The Wherewithal

Best of luck and all.  We'll see, looking forward at what we can never see while ignoring behind us what is always clear.  Better not to dwell to much on that though.
And Autumn is proving uniquely chilling, in a glorious red-yellow way.  Apple cider, cocoa, Nog is flowing.  Oh happy day; happy season.  

And while courage is not lacking, it certainly requires some grace in execution.  But that is trivial, seems trivial, should be trivial, may be trivial to what is smushed in perspective down the converging road, perhaps.
Minds are blown, Prime'd and set off.  Halloween and the littlest slivers of the anarchist inside begin to show.  Appeasement again probably.
Just glad to be here, there is a grandeur in beginning the end of something.  However uncertain the 'next' may be.  Merry meet and merry part again.

Oh Canada

A Vancouver Sun headline recently caught my eye:

Climate Change Could make Canada a Major World Power

[click here for original article]

My first thought: sweeeet.  The article goes on to explain how increased warming will lead (and already has to some extent) to ice in the Arctic receding.  As we technically have sovereignty in a large portion of the Arctic (along with Russia, Scandinavia, Iceland, and Alaska), this would enable us to get at some of its nice, juicy resources.  Before the environmentalists cry foul, remember: this is after climate change, there isn't much worth preserving now.  Anyways, just like Japan, China, and a host of smaller countries in the Pacific Rim have emerged in recent decades as industry hot spots.

With the coming resource boom will also come many, many jobs.  And as the northern regions of the NORC's (Northern Rim Countries) are all rather unpopulated, there will be a rush of immigration and population growth.  Our unmatched fresh water supplies will help too.

So what should we all expect?

What kind of timeframe are these changes on?

As much of this development depends on climate change, lets look at that.  Its my guess that CO2 emissions will continue to increase a little over the next decade and a half, perhaps two decades.  By that time, oil supplies should be low enough and technology will have advanced enough for us to stop the slow increase, and start the long trek towards pre-industrial age levels.  Of course, the planet's temperature has a lot of "inertia".  Even if we stopped pumping out CO2 tomorrow, it would keep on getting warmer.  So Arctic melting is close to inevitable.

The article estimates that the development and population rush in the Arctic will occur within 40 years.  This is pretty conservative, I think we will start seeing big things happening up north within 20.

Any-who, time to wrap this up.  I'd like to get your opinion on the issue.  Are you looking Canadian, Russian, Scandinavian, or Alaskan and are looking forward to industrial might?  Do you feel that this is only stepping on Nature's face after melting her poles?  What's YOUR take?

Thanks for the read.

Oh I know "WHY"

Why now were those memories surfacing?  What relevance did they have? Ah well the relevance was obvious to that inner smug self that takes infinite care to remind me of what I really thinking.  But self-delusion... so good, so satisfying, so easy.
My inner small wish to be a mentat, a parser.  Receiving each new moment and world separately, openly.  Each as its own new place.
But this is nothing extraordinary.  For hell's sake, its just THOUGHT.  It represents a LOT of ideals to me.  I never surprise myself by what is done.

Attention is given where interest is smitten.

It works both ways right?  It IS both ways?  But True Me knows better.  The raw bit though, the Why, is now bland.  THAT little nugget of fun has been visited much; and now I know myself that the Why is no absolute.  Its fluid, changeable.

And that small Why for It is joined by the rest of the masses.  Every face, sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, word, and pixel.  Forming a big ball of BEING.  Throw this together with a time limit, a sense that this is a race.  Boil for 9 months give or take and I arrive at my meaning of life.

That though, just becomes another Why.

Progress

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  Cold wars are good for science.

(I'd recommend you watch it in fullscreen; and watch the whole thing too, almost sounds like music once the tests really get going)

The arms race between the USA and the USSR (with a few notable discoveries in Britain, France and Canada) gave humanity a lot of good stuff.

- Nuclear reactors (So what if they have a bad rap, they are the way of the future)
- A man on the moon (Nothing like the good ol' red menace to ignite public opinion)
- Nuclear physics (exotic atoms, big machines make things we can't see go really fast)
- Science fiction (VERY important, imagine if Asimov never got around to making up "robotics")
- Rockets (also fun, thanks von Braun)
- MAD (ensures that no nukes will ever be used in war again)
- A very good demonstration that communism doesn't work

Now, haters gonna hate, go ahead and list off some of the downsides.  There was some loss of life, mainly in the Korean war.  And all those spies, but hey, they never existed and were never here.  Right?

