The Penguin Bar

To make this machinima he calls “Metamorphosis”, Spyvsspy Aeon translated a Portuguese poem into English, put the verses into beautifully rendered subtitles, then complemented them with sweeping, gorgeously rendered shots from famous virtual landscapes created AM Radio.

(Via New World Notes.)

30 January 1948, Gandhi is assassinated. The above is his speech on non-violence, in South Africa, taken from the movie “Gandhi“.

More in my art album.

His actual voice, 1931 – speaking about god:

The article itself is of far broader scope, but the quote below is a brilliant logical refutation of a typical creationist canard:

Creationist: Design requires a designer – it couldn’t arise by random chance!

Me: Would you say that order requires an orderer?

Creationist: Yes.

Me: So why is it that all the small cornflakes send to settle at the base of the box? Do you think it’s because God put them there?

Creationist: No – it must be, well, gravity pulling the small flakes down.

Me: Wouldn’t gravity have pulled the large flakes down as well? Why do the small flakes fall further?

Creationist: I don’t know.

Me: It’s because small flakes fall through large gaps, but large flakes can’t fall through small gaps. The flakes sieve themselves. Random shaking of the box coupled with a non-random filtering law (which we might call “the furthest-falling of the smallest” or “the persistence of the largest”) leads to an ordering of flakes over time, with no intelligent input required. Random shaking is analogous to random mutation, and “the survival of the fittest” (Natural Selection) is analogous to “the persistence of the largest”. Cornflakes and living things are both self-ordering systems, filtering out smaller flakes and deleterious mutations respectively. Cornflakes become more organised over time, and organisms become better-adapted.

Creationist: There must be more to it than that? There must be! There has to be!

[Walks away scratching his head....]

via On the Origin of Specious Arguments.

She is fascinated by the bubbles in the water dispenser, and trying to catch them – Stu got a bit of it on film.

10) MARIJUANA USE HAS NO EFFECT ON MORTALITY:

A massive study of California HMO members funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found marijuana use caused no significant increase in mortality. Tobacco use was associated with increased risk of death. Sidney, S et al. Marijuana Use and Mortality. American Journal of Public Health. Vol. 87 No. 4, April 1997. p. 585-590. Sept. 2002.

9) HEAVY MARIJUANA USE AS A YOUNG ADULT WON'T RUIN YOUR LIFE:

Veterans Affairs scientists looked at whether heavy marijuana use as a young adult caused long-term problems later, studying identical twins in which one twin had been a heavy marijuana user for a year or longer but had stopped at least one month before the study, while the second twin had used marijuana no more than five times ever. Marijuana use had no significant impact on physical or mental health care utilization, health-related quality of life, or current socio-demographic characteristics. Eisen SE et al. Does Marijuana Use Have Residual Adverse Effects on Self-Reported Health Measures, Socio-Demographics or Quality of Life? A Monozygotic Co-Twin Control Study in Men. Addiction. Vol. 97 No. 9. p.1083-1086. Sept. 1997

via Top 10 Cannabis Studies the Government Wished it Had Never Funded | BREAK THE MATRIX.

Read the whole thing. Shows what a farce the “war on drugs” really is.

I was just reading one of the many sets of rules for slaves that can be found on the ‘net, specifically The McDade Principles. I was reminded, yet again, that what works in BDSM for any given person, or couple, or group, doesn’t necessarily work for all.

My own approach is far more relaxed. The rigid rules such as those given in that text just don’t suit my character. And aside from that, they are too much hard work, and sometimes, highly inconvenient. A sub/slave should make life easier, not harder – in my view.

I have four rules which are absolute. There are, in order of importance:

1. No lies, under any circumstances, or for any reason.
2. Respect, always. Respect is due to a sub for the gift of submission. But it is also expected and required.
3. If a sub has a question, it should be asked. It is far better to ask than to make assumptions and possibly fuck up.
4. Obedience, without question. And if obedience is not possible, there must be a good reason.

