Some Such Name

Faith and Knowledge - TV and Religion

2005-08-23T03:39:00.000-07:00

Was watching the pope talk on TV while the Gaza strip was being emptied as orthodox Jews threw acid on police and a Islamic cleric preached holy war. Reminded me of an article I read somewhere ... full text was found here

"Faith and Knowledge"
by Jacques Derrida

Like others before, the new 'wars of religion' unleash themselves over the human earth (which is not the world) and struggle even today to control the sky with fingers and eyes: digital systems and virtually immediate panoptical visualization, air space, telecommunications satellites, information highways, concentration of capitalistic-mediatic power - in three words, digital culture, jet and TV without which there could be no religious manifestation today, for example no voyage or discourse of the Pope, no widespread fascination of Jewish, Christian or Moslem cults, be they 'fundamentalist' or not. Given this, the cyberspatialized or cyberspaced wars of religion have no stakes other than this determination of the 'world', of 'history', of the 'day' and of the 'present'.

The stakes certainly can remain implicit, insufficiently thematized, poorly articulated. By repressing them, on the other hand, many others can also be dissimulated or displaced. Which is to say, as is always the case with the topics of repression, inscribed in other places or other systems; this never occurs without symptoms and fantasies, without specters (phantasmata) to be investigated. In both cases and according to both logics, we ought to take into account every declared stake in its greatest radicality as well as asking ourselves what the depths of such radicality might virtually encrypt, down to its very roots. The declared stakes already appear to be without limit: what is the 'world', the 'day', the 'present' (hence, all of history, the earth, the humanity of man, the rights of man, the rights of man and of woman, the political and cultural organization of society, the difference between man, god and animal, the phenomenality of the day, the value or 'indemnity' of life, the right to life, the treatment of death, etc.)? What is the present, which is to say: What is history? time? being? being in its purity (that is, unscathed, safe, sacred, holy, heilig)? What of holiness or of sacredness? Are they the same thing? What of the divinity of God? How many meanings can one give to theion? Is this a good way to pose the question?

There is insufficient space to multiply in this regard the images or the indications, one could say the icons of our time: the organization, conception (generative forces, structures and capital) as well as the audiovisual representation of cultic or socio-religious phenomena. In a digitalized 'cyberspace', prosthesis upon prosthesis, a heavenly glance, monstrous, bestial or divine, something like an eye of CNN watches permanently: over Jerusalem and its three monotheisms, over the multiplicity, the unprecedented speed and scope of the moves of a Pope versed in televisual rhetoric (of which the last encyclical, Evangelium vitae, against abortion and euthanasia, for the sacredness or holiness of a life that is safe and sound - unscathed, heilig, holy - for its reproduction in conjugal love - sole immunity admitted, with priestly celibacy, against the virus of human immuno-deficiency (HIV) -, is immediately transmitted, massively 'marketed' and available on CD-ROM; everything down to the signs of presence in the mystery of the Eucharist is 'cederomised'; over airborn pilgrimages to Mecca; over so many miracles transmitted live (most frequently, healings, which is to say, returns to the unscathed, heilig, holy, indemnifications) followed by commercials, before thousands in an American television studio; over the international and televisual diplomacy of the Dalai Lama, etc. So remarkably adapted to the scale and the evolutions of global demography, so well adjusted to the technoscientific, economic and mediatic powers of our time, the power of all these phenomena to bear witness finds itself formidably intensified, at the same time as it is collected in a digitalized space by supersonic airplanes or by audiovisual antenna. The ether of religion will always have been hospitable to a certain spectral virtuality. Today, like the sublimity of the starry heavens at the bottom of our hearts, the 'cyberspaced' religion also entails the accelerated and hypercapitalized relaunching of founding specters. On CD-ROM, heavenly trajectories of satellites, Jet, TV, Email or Internet networks. Actually or virtually universalizable, ultra-internationalizable, incarnated by new 'corporations' that are increasingly independent of the powers of states (democratic or not, it makes little difference at bottom, all of that has to be reconsidered, like the 'globalatinity' of international law in its current state, which is to say, on the threshold of a process of accelerated and unpredictable transformation).

2005-08-12T04:50:00.000-07:00

nuffink3

2005-08-11T21:48:00.000-07:00

try again

The Greatest Mistake

2005-08-11T05:57:00.000-07:00

Jared Diamond, author of Guns Germs & Steel debunks the widely held notion that the shift from hunter-gatherer to farming societies improved the life of human beings 10,000 years go. However, I'm not quite sure if this is The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race (that remains the election of certain modern-day Bushmen) :

To science we owe dramatic changes in our smug self-image. Astronomy taught us that our earth isn’t the center of the universe but merely one of billions of heavenly bodies. From biology we learned that we weren’t specially created by God but evolved along with millions of other species. Now archaeology is demolishing another sacred belief: that human history over the past million years has been a long tale of progress. In particular, recent discoveries suggest that the adoption of agriculture, supposedly our most decisive step toward a better life, was in many ways a catastrophe from which we have never recovered. With agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism, that curse our existence.

At first, the evidence against this revisionist interpretation will strike twentieth century Americans as irrefutable. We’re better off in almost every respect than people of the Middle Ages, who in turn had it easier than cavemen, who in turn were better off than apes. Just count our advantages. We enjoy the most abundant and varied foods, the best tools and material goods, some of the longest and healthiest lives, in history. Most of us are safe from starvation and predators. We get our energy from oil and machines, not from our sweat. What neo-Luddite among us would trade his life for that of a medieval peasant, a caveman, or an ape?

2005-05-04T23:39:00.000-07:00

[picture by Lauren Burke] "On Nov. 25, she walked into her studio for the 11 a.m. broadcast. "I was sure I would tell people the truth that day," she said. "I just felt this was the moment to do it."

Under her long silk sleeve, she had tied an orange ribbon to her wrist, the color of the opposition and a powerful symbol in what would become known as the Orange Revolution. She knew that when she raised her arm, the ribbon would show.

The newscaster was reading the officially scripted text about the results of the election, and Dmytruk was signing along. But then, "I was not listening anymore," she said.

In her own daring protest, she signed: "I am addressing everybody who is deaf in the Ukraine. Our president is Victor Yushchenko. Do not trust the results of the central election committee. They are all lies. . . . And I am very ashamed to translate such lies to you. Maybe you will see me again -- " she concluded, hinting at what fate might await her. She then continued signing the rest of officially scripted news."

2005-05-03T03:30:00.000-07:00

the energy blast created this blurrrrr....

2005-05-03T03:29:00.000-07:00

whoosh!

2005-05-03T03:28:00.000-07:00

so fast you can't see me! yeee-haw!

