Help!

As loath as I am to link-whore, I just found this amazing. It's a take of the Beatles lip-synching "Help". After watching it, I gotta say

John Lennon is the proto-emo!

Look at his hair, artfully swept to one side! His soulful eyes! His black wardrobe! He's the emo before emos!

And poor Ringo just looks miserable. Though I suppose he doesn't really have much to do, what with there not being a drum kit on set.

Dear Australia...

Thank you. Thank you so much for getting rid of John Howard. The man was not only Undead, but totally evil as well. Finally, after 11 years, he's out of power. I'm practically giddy with happiness!

Fingers crossed that Rudd doesn't end up being a tool as well!

-Tim

I am not streetwise. I do not have the knowledge born of the rough avenues, of the east-ends and wrong-sides-of-tracks. I know no lingo. I have no contacts. I am not streetwise.

But I am something else.

I am citywise. I am countrywise. I am nation-state wise.

I come not from the rough streets, but from the rough nations. I do not call a small neighbourhood home, but whole nations, even hemispheres.

In my mind it is not gangs or corner stores, but armies and trade deals.

I am not streetwise.

I don't care about neighbours, about mayors, about yard work.

People ask where I come from, and I can say, truthfully, everywhere.

My antecedents are from half the planet, and they stand as a wedge, the point on my shoulders.

I am historywise.

I know what happened in Belarus on 9/11/01

I perceive why it is good that we didn't take Gallipoli.

Whenever anyone asks where you're from, what do they mean? Do they mean where have you lived the longest? Where you were born? Where your family comes from? What your ethnic descent is? Why does it matter?

I am not streetwise.

I am planetwise.

I am a citizen of the world, and it is all my home. Its states are my suburbs. Its ideas are my cities. I move about it freely, both in person and in spirit.

This world is my country, its nations are my streets, and it is to them that I am wise.

I am a citizen of the world. And so is everyone else.

Thank God for the fourth estate!

Well, after all that dicking about, and the Police and Maori groups yelling at one another, but refusing to be transparent, it took the media to reveal some of this. Thank GOD! So, the Dominion Herald yesterday (Nov 14) put out a news article leaking some of the police evidence. Apparently there was talk about the assassination of John Keyes (if he got in power (which he unfortunately probably will)) and George W. Bush (if he came to visit). Also the camps in the Ureweras talked about how to blockade themselves against police, how to use Molotov Cocktails, and the ousting of Pakeha farmers.

Well, shit. As much as I dislike the NZ police force, this is some pretty damning evidence. Were they in the right?

However, a couple of things about this bug me.

Firstly, while I applaud Fairfax media for their release of this information, I'm worried about their bias, and the selectiveness of their release. We have no idea of the context of the quotes, and the level of seriousness associated with them. Is it just two jokers on the phone laughing about how they could knock of John Keyes? Or are they seriously plotting it? Were they seriously talking about kicking Pakeha farmers of their land, or was it just pie in the sky discussing? Without a context it's hard to judge. Goodness only knows that when I was in high school, my friends and I discussed how we would barricade the place and protect it if anyone tried to attack. We weren't particularly serious, but it was a fun enough exercise, and completely harmless.

So once more, I end this with a plea for more information. Let us see for ourselves exactly what's going on here.

The Fallacy of Exams

I have issues with Exams. Major ones. In my mind, the entire exam process is flawed.

See, exams force you to cram a huge amount of data into your short term memory, which is then regurgitated in a test setting, and then forgotten. These are either spewed forth as individual factoids, or as wrote learned essays. Neither tests your actual knowledge of the subject, nor your understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of the course. It's perfectly possible to do well in most papers just by aping the lecturer. Hell, if you go to tutorials, pay attention, and attend all the lectures, you can do damn well without ever having to do a reading. God knows it worked for me for most of my undergrad career.

The other thing that pisses me off about exams, is that it inherently denigrates the subjects by forcing you to completely deal with them in two or three hours. If a 13 week paper is so simple that the entire thing can be successfully summarised in a three hour exam, then why does it take 13 weeks to teach it? Exams force you to dumb down what you've learned into a form that can be recalled and used in a high pressure environment, and then forgotten. It completely loses all the complexities and details you've been taught, in favour of broad context statements. It essentially defeats the purpose of sitting the course. If it can be written in three hours, surely it can be taught in three hours?

TB

The Finnish school shootings and KMFDM

The talking heads at TV3 news have decided to latch on to the fact that the Finnish shooter listened to KMFDM, as did one of the Columbine shooters as the factor linking the two horrible tragedies.

What the hell?

Seriously, do we as a nation honestly believe that is the music that drives people to these acts? Can we really think it's as simple as being able to blame the bands they listen to? Is there not something here that should have shown things were more markedly wrong, like when he posted on his website what he was planning to do, and when he was planning to do it?

And it's odd that KMFDM should be singled out, as they're a band with a social conscience who are surprisingly anti-violence.

Isn't it that people who are feeling alienated and violent are more attracted to this type of music, rather than this music turns them to violence?

Anyway, my thoughts go to those affected by the shootings.

And I'm going out leaving you with a few sections of KMFDM's song Dogma

We fear that pop-culture is the only culture we're ever going to have
We want to stop reading magazines
Stop watching T.V.
Stop caring about Hollywood
But we're addicted to the things we hate
...
Ask not what you can do for your country
Ask what your country did to you
...
We owe so much money we're not broke we're broken
We're so poor we can't even pay attention
...
You are more than the sum of what you consume
Desire is not an occupation
You are alternately thrilled and desperate
Skyhigh and fucked
Let's stop praying for someone to save us and start saving ourselves

Peace out.

BREAKING NEWS: Hotdogs to be made R18 in response to recent reports of high cancer risk from processed meat

First they took the cigarettes, and I didn't care, because smokers smell like arse, and I don't like them.
Then they took the sun, and I didn't care, because I'm pasty anyway.
Then they came for my bacon...

bollocks that for a joke.

I'm sure that by now, everyone is aware of the recent study by the World Cancer Research Fund showing a major link between diet and cancer. In fact, you can download the entire 500 page document, if you want. And apparently processed and red meats are the big risk factors.

Well, that's a hell of a downer, seeing the cultural love for burgers, hot dogs, bacon and the like.

Does this mean we'll start seeing age restrictions on the purchase of red meat? You'll need show ID before being allowed to purchase a pie?

As facetious as I'm being, it raises the issue of protecting people from themselves. We feel the need to stop people smoking and drinking before they're 18, because of the damage that they're doing to themselves. That said, that's only because the damage is far more severe while they're still developing. Well, it is with alcohol. Is that also true of cigarettes? Do they also have a worse effect on the young? Will there be any evidence of processed foods being in a similar situation? Perhaps instead of getting drunk on your 18th birthday, you'll go to McDonalds, and stuff your face with burgers. Kids will scarf salami behind the bikesheds.

But it's also a quality of life issue. There are few things in this life better than red meat. Rare steak. Lamb stew. Prosciutto. Pastrami. Souvlaki. Am I honestly willing to lose all of these to lower my chances of cancer? Even though I have a really good chance of getting the big C anyway, due to a family history. Will eating less of these foods really change my odds much?

Or should we just eat it all, and enjoy it? Perhaps trusting the doctors of the unknowable future to save us?

I don't know.