I have other rules, but they are not absolute, and will vary on circumstance. Sometimes they are simply not practical or even possible. In no specific order, some of them are:

• A sub will always address me as “sir”. Use of my name is permitted only in exceptional situations.
• The English language is not to be mangled, proper rules of capitalization, and use of pronouns is required (ie, a sub refers to himself as “me”, not “it”, and uses “I” not ‘i’).
• When standing still, a sub kneels to my left (never my right), within reach of my hand – unless this is not possible for some reason.
• A sub must make himself visually appealing and desirable. Minimal clothing, therefore, but dictated by the place/situation.
• When put on display, a sub must be  fully erect.
• My piss and cum must never be wasted – unless I say otherwise. These are both gifts  and must be cherished and desired.
• Physically, a sub’s primary focus must be my cock and balls (unless otherwise directed). If he is not otherwise occupied or ordered, a slave should attempt to place himself as close as he can to my groin, thus indicating his readiness to serve and please.

I love to laugh, so wit and humor are encouraged. But the rules given initially always apply, and specifically: respect.

And now a side issue. Many of the texts on slave rules talk about a slave/sub living to serve and obey their owners. Few of them however, mention that a slave/sub has needs too. All humans have them, and for a relationship to succeed, they should be met. And most certainly understood and acknowledged.

A sub is an altruist: his pleasure derives from giving pleasure. (Thus a form a punishment is that of depriving him of the ability to please, by locking him up.) Therefore, a Master/owner should understand that is is not simply a sub’s role to please, but it is also his need. So when I wrote above that a sub should make it clear that he wishes to please,this means that he does it not only for the sake of his owner, but for himself as well. As a specific example, the sub must literally crave his owner’s cock, his piss and cum. If he acts out of a sense of duty rather than out of need, then something is wrong – at least in my view.

And I’ll end it here. For now.

Democrats have been playing the weakness game for nearly a half-century now, ever since Johnson was driven from office in 1968. That has meant very bad things for the country, which has now been all but completely captured by economic oligarchs, via their wholly-owned human levers in both parties.

What is more remarkable is what it has meant for the Democratic Party, which seems incapable of being assertive even when it comes to preserving its own interests. And what it has meant for the Democrats is more or less that they lose elections, except when the default governing party of the GOP screws up so badly that the public has no other choice than to go with the feeble ones for a while. Republicans then get a few years to rehabilitate themselves, during which time they incessantly shred the Dems from the sidelines, and then the cycle begins anew.

This is precisely where we are now. It absolutely defies the imagination that the Republican Party hasn’t been sentenced to death by hanging, drawing and quartering after the crimes of the last decade. But no, remarkably, they are in the midst of an amazing revitalization now, courtesy of their aggressive deceits and the utter capitulation of the party nominally in charge.

via The Regressive Antidote – The Perils of Passivity.

If you’re looking for a decent indicator of the political health of the nation, consider the following excerpt from a Christian Science Monitor article this week: “The decision by the White House Friday to not preempt the season premiere of the psychedelic crash-drama “Lost” for the State of the Union address reveals the surprising power of that much ridiculed stereotype: the American couch potato.”

Well, at least no one can accuse us of not having our national priorities in order, eh?

Actually, that’s only part of the story – and frankly the more benign part, to boot.

Presidents like to say, in their annual messages to Congress and the country, that “The state of the union is strong”. Maybe Obama is bold enough to tell a whopper that big even in 2010. I guess when you’ve taken an entire country over the cliff lying about “hope” and “change”, even a stinker that rude wouldn’t be so egregious, relatively speaking.

In fact, the health of this country is tenuous, and that’s on a real good day. All the obvious and tangible manifestations are there: massive unemployment, polarized wealth suitable for any banana republic, broken government and political system, environmental catastrophe and more. It’s almost as if our goal is to commit national suicide in order to keep a whole next generation of Jared Diamonds employed or something.

These are huge problems, they are nigh on intractable, and they are destructive in the extreme. Indeed, so grim is our situation that the only real hope looking forward is for a resurgence of common sense and mutual sacrifice allowing for at least the possibility of finding the national will to address these crises.

via The Regressive Antidote – The Implosion Of The American Political Consciousness. Please read the whole thing.