2005-05-03T03:26:00.000-07:00

Knockout!

A Light So Dim

2005-02-02T17:10:00.000-08:00

My current favorite song (apart from everything ever written and performed by Emmet) is by a band called The Black Heart Procession. I wish I could make a AlgoKreeda music video for them during AlgoMantra 2005.

Imagine a dark and windy beach on a desolate island with monks chanting the song as they move around on a grid in the sand, following a three step algorithm and carrying a dim light in their cupped hands. Strong winds blow out many of the lights, but they spread in the network of monks again...

You can download a couple of mp3s, including A Ligh So Dim at the link in the title, which goes like this:

“there are no trains that leave from the maze
my only chance was a ship to escape
if you are the light house in the storm
i’ll be the ship with a thousand dead souls
how long will they believe in a light so dim
down in the gallows the darkness glows
it was hard to see in the hearts of them
if you see a light call down below
i’ll be moving and sorting out our fears
how long will we believe in a light so dim"

Ghanaian Departures

2005-01-29T20:25:00.000-08:00

I've always thought that when the time comes to depart this world, my body will be blasted into space in a small rocket where my remains will spend eternity drifting through the wonders of deep space.

Now I'm not so sure.

Having seen these pictures, I may go Ghanaian at the end:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4215923.stm

Projections and Perceptions

2005-01-09T17:45:00.000-08:00

Scientists at St. Andrew's University in Scotland have been slowly releasing a sequence of projections of how various deceased celebrities might look now, were they still with us.

They released this image of John Lennon in October of last year, and this image of Elvis Parsley over the weekend.

Perception Labs is an appropriate name for this project: I can't help observing that their image of Lennon is far more flattering than the image of Parsley --points to the sensitive side-lighting in the Lennon pic and highlights Parsley's much ruddier complexion with toothpick. But please compare the projections for yourselves and let me know what you think :)

Could it be that the scientists involved are inclined towards a cultural bias that affects their future projections?

Well, unless you're Rohit Gupta (and therefore well-known to millions), none of us will be affected by such bias --which gives you all the more reason to try a limited version of the software yourself at this URL:

http://www.perceptionlab.com/

Not So Breitwieser Is Sentenced To 26-months In Prison

2005-01-09T17:05:00.000-08:00

Art collector and thief, Stephane Breitwieser, was given a 26-month prison sentence for stealing several works of art --just a day after attempting to kill himself in a Strasbourg prison.

From the BBC coverage:

Former waiter Stephane Breitwieser, 33, admits taking hundreds of masterpieces from museums across Europe.

His mother and ex-girlfriend received shorter sentences for their role.

Described by his lawyer as "deeply depressed" - and by himself as a passionate art lover - Breitwieser tried to hang himself on Thursday.

He failed in his attempt when a cellmate raised the alarm.

The prosecutor in his trial had said Breitwieser acted in a "narcissistic" and "egotistical" manner, irrespective of whether he had sold the stolen works or not, and called for him to receive the maximum sentence of three years.

A court in the French city of Strasbourg gave Breitwieser the three-year sentence - but with a 10-month suspension, he will only serve 26 months of it.

'Hidden in coat'
Breitwieser's mother, Mireille Stengel, received a three-year sentence with an 18-month suspension for having destroyed some of the works stolen by her son, who had stored them at her home in Eschentzwiller, eastern France.

She admitted having cut up canvases "to punish her son," who she alleged had "terrorised" her.
Her lawyer said the sentence would be appealed.

Breitwieser's ex-girlfriend, Anne-Catherine Kleinklauss, was awarded a six-month prison term, with another 12 months suspended, on charges of receiving stolen items.

For years Breitwieser scoured European museums, pilfering works which he hid in his rucksack or inside his coat, then simply walked out, the AFP news agency reports.

He was arrested in November 2001 near the Richard Wagner Museum in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Lost works
Breitwieser spent two years in a Swiss jail before extradition to France.

He told the Swiss court he had pilfered more than 200 masterpieces from European galleries, including works by Brueghel, Watteau and Durer.

The French charges mainly relate to thefts from French museums.

He is suspected of taking about 70 works of art, but he is charged with just 20 thefts between 1999 and 2001. Two alleged thefts in Denmark and Austria also appear on the charge-sheet.

After his arrest, about 100 antiques, including vases and incense-burners, were recovered from the Rhine-Rhone canal, where his mother had tried to dispose of them.

But up to 60 paintings have not been found.

****

The story of Mrs. Breitwieser's intervention:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/1990836.stm

****

The Art Loss register keeps track of stolen and lost art works and antiques.

Have You Seen This Painting?

http://www.artloss.com/Default.asp

W

Some Such Name Scoops Arts Journal

2005-01-05T01:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's Arts Journal picked up on the Pew Internet Report on how the Internet is changing artists' lives.

Some Such Name covered this report so long ago it no longer features on our front page. The post languishes somewhere in our archives with amnesia and hyperchondria for company during the long dark nights of its forgottenness.

Anyway, I'm not going to go digging around in the archives for a hyperlink that proves what Some Such Name readers know already --they're getting the best arts coverage right here. ;)

LOST IN SPACE VERSION 2.0

2005-01-02T23:51:00.000-08:00

Last week has seen some serious drifting across space again.

It all started with news about the Tsunami. That morning I remember reading about a faraway whimper on the top corner of the BBC website. An earthquake in Indonesia ... further details pending. Yet as the day progressed, the news about the tragedy became like the bastard twin of the Event itself: every passing hour brought the wave of information closer until it too hit us with its enormous force. Thousands of kilometers imploded on us like the Wave itself, suffocating us like sea water with every instance of rising body count ...10.000. 20.000. 50.000, 150.000

And then the virtual geography of this planet started shaking again, yet another bastard twin hit by a Richter 9 earthquake. The biggest ever tragedy ever to hit Finland in Thailand was reported by an Indian newspaper using sources by Reuters now relocated in Bangalore about how the tragedy will affect Bollywood stars honeymooning in the Maldives. A warning by scientists in Oregon about an other tsunami sends tragedy-struck fishermen in Tamil Nadu rushing for high land in panic while the authenticity of the report is debated by bloggers using SMS between Bombay and Sri Lanka.

Paul Virilio, a French philosopher, warned about the new 'accident' that is brought about by the implosion of space and time caused by new telecommunication technologies. The here and now - the erasure of space and time by the speed of light of communication - can make a generalized accident where an event in the other part of the world has instant repercussion in every connected node of this new world. He says: "with acceleration, there is no more here and there, only the mental confusion of near and far, present and future, real and unreal - a mix of history, stories, and the hallucinatory utopia of communication technologies."