"I'll trade ya 10 red spies for your 4 star-spangled spies."

"You have a deal, now we just need a long bridge covered in mist somewhere."

"That's too dramatic, lets just put them on planes and have them fly to the other country."

"Fine."

I've been watching the whole spy boondoggle in the USA pretty closely.  Mostly just because I can't believe Tom Clancy had some of it right, but also because I am hoping for more Cold-war-style tension.

And perhaps some more breakthroughs.

*Blink*

BotD.2 "The Stand"

Book of the Day:

The Stand

by Stephen King

Another post-apocalyptic book.  Sorry guys, but its also pretty good, give it a chance.

First of all, if you have any inhibitions about reading Stephen King, lose them.  Some people can't stand his books, although when I ask why, they always reply "he is just so twisted."  Why is that a reason not to read his work?  If you don't like horror novels, fine.  However, when you read some "teen fiction" crud and come running to me saying "Omg it was so freaky I was up all night reading and then I couldn't sleep.  Jacob is sooooo dreamy!!!" I really want to smack you.  Read some actual literature.  Stuff with meaning, stuff without vampires.  PLEASE.

My rant aside, "The Stand" is currently my favorite Stephen King novel. There are just so dang many that I can't say its the best (and I haven't read them all).  So "my current favorite" will have to do.

Anyways, it starts with some sort of modified super-flu escaping from a secret army base.  The disease is referred to in the book as "Captain Trips" which I think is a pretty awesome name for a disease.  Anyways, the disease spreads across the US, and one assumes through the rest of the world.  It kills off something like 99.6% of everyone.  I don't want to give much more away, lets just say it ends up with a pretty sick showdown between good and evil.  Although the beginning is a little bit dry, stick with it, you won't be disappointed.  If you don't have the patience for that kind of thing, I suggest you go back to "teen fiction", some author out there will pander to your tastes.

Best part of the novel?  Well for me that would be when the Trashcan Man walks through an empty city.  He is a schizophrenic pyromaniac.  And he finds some huge propane storage pressure vessels.  And they are full.  :D  Later he comes across some of those massive round oil and gas storage tanks.  Setting some timed fuses on them, he walks out of the city as they explode, pretty much covering everything with fire. Lotsa fire.  King's description of his madness puts you right into his head, and thats pretty exciting.  For me at least.

Further Reading:

"The Tommyknockers" (also by King) is another good one.  Just FYI, don't watch the movie of the TV miniseries for "The Stand", its not worth it at all.  Bleh.  I think that is the last post-apocalyptic book I have to recommend, so I'm sure a few of you will be a little relieved.  Then again, if you have a good one, feel free to recommend it.  I'll probably end up reading it (unless it has vampires).

-Torwch

BotD.1 "Dies the Fire"

Book of the Day:

Dies the Fire

by S. M. Stirling

Ah, post-apocalyptic books.  There is nothing better.

And this is one of the best.  Like most p-a books, it is set in the modern day.  However, as pretty much all modern devices stop working, the stuff that happens starts to turn downright medieval.  The premise is that everything electronic or high energy chemicals (like gasoline or gunpowder) become useless.  Everywhere around the world, planes fall from the sky and cities go black.

It has heroes, machete wielding cannibals, and horseback archers.  Fiefdoms ruled by ruthless "kings", a constant fear of starvation, and like better post-apocalyptic books: no clear picture of what happened to cause all this.

Review:

What I enjoyed the most about the book was how much it made you put yourself into the story.  I was always questioning "What would I have done there?" or "Would I have been able to survive that?"  If anything is going to make you take up bow-making and fencing, this would be it.  Besides the well detailed  fights and conflicts, Stirling wrote quite a bit about how the non-combatants manage to survive.  Defense against the threat of pillaging "bicycle gangs" is key.

The medieval-esque "tech" is described well and is very believable.  As one would expect, archery and equestrianism (riding horses) are what really makes the difference between living and becoming some crazy guy's dinner.  It has a nice message of "lazy people will pay" although looking back that probably includes me.

A bit of warning, if you are kinda paranoid, reading this book could cause you to keep a backpack of food by your bedside at all times now.  Oh, and there is a bit of gore.

