[BLOG-LIKE POSTING] The Ark

Right now, I’m at work, updating the PEI reference files. These are a collection of doucments indexed in the old-fashioned way, by index cards; at some point these will probably be converted to electronic format, but for the time being they’re not and I’m actually using a typewriting. (Quite fun, this.)

Right now, I’m working on indexing various articles and proposals for The Ark. Founded by the New Alchemy Institute under John Todd, it was supposed to be (in the words of their proposal to the Canadian federal government) “a family-sized food, energy, and housing complex, including integrated solar, windmill, greenhouse, fish culture, and living components.” The Ark came about as a result of a belief in the need for radical self-sufficiency, inspired by the famous Limits to Growth economic model which predicted that continued economic growth would lead to catastrophe by the early 21st century.

The Ark failed: there was bad relations with the community, and more importantly the technology didn’t work. After an effort in the late 1980’s to revive it, the Ark was torn down and replaced by an upscale inn such as are increasingly common along the PEI coast. John Todd has gone to found his own organization, while the New Alchemy Institute proper has evolved into The Green Centre.

Granted that this was entirely wrong-headed, not taking the market’s ability to divide labour at efficient costs and (so far) avoid environmental apocalypse. It would be nice if something of similar intelligence and ambition would come about nowadays.

Name Game

From the Kalabarian Philosophy website, an analysis of my name:

31.25 %

My weblog owns 31.25 % of me.
Does your weblog own you?

Little Green Footballs

I’ve decided to follow the paths of taem and nire and bait the trolls and the Little Green Footballs weblog. To be precise, I’m doing it here, and here.

Anyone want to join me?

Music and Murder

The Eurythmics could be a very provocative group. It isn’t just their album tracks–there is, for example, the chilling B-side song “Baby’s Gone Blue”:

Male voice: As he did so, her body slammed backwards. At first it was my impresion when I saw her eyes that she was sleeping but she was already dead … he called her name …

Cold
Dead
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah,–sweetheart!

Male voice: Oh yes, he called her name …

Look at the mess
in your party dress!
Baby’s gone blue

Male voice: that fixed expression .. she was already dead

Who are you going to send flowers to?
Who are you going to send flowers to?

Male voice: … Oh yes, he called her name I’ll never forget about that, that fixed expression … it didn’t feel right.

Cold
Dead
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah,–sweetheart!

Male voice: He called her name … crash out … alcohol

Look at the mess
in your party dress!
Baby’s gone blue

Male voice: Did you hear about that? … crying … At first it seemed … but she was dead. … her body slammed backwards … the first thing … the first thing … alcohol … it didn’t feel right … but she was already dead

And on that note, ebeloic wrote an overview of the disturbing career of serial killer Guy Ghislaim Martineau. This career–very literally cinematic, indeed determined entirely by Martineau’s horrendously intimate relationship with film and moving pictures–is disturbing. Some elements remind me of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, particularly his demonic sacrifices but also his films.

And has anyone noted how northeastern North America–New England, but also to a degree Québec and Atlantic Canada–have served as such a seedbed for horror stories? Perhaps it’s because of the age of settlement.

War and The Wars

I just finished watching the nuclear war segment of Gwynne Dyer’s War, and Kate Bush’s “Breathing” comes to mind:

Outside
Gets inside
Through her skin.
I’ve been out before
But this time it’s much safer in.

Homage to Something Positive

My first try I was Choo-Choo Bear; my second try, I was Jhim. My third try:

You’re Davan! You try hopelessly to find women, but
the only ones who ever stay long enough to chat
are your best buds Aubrey and Pee-Jee. You have
the cutest cat in the world, and you’re a geek.
You also have a great sense of humor, twisted
as it is, and you look at life in a great
sarcastic way!

Which Something Positive Character Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Eh.

A Resolution

Of late, I’ve been a bit of a lazy little fuck. When I’ve not been at school or work (and sometimes when I’ve been doing both), I’ve been on the computer doing nothing but browsing, constantly. It isn’t like I’m writing, which I can and have done with great results, or talking. Just solitary browsing. Maybe it’s a manifestation of SAD, I don’t know.

It is stopping, now.

I’m going down right now, to watch two videos (one from Gwynne Dyer’s War series of the 1980’s, another from a BBC/A&E co-production called The Planets, both taken out at the library. After that, I’ll clean up my room and actually do some more writing.

Things are going to change.

And, on leaving you for now, a lyric from the Eurythmics:

“Let’s Just Close Our Eyes”
I could be contented
I don’t need to suffer
You’re beautiful
and good to talk to
Make an impression
to take my attention
When you touch my skin
I smell disaster

Wo-oh-oh!

Let’s just close our eyes (x4)

Walking on pavement
Collecting bars
Sleep in the houses
So alone
Looking inside herself
She breaks the glass
Turns her backwards
Then she’s fallen down again

At the first stop

Male voice: It’s coming up now!

At the second (x4)

chanting

Female voice: Okay

Female voice: Bye bye

I could be contented
I don’t need to suffer
You’re beautiful
and good to talk to
Make an impression
to take my attention
And when you touch my skin
I smell disaster

Wo-oh-oh!

Let’s just close our eyes (x3)

Male voice 2: Your brain, your

Let’s just close our eyes (x10)
nonsense (x12)

Why I Don’t Trust Noam Chomsky on Politics

Noam Chomsky’s opinions on Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge have helped to discredit him in my mind as any kind of credible expert in world political affairs. As Bruce Sharp wrote:

In the years since the Khmer Rouge were deposed, Chomsky has openly acknowledged their crimes. However, to the best of my knowledge, he has never publicly admitted his own mistakes. His frequent collaborator, Edward Herman, seems intent on avoiding the issues through silly semantic games: in an scowling critique of a review of Haing Ngor’s book “A Cambodian Odyssey,” Herman accuses the reviewer of “resuscitating an especially foolish propaganda claim” … specifically, that the Khmer Rouge “‘tried to exterminate… a majority of the population.'” He writes, “… if the Khmer Rouge aim was ‘autogenocide,’ it was unable to come anywhere near meeting its objective. The best overall survey of the period, by Michael Vickery, estimates 750,000 excess deaths in the Khmer Rouge era from all causes… on a population base of six to eight million.” Apparently, as Sophal points out, Herman’s logic is this: Since a paltry 750,000 victims did not constitute a “majority,” then there was no autogenocide.

An American Speaks Out

From Dan‘s livejournal, this excellent piece. We need constructive protest, not destructive or just plain nihilistic.