Yet watching for the past few days the spaces of the planet bubble like a molten lava field has made me somewhat more optimistic. If something stays afloat from this tragedy, it is the hope that maybe there are people emerging who are able to ride the wave (and bad metaphors) of the new world. During the immediate aftermath of the Wave, we saw something else than an accident. Blog newsservices were put up helping describe the tragedy and provide help. Websites helped people locate people missing. New experimental SMS newsservices are being set up as we speak to circumvent the traditional newsmedia still stuck kneedeep in the mud of classical space ...

So perhaps, if nothing else, an inconclusive afterthought is appopriate.

Perhaps an event such as this one - an event that sends ripples to the space-time continuum of this new world - gives us a glimpse and a foretaste of the future. And whether this future will be an accident or something else will depend whether we learn quickly to master the news space-time configurations and dimensions that are emerging. Maybe that is the task for us lost in space.

oT

Who Is Maher Arar?

2004-12-25T21:46:00.000-08:00

For one he is Time Canada's Newsmaker Of The Year. A man detained by U.S. Officials, branded as a terrorist, tortured and imprisoned. Even his home country's Royal Canadian Mounted Police screwed up their end of the case, translating the horrific 'security regime that U.S. seems to have imposed on it's neighbours. Maher Arar is more than pissed off:

Arar has launched two gutsy lawsuits in 2004 targeting some of the most powerful people on the continent, including U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, fbi Director Robert Mueller, former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and r.c.m.p. Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli.

After the Syrians declared him completely innocent, Arar described his 10 months of detainment:

He was held there without charge for 10 months and 10 days. During his first two weeks, he claims, he was interrogated about people he had known in Canada, sometimes for 18 hours at a time, and tortured. One punishment, he says, was repeated lashings with a 5-cm black metal cable on his palms, wrists, lower back and hips. The mental ordeal was also brutal, he said in November 2003 at one of the most dramatic press conferences ever televised in Canada. “The second and third days were the worst,” he told the world that day. “I could hear other prisoners being tortured, and screaming.” During his first week in prison, he says, he falsely confessed that he had received military training in Afghanistan.

More langers than you could shake a langer at

2004-12-23T12:06:00.000-08:00

Following years of hard graft by the Irish people, dedicated participation at the highest level of government, and focused action on the part of the the United Nations, the Irish slang word 'langer' has made it into the next edition of the Collins dictionary.

Here

It's all part of the living dictionary concept, which aims to invigorate the dusty dictionary by giving it a little Pop Idol appeal. Visitors to Collins' web site can suggest a word, make up a word, even steal two bits of other words, stick 'em together and demand inclusion in the dictionary. Seize the day!

Globe & Mail:

The concept might not satisfy the purists but it should provide more solace than the current ritual of muttering and complaining at the annual announcement of the latest words to be added to the world's leading English-language dictionaries.

The process is at its heart democratic. The latest word to be added is langer, Irish slang for idiot, drunk or penis that was fast-tracked into the dictionary after a vigorous campaign by its Hibernian advocates.

"I have never seen such passion about a single word before," said Jeremy Butterfield, editor of Collins Dictionaries. "This is exactly what the word exchange was built for and we are awed by the positive response we have had from Irish word fans."

****

In short, the Irish invent words like hubritotes bovel lerbats.

Amen.

Lost In Space?

2004-12-22T09:11:00.000-08:00

Friends often ask me often how is it to live in Bombay. I've thought about this for awhile and have come to the following conclusion.

Call this version 1.0 of an ongoing project if you will.

Well, parts of Bombay are closer to London than to the next slum a hundred meters away. And me, I have become bootstrapped to these seven mile boots. But the boots I wear are not these cute ones out of the old fairy tale I can hardly remember anymore. No, they are fucking turbocharged: I am ripped off the ground every moment, thrown into open space. One instance I am sitting in this air-condition cafe sipping cappucino somewhere between becoming-Seattle and Milan. Another and I am back on the crowded noisy street in a street cafe somewhere between becoming Punjab, South India, China. Yet another step and I am at a fusion bars somewhere in the cosmopolitan lalaland between Soho and becoming-Singapore while on the way home the children who beg behind the taxi window wear Santa Claus hats. And the window is only a few centimeters thick but the distance spans light years.

So, yes, parts of Bombay are closer to London than to the next chawl or slum. The geography of my life has become bent in strange ways. Its spatial configuration have nothing to do with the firm ground of Newtonian physics but instead form a twisted chaotic machine in which technology, culture, color of skin, money, language all form new and strange dimension and formulas yet to be imagined or dreamed off.

And then I am home in the honorable company of an Indian, and Irishman and many more writing to whomever wherever yet still close to me. Literally.

oT

Low Flying Astronaut

2004-12-18T04:40:00.000-08:00

What's common to "carthographic sadism, gabber avant-gardism, experimental knowledge, DIY urbanism, autonomous spacetravel, gymnosophistic delight, disco socialism, peripatetic hedonism" and Some Such Name?

You will remember we linked to a brilliant essay by a sharp Netherlander a few days ago. An old biographical note on the author says:

Most known for his years long affiliation with the independent space travel cabal called Jungle Association of Association of Autonomous Astronauts, the activities of Wilfried Hou Je Bek reach the entire spectrum of culture hacking. Micro publications, multi-source poly-style dj-sets, spoken word performances, experimental city walks, web based projects dubbed 'applied literature' like the 'Waren de Friezen Kosmonauten?' last December.

Please welcome Wilfried Hou Je Bek, noted Dutch psychogeographer and .walker.

Now do you hear me, God?!

How Ovaries Count and Balls Add Up

2004-12-15T20:24:00.000-08:00

Some such chick called Clio Cresswell has written a book called Mathematics & Sex, and Slashdot nerds are gagging to review it. From reminiscing about about high-school math puns to the bar scene in A Beautiful Mind, it's all happening here. The book discusses 'problems' like choosing a life partner out of the 100 successive people you meet:

You can prove mathematically that the best strategy is to look at (approximately) the first 36.787944117144235 people (rounding it to, say, 37 people) and then you should choose the first person from that point on that is 'better' then the previous 37 people. This increases the odds of your finding the best match from 1% to about 37%- roughly a 37 times improvement. (In the pre-politically correct literature this model was called "The Sultan's Dowry Problem," or "The Secretary Problem"; now, alas, it is usually called simply an example of an "Optimal Stopping Problem." )

Vox Wagen

2004-12-15T02:42:00.000-08:00

Tee-Hee!I've just finished sending an e-mail to the CEO of Volkswagen. No, he's not part of my old boyz network:

Dr. Pischetsrieder,

I am a 28 year-old Bombay-based writer, a literary ruffian, and as my friends are fond of saying, 'the human dynamo'. I was just thinking the other day that since I can't seem to afford a Volkswagen car in the near-near future, you should give it to me free for one year.

