My brain hurts

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

Oh, I've been thinking too hard today I think… Didn't get at all as much done as I should have. I mostly spent the day listening to bagpipe music and mostly thinking about inventing a new form of music, instead of getting much done. I wrote all of about 500 lines of code, and accidentally deleted some essential code (the iamedit module), although I do have a recent backup.

Music is made up of a complex set of frequencies which, to oversimplify, make different parts of your ear vibrate. These vibrations have a structural/locational context, as well as motion as “objects” over the fourth dimension. We're still treating music largely in the same sense as we did fifty thousand years ago. While beautiful, it's primitive.

If you wear high quality headphones (standard headphones can't physically produce the sound required) and run unusual tonal structures on the edges of human hearing, odd neurological effects start happening. You are able to alter brain states (that is, put people into waking dreams, make them suggestable, make them pass out, make them vomit, make them orgasm, and so on) and if not careful, really mess a person up*.

Anyway, I was thinking that it should be elementary to combine this with biofeedback tech (which is relatively inexpensive) and build a device that creates music not so much to tell a harmonic story, but to “massage the nervous system”.

Oh, and I have a quick code update I'll be adding in the next couple of days — a quick'n'easy way to change the background color of the title bars on diary entries. Then I'll set up my diary into three color codes. One for IAM/BME entries (the essential stuff), one for political and news entries, and one for personal entries.

* Yes, I've been experimenting on myself a lot lately.

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The Lord bless Charlie Mops!

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

First, so people stop asking me, yes, of course I will provide extensive documentation for the diary entry below, but I'm still assembling it.

Second, I'm probably going to call it a day soon, I'm not working very efficiently for some reason, but here are some screenshots of the scrapbook online index tool that I have to have done by Friday (since that's probably when people's scrapbooks will start arriving).

Now, to protect my “Canadian Identity” I'll sing a song. It's not even a song written in Canada, but I think it's safe to say anything that combines traditional Celtic roots and alcohol is as Canadian as beavers and porn on prime time TV.

A long time ago, way back in history,
when all there was to drink was nothin but cups of tea.
Along came a man by the name of Charlie Mops,
and he invented a wonderful drink and he made it out of hops.

[chorus]
He must have been an admiral a sultan or a king,
and to his praises we shall always sing.
Look what he has done for us he's filled us up with cheer!
Lord bless Charlie Mops, the man who invented beer beer beer
tiddly beer beer beer.

The Curtis bar, the James' Pub, the Hole in the Wall as well
one thing you can be sure of, its Charlie's beer they sell
so all ye lads a lasses at eleven O'clock ye stop
for five short seconds, remember Charlie Mops 1 2 3 4 5

[chorus]

A barrel of malt, a bushel of hops, you stir it around with a stick,
the kind of lubrication to make your engine tick.
40 pints of wallop a day will keep away the quacks.
Its only eight pence hapenny and one and six in tax, 1 2 3 4 5

[chorus]

The Lord bless Charlie Mops!

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That's not good…

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

I've been doing research for a story showing that the 9/11 is being used by US forces to prepare for and potentially stage a military take-over of Canada (which has the largest oil fields on the planet, as well as more natural resources in terms of water and lumber than any other country on the planet). Sounds crazy, I know. I didn't want to believe it myself. But the endgame pieces are starting to fall into place and I'm having less luck believing that I'm just making up a conspiracy out of nothing.

It's really upsetting me actually, enough that it's hard to work on it for more than a half hour at a time. This would be the third time that the US has launched a military invasion of Canada, and it's a bloody mess every time… While America has been chased out in the past, America has a lot more at stake this time. Fucked up. Really fucked up.

You know, I should just move to Margaritaville.

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DynCorp to RoboCop?

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

I was going to write on other issues, including the potential overruling of Miranda laws (a case worth keeping a close eye on as if the government makes their case it both eliminates the “right to remain silent” and opens the door to much more severe interrogation techniques), but I'd like to talk primarily about the US pull out of Karzai security.

Hamid Karzai is the drug warlord put into power by the US to rule Afghanistan to ensure the US oil pipeline deals would be signed. Now that that is complete, the US is pulling its forces out — and Karzai, who's already survived one assassination attempt still needs military guards of course. To replace the US military, private contractor DynCorp has been hired.

First, please read and understand what I've written about emergent behaviour in large corporations. Then look at the damage a “benign” company can produce. Then realize that this is a very high-end mercenary company (it's called in when conditions are considered too dangerous for US special forces) that has also been caught up in scandals ranging from the financial to running rape rings in Bosnia (where they'd been contracted to run policing), shooting down the wrong places (remember the missionary they shot down in Peru?), drug smuggling, and so on. Oh, and they were significant contributors to the Bush campaign of course.

dyncorp-sucks.com

You've seen what companies start demanding when they get powerful (RIAA/MPAA are of course examples that you know well). You've seen that they act without any kind of ethical constraints or concerns for the public. You know this is a company comfortable with trading human life for money. You must realize what's going to happen when they are contracted to do domestic security and policing — and don't think that's not going to happen. I've linked a dozen articles in the last six months showing the percentage increase in private contract to public forces.

I'd recently lent someone the book “101 Things To Do 'Til The Revolution” (a US libertarian and constitutionalist type book). After reading me, she asked me, “I really liked the book, and I thought it was good advice, but the book never really talked about the revolution.”

That's because those writers don't know what the revolution is going to be. There's a revolution going on right now — these large companies (like the one above) are trying to overthrow the government. When that revolution is over, things get very scary. Republican fools are voting to make it happen under the sad delusion that they're making small responsible government and a land of liberty. They're not. They're removing the last defences the public has against these monsters.

PS. The scrapbook turned out totally awesome. I think everyone who ordered one is definitely going to be very happy with it… And I think there's a real good chance people are going to wear them out!

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Wow!

Monday, November 25, 2002

These photos of it really suck, but the scrapbook looks awesome… I mean really amazing! Everyone will DEFINITELY be very happy with it. The softcovers ship tomorrow and then after that off with the hardcovers.

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