Further Reading:

Luckily there several sequels, all following the same groups of survivers.  I believe the next one is called The Protector's War.  Some other good post-apocalyptic books include Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, or The Mortal Engines series by Philip Reeve.

There are plenty of post-apocalyptic video games and movies, so I'm sure most of you know a few good ones.

Feel free to comment with some other favorites of yours sorta follow the same there or a book you are DYING to get people to read.

And more Books of the Day will be coming.  Look out.

Cheers.

Je le veux.

No adoo, not even going there.  Just watch.



918 Spyder?   Niiiiiiiice.
This is why we all want to be rich.
-Torwch

An Old-Fashioned Post

Oh the times, they are a changin'. I thought I'd never see the day where I could irritate people in Europe without a plane ticket and a holiday weekend, but just look. We are a civilization built on progress and innovation. But sometimes, innovation is not really so. If someone invented a toaster that also has mp-3 capabilities, would it really be all that great? Probably not, eh?

So, with this being said and acknowledged, could you apply this to the real world? The changes we make to our system may be fixing what ain't broke. Use whatever examples you want, (I'm not getting called homophobic/racist/sexist/dead right for the sake of a blog post.) and I'll use mine. The Scythian people of Ukraine developed a nomadic society built on horse archery and conquest that started in the 5th century BC and lasted until the late 1400's AD. Did they ever change what they did because it was unfair to the conquered people? Heck no! They dd what they did because it worked, and made everyone pretty well better than they started.

As a modern society, we love ourselves for righting the wrongs of our "primitive" forfathers. We love how we can make everything right by adapting to the wills of any group who has been wronged in the past. But take heed. What you seek to destroy may be there for a reason.

But, at the same time, you must be aware of the consequences of ignoring practices that should be removed. Im the American South (not to be confused with South America), African peoples were kept as slaves to sustain a feudal society. Besides the fact that owning and abusing human beings in the way that they did was appalling, this sort of agrarian culture was ill-equipped economically speaking for the coming industrialization. So removing this practice was not only beneficial in the sense that people were being freed from tyranny and abuse, it also helped the South advance into a position of wealth and comparative prosperity. People at the time could have argued that owning slaves was the way it always was and it was done for a reason, but this sort of arguement will get quickly shut down in modern academia, and for good reason.

So here, changing the traditions was overdue and neccessary. "But Claymore!" you say. "You've contradicted yourself". No I have not. I am simply reminding you to not view this sort of history-changing philosophy in terms of black and white, but rather to view everything carefully. Tradition is good, it helps keep us grounded, but beware of bad habits.

So what say the omnipotent followers? If you think differently, or have an issue that could be analysed in the above fashion, leave a comment. Or don't, but then this last sentence makes me seem kind of pathetic, doesn't it? (wink, wink.) Until then, keep your history and politics seperate.

My Recent Thoughts - April '10

There has been a lot in the news lately.
None of what follows is news.
But it is informative. (-ish)

Item One:
Amanda Lang's stunning checkmate of Ann Coulter who was speaking as a guest on the CBC's Lang-O'Leary Debate.  Near the end of the interview Lang asked Coulter "Do you think people would listen to you at all if your weren't pretty?"  And BAM!  Only crickets from Coulter's side.  Then Amanda Lang, as the good newscaster she is, allowed herself only a small smile.
I am proud of the students who protested Coulter's speeches at the canadian universities last month.  I am all for complete freedom of speech and the voicing of opinions, but Hate is Hate.  If it can't be spoken without scaring and humiliating entire cultures, then it is better left unspoken and unthought.  Ann Coulter, peddle that crap somewhere else.

Item Two:

A little more satirical this time.  Look carefully at the picture of the pope on the left.  Notice the symbols on the cloth around his neck?  Scary stuff eh?  Because this means that the POPE IS PART OF THE UMBRELLA CORPORATION!  Now for those who don't know what the Umbrella Corporation is, go immediately and watch Resident Evil.  All of them.  Just so you know, this picture was not doctored at all, and it even appears in the most recent issue of Macleans magazine.  That is where I noticed it.

Item 3:
Not really newsworthy, but I'd recommend all of you check out this site: wikileaks.org/.  They allow people to post otherwise classified and secret material online for all to see while completely hiding their identity and stopping any efforts to remove said material.  Big businesses with secrets and shady government dealings beware:  WikiLeaks is the future of investigative journalism.