In return, I will drive this VW brand around India, Pakistan, and other remote parts of South Asia. I will travel with a film-maker, and distribute free, disposable cameras & mobile phones to farmers. I will carry a laptop and keep a weblog on the internet of my whereabouts and activities. I will work up a storm wherever I go.

I won't need any money, really. I just want to have fun, and at the same time present an iconoclastic account of a unique journey through a re-awakening civilization. We both know that China and India are set on a course to become economic powerhouses in the next ten years.

Well, I've said it. I look forward to you thoughts. Google me for a biography, or have a glimpse at the link below my signature.

warm regards,
XXXX

The Chaos Poem

2004-12-13T23:51:00.001-08:00

Here's an amazingly useful poem with a fascinating history of being lost and discovered, annotated and morphed, a poem that underwent the same mutations that it describes:

The chequered career of the first version we received was typical: it consisted of a tattered typescript found in a girls' High School in Germany in 1945 by a British soldier, from whom it passed through various hands eventually to reach Terry De'Ath, who passed it to the SSS; but it did not mention who its author was. A rather sad instance of the mystery that has long surrounded the poem is seen in Hubert A Greven's Elements of English Phonology, published in Paris in 1972: its introduction quoted 48 lines of the poem to demonstrate to French students how impossible English is to pronounce (ie, to read aloud), and by way of acknowledgment said that the author "would like to pay a suitable tribute to Mr G Nolst Trenité for permission to copy his poem The Chaos.

An excerpt from The Chaos -

Mind! Meandering but mean,
Valentine and magazine.
And I bet you, dear, a penny,
You say mani-(fold) like many,
Which is wrong. Say rapier, pier,
Tier (one who ties), but tier.
Arch, archangel; pray, does erring
Rhyme with herring or with stirring?

The title of this post links you to The Simplified Spelling Society.

Pass The Dutchie On Left-Wing Side

2004-12-11T23:38:00.000-08:00

I'm deeply troubled by the recent killing of Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh. He was an extreme liberalist who constructed explosive cinematic and textual images against Islam and it's abuse of women. At the same time, he constantly called the Moroccan community "geitenneukers" or goatfuckers. He was killed by a youth of Moroccan descent. Muslim women took to the streets in Amsterdam protesting the killing, which involved several stabs and verses of the Q'uran.

The West needs to hear the voice of those Muslims who do not want to be identified alongside extremist forces that have, sadly, co-opted an ancient religion as it's facade. Dalrymple thinks the backlash is largely due to issues of dominance and sexual gratification:

Religious sanction for the oppression of women (whether theologically justified or not) is hence the main attraction of Islam to young men in an increasingly secular world. This explains why a divide often opens between brothers and sisters in the same European Muslim family; the sisters want liberty, but the brothers enforce the old rules. They have to, or the whole gratifying system breaks down.

I'm not sure I agree with Mr. Dalrymple, as much as I do with Robert Spencer:

No one really knows how many Muslims in Europe and America hold the views of the Moroccan woman at the rally, and how many would side with van Gogh's killer.

If Western countries continue, out of ignorance, fear, or narrow self-interest, to refuse to find out, they will find themselves playing host to many more incidents like the bloody scene in Amsterdam. And the more likely it becomes that the killing of van Gogh will be the first of many.

When will the West realise that their attitude feeds this bloodshed in history's longest running feedback loop since the fucking Crusades! Why can't the world see that Islamism is not terrorism. A few extremist rebels do not Islam make, in the same vein as Frank Zappa: "If I had a wooden leg, would that make me a table?"

Most countries that seem to be democratic have only democratic facades and ways of making politics seem populistic in nature. I restate my opinion that periodic elections are not enough to make a country democratic. They are but a snapshot, while opinion is like a motion picture.

Following the film-maker's death, the Dutch government has tightened it's liberalist policies and intends to make everyone pass a citizenship test. This is a bad move, O Men Of Jesus.

Control Freaks

2004-12-11T01:50:00.000-08:00

John Perry Barlow is being dragged through the American judicial system for possession of controlled substances. He writes about his year-long battle on his blog:

My own liberty is at stake, but so, I think, is the liberty of anyone who wishes to travel in America without fear of humiliation or arrest.

On September 15, 2003, shortly after Burning Man, I was hauled off an airplane that was about to depart San Francisco for New York and charged with the misdemeanor possession of controlled substances that had allegedly been discovered during a search of my checked baggage.

The Army Of Principles

2004-12-11T00:08:00.000-08:00

While packing for his final departure from Bombay towards Cairo, I was following Dan around the apartment so we could talk as much as possible. On reaching the bathroom, he handed me an almost-empty soap bottle - PURE-CASTILE SOAP, the Peppermint variety. At first I declined, and then my gaze fell on the label, which was crammed with exclaiming text. The more I read, the more I convulsed with laughter. Finally, I brought the bottle home with me as a souvenir. The author of this text, Soapmaker Dr. Bronner, is now a heavenly bubble. His eleventh spasm, er, psalm:

11th: Essene, Chinese and other birth control methods must reduce birth or Easter Isle type overpopulation destroys God's Spaceship Earth!

You can download a PDF of the various, hilarious labels here.

Gimme Now!!!!!!

2004-12-10T06:58:00.000-08:00
I suppose this just beats the crap out of Segway. Poorva sends this report on the new personal mobility devices being developed by Toyota.

The personal transport arena is taking on a new dimension, though, with futuristic devices that augment human capabilities.

Toyota's prototypes represent the latest incarnation of wearable exoskeletons in a vehicular form that is specially focused on transport.

Powered robotic exoskeletons have been the focus of much US military research over the years and Japan seems to have jumped onto the bandwagon with a wave of products being developed for specific applications.

With an emerging range of devices targeted towards the ageing world population, care giving and the military, wearable exoskeletons seem to represent a new line of future technologies that meet an individual's particular mobility needs.

The Age Of Hari Seldon

2004-12-09T23:57:00.000-08:00
In an earlier post I'd said that opinion flow in the US exit polls could have been a unique instance of the The Doppler Effect, a law of physics. Following the same path, Paul Levy has written a fairly nice piece, but obfuscated by unnecessary scientific jargon about how Quantum Physics effects the polls:

What Wheeler is pointing out through the delayed choice experiment, though, is that the past doesn’t actually exist in a solid and objective way that causes or determines our present moment experience like is imagined by classical physics. Rather, he is saying our situation is just the opposite. He is saying that by the way we observe in this present moment we actually reach back into time and create the past. It is not just the future that’s undetermined, but the past as well; just as there are ‘probable’ futures there are ‘probable’ pasts. Our present observations select one out of many possible quantum histories for the universe.

