Scientists are admitting that the fight to get man to live in an earth-consious manner has been lost. Now, we must make computers to compact our trash and solve our problems.

Speaking of trash, if you want to read about our war-mongering President's more gentle days of dodging service in the war, look no further than here. It's interesting to see a President so unwilling to go to war himself now pushing for a war that seems, at best, only slightly justifiable. This seems to be just another excess of modernity, sending these great war machines we have built into duty to take care of something that will only get worse with every encroachment. I agree with Bill Maher, who says that attacking Iraq is like treating "a case of herpes as if it were cancer." By scratching it, we irritate it and cause it to spread.

Everyone knows that humans haven't risen above animals as far as controlling their numbers. To read about our excesses and our inability to confront the imminent end of our society as we know it if we don't change our lifestyle, click here. Dieoff.org is a great sight with many charts and pie graphs that will scare the shit out of anything that doesn't want humanity to perish.

Finally, I was dissapointed to see the Republicans gaining seats this week. Not that the Democratic Party is perfect or that it is any real solution, I just feel that the Republican party in many ways is becoming an imperialistic party with no ears. It hurts to think of all of the people in america who only look at the picture on the television screen and never think about how it got there and what the machine looks like.

Thoughts and links on 10/28...

Today, in my "Violence in the Social Sciences" class, we had a short debate (well, the teacher ended it before it was actually started, as is the case often in this class) over whether or not written moral codes come from a different source than those which are simply orally or otherwise socially transmitted. This is an interesting debate that I would accept any opinions on. It is important to some of those who are religious to believe that their moral codes are not simply social constructions but instead have come from elsewhere. I think that the writings and social constructs of humans are indeed the inventions of humans; however, I do not personally believe that this denies religion, as there are many ways to interpret standing religions without contradicting that fact.

Click Here to read an interesting article about the already beginning smear campaign that the wonderfully ethical and religious Republicans have started in Minnesota only three days after Senator Paul Wellstone's death on Friday. The party barely waited from Friday to Sunday to start this campaign, a similar amount of time in length to the period that the Pharisees laid off of Jesus' disciples. This is interesting, of course, because the Republican Party contends to be the religious, family-value oriented one. This is just another instance of the Republicans attempting to put symbols, laws, and self-made regulations in front of what really matters: people and the situations that they face.
I have been impressed by what I have known of Wellstone, we often agreed on policy decisions and I am more than happy to recognize him as a politician who was able to be in the Senate and not lose his passion for helping people. He was also quite short, and, with myself being 5'5" and an attempted humanist champion, I felt a small connection to this man that I had never met. He certainly would have recieved my vote if I had been able to support him.

A few weeks ago a friend turned me on to Michael Moore's website, an interesting exploration of the workings of the socio-political machine of American culture. This sight is run much like a blog and contains excellent links for gathering hard-to-get information and oft unheard journalistic viewpoints.

Art: Check out Born Magazine. Born is a collection of poets and graphic artists who do projects together. This is an exceptional site, furthering the work of others and making such projects a real force in the art world. Their projects range from romantic poems tied to single images to heavily-clad existentialist ponderings. Be warned that you will need flash and shockwave to view the projects. Both of those can be downloaded for free.

Interesting Internet Articles on 10/25....
An interesting discussion on the classification of Pulp Fiction as postmodern or modernist ishere.
Don't miss out on Ari & I, a segment published by Russell Mokhiber, who is affiliated with an excellent media source at www.commondreams.org. Russell asks Ari questions that are direct but that point out obvious inconsistencies in White House policies. Instead of owning up to any sort of answer, Ari dodges every one. I wish that it was funny to watch our administration make us look like fools!

Howard Rheingold is hosting an interesting forum on the internet named after his book Smart Mobs. Check it out here. Smart Mobs are, according to Rheingold, the Next Social Revolution, one of increased communication and cooperation because of the influence of technology. Some of the debates hosted on the site are very insightful.

Also, lately I've been reading an e-book called Hal's Legacy named after the computer Hal in 2001:A Space Odyssey. This book explores the way in which HAL has influenced various facets of computer development and of AI. See it here.

Want to read about Draft Lotteries?

Here's ten things that you can do to save us from being even more of an empire.

Also, for anyone with an opinion on Osama Bin Laden, you should read this thorough biography of his life from the Guardian, it provides more information than 13 months of television network news has on the topic.

Yes, I believe in electronic art.