2007-06-03T13:57:00.000+10:00

In our world there is an agreed-upon reality of values. More is better. Bigger is better. Faster is better. And modern technology will achieve all three of these desirable goals. All the while we are being removed further and further from nature, from the soil, the weather, the sun, the wind, and all natural processes. All the while we are being nibbled to death by ducks.

i live in a vacuum

2007-06-02T15:18:00.000+10:00

[click to elnarge]
I live in a vacumn, no air
I'm stuck in back room, somewhere
But it don't bother me amyway cos I know
Go'in to get out soon, I got places to go
Theres a big world waiting for me
I just need a break, someone to believe
But right now I'm just try'in to survive
Liv'in rough, shack'in up, hang'in tough, shapin' up
- Supertramp [It's A Hard World]

FEAR: the glass house of all glass houses

2007-06-01T14:16:00.000+10:00

Today we live in a climate of fear. Fear of dying. Fear of losing. Fear of failing. Fear of not having. Fear of looking bad. Fear of not looking good.

Fear surrounds each of us as a glass house. Invisible to the conscious mind. Constraining our thoughts and our actions. Containing our deepest dreams and aspirations.

what we are

2007-05-23T15:58:00.000+10:00

[click on pic to watch the video]

The Jocks vs. The Nerds

2007-05-19T16:49:00.000+10:00

[click to enlarge]
Michael Jordan having "retired," with $40 million in endorsements, makes $178,100 a day, working or not. If he sleeps 7 hours a night, he makes $52,000 every night while visions of sugarplums dance in his head. If he goes to see a movie, it'll cost him $7.00, but he'll make $18,550 while he's there. If he decides to have a 5-minute egg, he'll make $618 while boiling it. He'll make $3,710 while watching each episode of Friends. He makes $7,415/hr more than minimum wage. If you were given a penny for every 10 dollars he made, you'd be living comfortably at $65,000 a year. This year, he'll make more than twice as much as all U.S. past presidents for all of their terms combined. Amazing isn't it?
However...
If Jordan saves 100% of his income for the next 450 years, he'll still have less than Bill Gates has today. Game over. Nerd wins.

bless technology, for it is on our side [i think]

2007-05-19T16:40:00.000+10:00

The PC lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history - with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.

it's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day just exactly fits in the newspaper

2007-05-19T14:46:00.000+10:00

smile ... it's Mother's Day

2007-05-13T00:01:00.000+10:00

do trees bleed and feel pain?

2007-05-12T15:46:00.000+10:00

GOLD AWARD. PR Campaign of the Decade.

2007-05-12T14:52:00.000+10:00

THE TRUTH: "We must make efforts to create a harmonious society and a good social environment for successfully holding the 17th Communist Party Congress and the Beijing Olympic Games[…]We must strike hard at hostile forces at home and abroad, such as ethnic separatists, religious extremists, violent terrorists and ‘heretical organizations’ like the Falun Gong who carry out destabilizing activities." Zhou Yongkang, Minister of Public Security [21st March 2007].

there's a whole heap of shit going on in our heads that we never talk about

2007-05-12T14:46:00.000+10:00

[click to see full details of the shit going on in his head]

Ode to Overchoice

2007-05-06T10:06:00.000+10:00

Over-choice is a form of bondage. We become addicted to it. Over-choice drives our dissatisfaction with what we have. Over-choice always leaves us wanting more and better. Over-choice always leaves us wondering whether or not we’ve made the right choice – given that there are so many other choices that could be more right. Over-choice makes life complicated, and stressful.

A conscience does not prevent sin. It only prevents you from enjoying it.

2007-05-05T17:46:00.000+10:00

we fight for religion ... not for democracy

2007-05-05T17:15:00.000+10:00

and still we war ?

2007-04-25T18:40:00.000+10:00

taking warning signs to a new level

2007-04-22T10:09:00.000+10:00

have another durrey, bro'

2007-04-21T18:37:00.000+10:00

lady of the slum

2007-04-21T18:10:00.000+10:00

[click to enlarge]
Bangkok.

only in the US of A

2007-04-21T17:10:00.000+10:00

the mental game of survival

2007-04-16T13:42:00.000+10:00

[click to enlarge]

My company sells an image. It's part of my job to live that image.

2007-04-14T18:23:00.000+10:00

in search of the alien from inner space

2007-04-14T18:06:00.000+10:00

this is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time

2007-04-14T17:19:00.000+10:00

What kind of dining set defines YOU as a person?

2007-04-14T16:56:00.000+10:00

this easter, raise yourself from the dead :)

2007-04-08T15:51:00.000+10:00

2007-04-07T16:47:00.000+10:00

a man's HEAD is his castle

2007-04-07T16:29:00.000+10:00

[click to enlarge]

blaming "society" absolves us of nothing

2007-04-07T15:05:00.000+10:00

speaking in colour

2007-04-05T16:15:00.000+10:00

easter ... brought to you by ...

2007-04-03T09:33:00.000+10:00

note to self :)

2007-04-01T19:37:00.001+10:00

taking someone on face value

2007-03-30T09:00:00.000+10:00

the groovy life

2007-03-30T08:54:00.000+10:00

Sometimes life is a long, narrow groove - with little or no room for lateral movement and crazy impulses.

the glass house of reason and intellect

2007-03-25T18:34:00.000+10:00

The glass house world of reason and intellect keeps grinding us into the demonstration of knowing, and into proving things. We no longer trust our own experience, since it is not intelligent to trust what has not been analysed.

We all grow up with the same, reasonable answers for everything. And as we all grow up, we slowly but surely manage all the mystery, creativity and spontaneity out of our lives.

your mind: programmed to always be RIGHT

2007-03-25T12:36:00.000+10:00

Your mind is obsessed with your survival – not just your physical survival, but the survival of your ideas, opinions, self-conceptions, and point of view.

Perhaps the way out of this trap is to get our minds re-installed.

[click to enlarge]