The other thing to observe with how Search has changed the nature of news, is that we now have all the information of the past and present available at hand simultaneously, so the only remaining task for us would be to speculate about the future! You too can get a feel of the times to come by playing this game I play, a stockmarket of ideas.

As you might already know, Psychohistory is a fictional science created by Isaac Asimov in his Foundation series, "which combined history, psychology and mathematical statistics to create a (nearly) exact science of the behavior of very large populations of people, such as the Galactic Empire."

The Element Of Crime

2004-12-07T00:31:00.000-08:00
He calls himself "a melancholy Dane masturbating in the dark to images on the silver screen." Last night I saw my second film by Lars Von Trier, a hallucinogenic psychodrama called The Element Of Crime. He also founded the Dogme95 movement in cinema.

There were roughly twenty of us at the beginning of the screening at Ghetto, but by the time the movie ended, me and a couple of others were left. The reason may have been the trance music from a washerman's wedding outside the pub, which was the accidental soundtrack to von Trier's film. Little did the ignorami know, the Lars Von Trier is known as Tranceformer, and I think TEOC was one of the scariest films I have ever witnessed. The ending is a true-to-dictionary mindfuck. My favorite lines from the film:

Fischer: "I want to fuck you to the Stone Age".
Kim: "Fuck God into me."

Kim: "Why do you torture yourself?"
Fischer: "I believe in Joy! I believe in Joy!"

The Viktor-Yulia Mob

2004-12-06T21:10:00.000-08:00
There is an article under review at the Wikipedia called New Couples Emerge Out Of Ukranian Crisis. It says that:

KEIV-An unexpected consequence of the thousands of people from diverse areas of Ukraine congregating for the massive protest currently underway in Kiev has been the union of couples that otherwise would not have met.

According to local priests and doctors giving support to the masses camping on the streets, there has been a rise in marriages between young people that have met during the demonstrations, and an increase in the requests for pregnancy tests, up from virtually zero in the first days to 10-15 a day.

The babies born in 9 month's time will, according to tradition, be named in honour of those leading the protests: Viktor —if it's a boy— in honour of Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition leader, and Julia, in honour of Yushchenko's stong supporter and opposition Parliament deputy, Yulia Timoshenko.

Here is a history of the protests following the election. This just confirms my theory that political revolution is just another way of going about reproduction, with added benefits like a democratic regime.

The Perry Bible Fellowship

2004-12-06T00:18:00.000-08:00
I found some amazing, cleverly conceived, and brilliantly designed comics by Nicholas Gurewitch via my virtual pal Mike Sizemore's Visible Monsters blog. Very cutting edge stuff, it makes you look kinda hard before you get the joke. The most common element is proportional reversal, and irony. I hope Nicholas doesn't mind me promoting his brilliant work, even though he supports copyright in the age of CopyCan & CopyCant. This one is called Tree Of Irony. I won't compare it to Red Meat, an old favorite.

Sundials Are Primitive Computers

2004-12-05T02:31:00.000-08:00
This essay at SocialFiction has one brilliant insight after another, and I've had a tough time choosing between what I can extract to tantalise your mind:

"Time (and every device that sublimated it) is not the only abstraction of the sun that led to a wide range of applications. A similar story could be written for fire. Fire, once under human control, brought the heat of the sun into the night. This power led to an entire different line of technological progress, starting with the ability to boil food, and ending with nuclear energy. In this last line of development, solar power, and especially the rhetoric's behind it, is an interesting reminder of the fact that we are in the end, still struggling with making the most of the sun."

Salaam Finland!

2004-12-04T05:46:00.000-08:00
After the dazzling arrival of Irish tornado Emmet Cole, I now welcome a blizzard from Finland - Matti Pohjonen, to freeze us with his metaphysical snowballs. I met Matti at a dinner party a few days ago and we get along like a house on fire. So I thought, how about a blog called Some Such Name, that will one day represent every single nation in the world?

Welcome, Matti!

The Red Shift: An Explanation

2004-12-03T02:25:00.000-08:00
I have some thoughts on what is happening with the extensive mathematical and cartographic analyses of the exit poll results in America, and the subsequently seen "red shift".

The Doppler Effect is not an analogy, it is a law of physics. It happens everytime you start analysing information in the frequency space, and either the observer or the observed is moving.American Elections are a way to reduce clusters of numbers to frequency space.

A screeching train zooms past you with a sharp rise in "observed" frequency. When galaxies are said to be moving away, it is primarily because they are seen as undergoing a "red shift", or a perceived shift towards the longer wavelengths of the spectrum. If they were coming towards us, it would be a blue shift.

The Doppler Effect is a purely informational phenomenon in physics, it's greatest mystery perhaps, since it depends on the movement of the observer and observed. Humans are able to experience it because there is a spiral muscle called the cochlea that converts sound by a Fourier-like transform into the frequency space.

If elections are an information processing system, there is no reason why we should not see a Doppler Effect. The only assumption we need to make is that information flows within a society. The society is the observer of this information. The information is moving. So the final meaning of the Red Shift is this:

The information collected from the polls is undergoing a "red shift". This indicates that the information is not really red, but somewhere in the middle of the opinion spectrum, but because the information is moving, it is perceived as red. Hence, the exit poll results are Dopplered.

Yet another mathematical analyses could perhaps force my opinion stronger. There is an anomaly observed in cosmic "red shifts". If someone who understands this cosmic phenomenon called Fingers Of God better, which appears only in Red Shift spaces, could analyse the exit poll results for such a phenomenon, and if by some stroke of luck he sees this happening, I will be quite pleased.

Please tell me I'm not insane.

Waterson, Waterson Everywhere

2004-12-03T00:37:00.000-08:00
This one comes via my pal Annie. There has been a major breakthrough in the gossip surrounding the film Fight Club:

In the film Fight Club, the real name of the protagonist (Ed Norton’s character) is never revealed. Many believe the reason behind this anonymity is to give "Jack" more of an everyman quality. Do not be deceived. "Jack" is really Calvin from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. It’s true. Norton portrays the grown-up version of Calvin, while Brad Pitt plays his imaginary pal, Hobbes, reincarnated as Tyler Durden.

I did feel that Brad Pitt was sorta hairy in this film, but look at that!

Fingers Of God

2004-12-02T21:11:00.000-08:00
From my lovely, beautiful, god-like, democratic, my last hope for world peace - the Wikipedia. How many of you tremble when you read this, let me know:

"Fingers of God is an effect in cosmology that causes clusters of galaxies to be elongated in redshift space, with an axis of elongation pointed toward the observer. It is due to an effect where the peculiar velocities of the galaxies in a cluster associated with the gravity of the cluster by means of the virial theorem change the observed redshifts of the galaxies in the clusters as a deviation from the Hubble Law expansion that is nominally expected."

Textbook Disclaimer Stickers

2004-12-01T18:47:00.000-08:00
I wasn't born this way, Blue Fairy! It was in a public school that they told me that the earth was flat and I, the gullible fool, believed them.

You and your children don't have to suffer this travesty. All you need to do is print and stick these nifty disclaimer stickers for science books:

This book contains material about special relativity. Special Relativity is a scientific theory, and very few scientists fully understand it. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.

Slave To Your Vibes

2004-11-30T12:15:00.000-08:00
Many of the charming but jobless folk who read this blog have been requesting more news about the delectable Emmet Cole. Well, if you're already here honey, you know you deserve better. So, guess what?

Emmet Cole is now here. RoGue and EmCol are going to BloGue together. We might change the name of this institution to accomodate his Irish blood, which I'm told, is Guiness. And you will request a nude picture of him sooner or later, so I already give you. Manga, to detaa!

Please give him a huge round of applause and welcome the New Whorled Order. This is an order!

Virtual Sherpa

2004-11-29T20:03:00.000-08:00
Heidi Klum has become a McHottie, and I'm dissapointed with this newzoid. The ointment on my gloom is a fairly slick and funny essay-cum-quiz called "Virtual Sherpa®: Your Guide to the Right Career in the High-Tech Workplace of Tomorrow." -

We live in an era that was compelled to invent the term "dizzying array." Do you think your great-grandparents ever witnessed a dizzying array of anything? Heck, friend, our ancestors were lucky to see an array in their lifetimes. An array, now that was big news. They'd all stop churning the butter or tilling the fields and come gaze at the array. It was like a solar eclipse or a comet. And then, once they had gotten a good look at the array, they trudged back, exhilarated but not at all dizzy, to those jobs they did not choose.

Notice McSweeney's current caption, very cool - "Blind Bastard Child Will Be President Someday".

How We Are Hungry, stories by Dave Eggers

2004-11-29T19:23:00.000-08:00
If you guys haven't heard of Dave Eggers, it's time now to get the preggers by reading his speady existentialist thriller - You Shall Know Our Velocity. In the meantime, here is an excerpt from How We Are Hungry:

"If a soldier were killed and mutilated in his own country, the man would not feel this kind of revulsion. He doesn't feel this way when he hears about trains colliding, or a family, in Missouri, drowning in their minivan in a December lake. But this, in another part of the world, this soldier dragged from his car, this soldier alone, this dead unbloody body in the dust under the truck—why does it set the man on edge, why does it feel so personal? The man at home feels this way too often now. He feels tunneled, wrapped, desiccated. His eyes feel the strain of trying for too long to see in the dark. The man is watching the smoke from the factory, and though there are many things he could do that day, he will do none of them."

Anagrammaticalamity

2004-11-29T17:41:00.001-08:00
Modern Humorist just took apart my favorite Eliot mush-poem - The Love Song Of J. Allfred Pruffock. It's a hilarious read if you've grown up with the original, and if you've hummed "I should have been a pair of ragged claws, Scuttling across the floors of silent seas." to entranced ladies:

Toilets
by T.S. Eliot

Let us go then, to the john,
Where the toilet seat waits to be sat upon
Like a lover's lap perched upon ceramic;
Let us go, through doors that do not always lock,
Which means you ought to knock
Lest opening one reveal a soul within
Who'll shout, "Stay out! Did you not see my shin,
Framed within the gap twixt floor and stall?"
No, I did not see that at all.
That is not what I saw, at all.

To the stall the people come to go,
Reading an obscene graffito.

We have lingered in the chamber labeled "Men"
Till attendants proffer aftershave and mints
As we lather up our hands with soap, and rinse.

Maggie Cheung, Heh

2004-11-29T00:59:00.000-08:00
This you need to see for yourself, boyz ;)

Maggie Cheung, as a well-known Hongkong actress, has enjoyed long-term popularity since her debut. Now being available from a divorce (yay!), Maggie again becomes the focus of single gentlemen. Still elegant, attractive. All you can see from and feel about her is----charming.

"Hobbits" Imprisoned

2004-11-29T00:51:00.000-08:00
Homo Florensis, or 'hobbits', the new specie of hominins that was discovered in Indonesia has been put under lock and key by an arrogant scientist (even if one of the best in Indonesia,) thus blocking access to a major discovery for the other explorers who were also involved in the project:

They may be tiny, but the hobbits -- the extinct one-metre-high human species whose discovery rocked the palaeontology world last month - are provoking a giant barney among Australian and Indonesian scientists.

One of Indonesia's leading palaeontologists, Professor Teuku Jacob of Gadjah Mada University in Jakarta, has grabbed the hobbit remains and locked them away in his safe, refusing to let other scientists study them.

In addition, he rejected the widespread view that the hobbits are a separate human species, claiming they are a pygmy form of modern humans who suffered microcephaly, a disorder that produces a small brain.

Dark Side Of The Croon

2004-11-29T00:34:00.001-08:00
In engineering college we had three things we couldn't do without - weed, booze and Pink Floyd. So all you engineer freaks might like to know that the chorus Pink Floyd's song Another Brick In The Wall was sung by 23 schoolchildren.

The album made gazillions and sold over 12 million copies. Now the kids are suing Pink Floyd for royalties:

A group of former pupils at a London comprehensive school are poised to win thousands of pounds in unpaid royalties for singing on Pink Floyd's classic Another Brick In The Wall 25 years ago.

The pupils from the 1979 fourthform music class at Islington Green School secretly recorded vocals after their teacher was approached by the band's management.

Cellphone Archer

2004-11-29T00:16:00.000-08:00
This amateur Robin Hood should be awarded The medal for understanding the power of a cellphone. what a ball-breaker, dude! -

Authorities in Sweden arrested a man who shot mobile phones into the yard of a high-security prison with a bow and arrows, police said Saturday.

The 25-year-old man is charged with planning to aid a prison escape and could get up to a year in jail, police said.

New JimStuph

2004-11-26T21:01:00.000-08:00
James R. Norton and Rohit Gupta go back a long, virtual way. He'd been working for Al Franken's radio stuph through the presidential election in the US, and now he writes:

"After an 8-month drought, I've managed to write a
couple new short stories. Merely surviving the
election seemed to do the trick."

If you guys have never read Jim Norton's crisp, deli-fresh, mindfucks served like a helical twist of words, check out these shorts -

A New Line Of Work

&

The Sea Change

Mindstopper

2004-11-26T01:52:00.001-08:00
During rabies the virus tells the brain to attack the body. What if I stop the brain via a coma, so it doesn't attack the body while the immune system kills off the virus? That would be so cool, right?

This actually happened. You can read about it here.

From boing boing:

Rabies is not 100% fatal (to humans) if you have shown symptoms, but all previous survival cases DID receive the vaccine after symptoms had shown. This was the first case of survival without the vaccine.

That's what I call a nice, system hack.

Ukrainian Oranges

2004-11-26T01:18:00.000-08:00
Don't know if you guys are following the Ukraine elections, but I think they are fascinating. This is the year of democracy all over the world, it seems. Everywhere we are seeing the emrgence of clear-conflict. The message is totally clear to me - minorieties are as important as majorities. Conflict is not an option, collaboration is necessary.

Supreme Court of Ukraine Just Issued a Decision

that the results announced by the Central Election Commitee cannot be considered final until they are reviewed by the court. The review will occur on Monday

PC Fixxer

2004-11-26T00:20:00.001-08:00
Consider this post as an advertisement for my computer engineer - Nilesh Melekar. I say this because Nilesh totally rocks.

I've used his services for over an year now, and I've found him to be a rare kind of guy - honest, sincere, hard-working and he is actually shy about charging money. I often have to force cash on him because he refuses to take it from me.

Now Nilesh is leaving his day job to go freelance, and I support him in that decision. My token help is this - you guys. You ever feel the need for a no-bullshit guy to fix your PC? Call Nilesh Melekar - 98192 84955 or email: nileshmelekar@yahoo.com

I'd trust him completely. Anytime. And if I were you, I'd try to make him famous within a small community by blogging him.

Leetspeak

2004-11-25T03:49:00.000-08:00
From the Wikipedia entry for this new language.

# hax0r, "hacker", where the symbols are used to draw rough approximations to letters: >< is an "x", |2 is an "r". It is possible that the substitution of "ck" with "x" is a linguistic nod to the Greek letter chi. Also, Haxor is sometimes found as "Haxxor", as symbols for "x" are often doubled.
# h4x, "hacks"
# rox0rs, "rocks"
# sux0rz, "sucks", as in "s|_|x0rz my n|_|tz0rz" when one feels pity for someone else, or when angry
# suxxor, some other person considered unfriendly; also used in friendly name calling among gamers

BitchFest begins before scheduled time

2004-11-24T22:19:00.000-08:00
And this one's for telling me to shut up, motherfuckers.

You May Say I'm A Dreamer

2004-11-23T23:37:00.000-08:00
But I'm not only a dreamer.

I'm an engineer, friend, lover, seeker, writer, electrician, employer, servant, dragon, bitch, artist, alcoholic, cyber-libertarian, hacker, blogger, patient, child of time, author, inventor, loser, genius, madman, nobody, everyone, people, worker, traveler, mediator, user, instrument, wacko, son, brother, columnist, game-player, hyperdocument of human history, nothing, everything.

I'm all of the above and more.

Domino Monsoon

2004-11-19T02:19:00.000-08:00
Can't see a damn thing! There's water pouring from the sky like it's the Great Flood. A constant river of rain clouds his vision on the dark highway. He rides a motorbike, an Enfield Bullet. Sitting between his crotch and the gas tank, is a small bag. Faint but clear vibrations travel through his groin, are warmed in blood, and sent up straight to his brain, like a signal amplified.

The noise of torrential rain, a TV set gone bad. It sizzles with no surface and random data. You can't even hear if someone screams. In mortal pain, as it is, the throat folds back onto itself, choking the owner further.

The only variations are the waves that come with the flood. It rises and falls to it's own rhythm, heaving and carrying the weight of an entire sky. The rider tries to breathe with the rhythm of water-needles hitting his bare skin. The puddles and potholes break his concentration, jolt him, and he remains on his way to the caves.

He could have been at home snug and warm in bed, but he has he ventured out in this raging storm. He could have been at home watching the late night movie on HBO, downing another bottle of flat beer, but he had to call now. In the middle of the night. In the pouring rain. Half asleep. Unscrewed.

He reaches the caves, kills the engine. No sound except the dull drumming of the rain on his bike, against his back. Nothing answers.

He fumbles at the hot box attached to the rear of his bike. His fingers clutch at something wet and soggy. One part of his brain tells him its futile screaming, no one’s going to hear him anyway; the other part is just frozen with shock. He takes the box of soggy pizza out, and adjusts his baseball cap.

Good. Something. Tissue paper. Oregano. Chilly Flakes. Your Pizza. Big fat bill. Late? Shit. Free Pizza? Yeah, right. We take 300 bucks off, that's it. Your bill is goddamn six hundred. No fucking tip?

Fuck you too, Domino’s, the customers thought.

Xanadu Responds!

2004-11-12T00:17:00.000-08:00
I got back from a Diwali party, scared to open my mail, and I didn't. I went to sleep and then I woke up a few hours later, scared to open my mail. So, I made tea. Then I checked my mail.

I had a mail from Professor Ted Nelson. If you aren't aware of who he is, perhaps it is time. Anyway, he wrote:

Hi Rohit. Nice to hear from you again (that was you that wrote me
a couple of years ago, wasn't it)? I'm pleased that Larry Lessig steered you toward me. Congratulations on your journey toward the truth !-)

I've looked at your blog-noveland found the permission at the bottom.*§
It's not exactly transcopyright, since
- it relies on personal contact
- it's limited in quantity

The systems I'm working on (Transcopyright and Transliterature)
will I hope make these things a little simpler. Please watch my pages, which I hope will be better very soon.

I hadn't even dreamed that he would reply. Funnily enough, I don't remember writing to him a couple of years ago, and then again, I might have. I have written letters to so many people I admire, never expecting that they'd reply back. Only, secretly hoping...

Cloak Room - The Alternative Reality Game

2004-11-11T23:57:00.000-08:00
Ladies & Gentlemen,

India's first SMS Novel is now also a game!

"This is the story of Rita, who carries a vital piece of information that will change the future of India. It is written by RoGue, but controlled by you. The author wants her do die in the end, can you save her?

After each chapter, you suggest an alternate course for the story, via comments, and fight the author!

*Every response counts...but anonymous comments may be ignored*

Spam Poetry IX - "Forms"

2004-11-11T01:31:00.000-08:00
Don't wait any longer.
Mister's busy,' the receiver
Form request
Form submission

Spam Poetry VIII - "Enlargement"

2004-11-11T01:28:00.000-08:00
washing them, 'if they'd
sat next to him
filled with grief,
Dig in, lads!

you righdy, you're hinting
good night. And when
barmen, 'A nice little
it to the police,

Penis enlargement pills
assure you, Let's take

Spam Poetry VII - "The Last Rolex Poem"

2004-11-11T01:24:00.000-08:00
sturgeon he
strengthless, that he would
His powers of observation
two thoughts pierced the
...Imitation Rolex

Spam Poetry VI - " The Editor's Choice"

2004-11-11T01:19:00.000-08:00
the editor was now Adela
No Compromise
Wear only ROLEX

new typescript of
the painted floor to
Rolex Yachtmaster Watch

entrance into the summer
Well, let's say, bye
Most assuredly,responded
We look forward
Rolex Oyster Watch

Rolex, Cartier, Frank Mueller,
Bretling for sale
to crack, and he Leah
Your Application is Confirmed

ALL FOR INSTANT DOWNLOAD NOW
shoulder equipped home
Yet what remained completely
of Your application?

Spam Poetry V - "Replicas of Rolex"

2004-11-11T01:16:00.000-08:00
Rolex designer replicas
citizen muttered venomously
psychiatrist Auguste Forel, who
and hundreds of people
Welcome details

second freshness, that means
Rolex Date
just Watch Gilliam
Sweetheart wants a Rolex ?

couldn't get rid of Dougherty
Pyramid system assures you 10,00$ !!

not money. She loved
General Information
say no more, I

Spam Poetry IV "Raymond's Dead"

2004-11-11T01:12:00.000-08:00
this is one of Raymond:
Urgent Security Notice
We look forward
Request Support

embellishing the story with
further assistance
the room with the
Online Krause
money in Kaifa's palace,

chain got very quickly
Your Status Rush
He would fall silent,
Congratulations

Your Inquiry
map. And then she
bared teeth was no
Request Status

Spam Poetry III - " Return Of The Rolex"

2004-11-11T01:07:00.000-08:00
Good heavens. Queen!

This is to inform you
well! Namely, within
there appeared by the
Dysmas, on the second

Re: the things we say
$5O meant motor
the yarn Varenukha was

Re: the visitor's, from
only towards evening, and
Rolex was never so cheap

Spam Poetry II - "Procurator"

2004-11-11T01:05:00.000-08:00
A dusty cloud covered
where to go, what
that his face became
Re: could be seen on
Re: light -- the findirector
The procurator asked him
INSTANT DOWNLOAD 1300 POPULAR SOFTWARES books
Re: tell him about it?
said you'd be home
But suddenly spring came
Fw: postgraduate

Spam Poetry I - "Rolex"

2004-11-11T01:00:00.000-08:00
The cat, aiming accurately
and that over the
Re: and become parables themselves,
Replica Rolex Swiss Watches
pushing against the counters,
First class, single, I'll
Buy 5 Rolex and get shipping Free

LinkMyMind

2004-11-10T00:44:00.000-08:00
Today, I was confused. So I made LinkMyMind, a tool to extract signals from noise.

Arrival Of The Mobs

2004-11-09T21:46:00.000-08:00
Start watching. The smart mob has arrived.

Money#2

2004-11-07T00:28:00.000-08:00
We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.
– Marshall McLuhan

It's insane, how much power a penniless man has.

RoGue has started writing India's first SMS-friendly novel, Cloak Room, and he needed a promo deal with this company. Yesterday he went to meet the CEO, a complete stranger, and to strike a business deal with him.

RoGue told him why and how this was going to change the nature of media in this country, put the publishing in the hands of the people. RoGue's sincerity somehow worked, he told him he used to be a spammer who was now being screwed by big networks. They wanted to control spam, in the sense that, they wanted to control the money that is to be made by spamming.

By the end of the afternoon, the guy just gave us what we wanted - for FREE.

Money

2004-11-02T23:33:00.000-08:00
I hate money.

Today I discovered that money doesn't hate me. It just keeps on playing hide and seek so that one day I discover it's true nature - love. Money emerges from people making small gestures of love to each other, like in a game.

Almost a year ago I started writing a novel called Le Spirale Fantastique. Today I re-invented it into something bigger and larger, the novel of the future. The peer-published novel. I'm either a genius or a madman, and comfortable being both.

Ta.

Sunday Morning Tea

2004-10-30T20:57:00.000-07:00
It's only when the water begins to boil that
you will realise that you're out of tea.
You order a 1/2kg pack of Brooke Bond and
start where you left.

It's only when the brew begins to boil that
you will realise that the milk is stale.
You throw away everything.

You buy new milk and you start all over again.
You will forget to put in the sugar this time.

The Billion People Effect: Lessons From China

2004-10-30T02:54:00.000-07:00
There are only two “billion people” economies in the world – India & China. Together they make up more than a third of the world’s population. They are big governance systems which defy traditional analyses that may apply to smaller countries.

So we must consider that when dealing with extremely large numbers, percentages do not define the phenomenon that emerge. Even minorities matter as much as majorities, at least when it comes to introducing systemic change.

For instance, you can’t say that India has only 1.7% internet penetration in 2004 and therefore it’s not going to affect the immediate future of everything – including governance, law and economy. That small percentage amounts to 18,481,000 individuals and rose by 270% in 2000-2004. By 2005, there will be more internet users in India than the population of Australia.

We need to start hearing some signals from this noise and these signals are coming loud and clear from our neighbour and the world’s oldest continuous civilisation – China.

“After eight years of explosive growth, the number of Chinese internet users is rapidly approaching 80 million, surpassing the membership of the Chinese Communist Party.” – Xiao Qiang writes in “Meanwhile: The Great Leap Online That Is Stirring China” (International Herald Tribune).

I’m going to mention a phenomenon that has already started appearing in China, and will soon start showing up in parts of India. In fact, because India has a much larger ‘packing fraction’ ( people divided by land available), we will see these phenomenon in a far more intense manner.

Also, recently the cellphone usage in India (45 million) exceeded the landlines (44 million) and the internet is seemingly converging on the handheld devices, so effectively, the number at play by the year 2007 will be well over 100 million. That’s ten percent of the population, and a conservative estimate.

[Read the rest here.]

OrganicPoetry

2004-10-28T22:59:00.000-07:00
I was in alibaug at a friend's place last weekend, and I invented a new game called
OrganicPoetry.

I've posted it directly into Wikipedia, the best encyclopedia in the world.
Please spread the word and play OrganicPoetry!

What now?

2004-10-28T20:31:00.000-07:00
Yesterday I ended a two and half-year stint as a columnist for Mid Day, Bombay's leading tabloid. The strange part is that my column was dropped because my remarks offended the editor. The stranger part is that if someone was actually editing this newspaper, my comments would not have made it in print. Strangest part of all - I hacked the system, and they threw me out like a criminal, instead of fixing the bug in the system.

Systems collapse if they behave like that. It's basic control theory.