Ok... Srsly!
I have an agenda reopening this blog.
1: I do not have the time, or *effort* of creating a new blog.
2: Critical thinking needs to be promoted.
3: General lack of common sense is pissing me off.
Now - to something way more serious than my personal pet peeves.
HEADLINE: ISIS BEHEADING US JOURNALIST JAMES FOLEY
The headline comes from among others CNN and other major networks. Every major news source seems to be jumping at the story, without thinking even a little bit about what is actually going on, or - more importantly - giving people a chance to create their own opinion. Is this what journalism has become?
It's simply too convenient to take something at face value and run with it. Simple really. No need to ask questions. It's a murder right? And a murder committed by a terrorist organisation! Let's just take that youtube video and go with it.
First off - let me make myself clear. I do not condone any violence by anyone. My heart goes out to the family of James Foley, and I am truly sorry for their loss despite my ramblings here about critical thinking and the failures of today's journalism.
However, if James Foley were a family member of mine, I would not be so quick to give up hope and proclaim him dead - at least not unless I were privy to information not released by the media.
Let's take a good look at that video that seems to be the only source available to the general public:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=686_1408487672
(Link only since Blogger doesn't seem to support LiveLeak videos and all Youtube vids seems to be censored)
This is the most complete video of the murder I have been able to find. To me it looks like something right out of a snuff movie. The editing is professional, you have several camera angles, etc. However, the crucial part is omitted.
Had this been a shaky handheld camera I might have thought it more trustworthy. Had they actually shown a murder - a no doubts, no movie magic murder I might even have believed it. Had a body been recovered I would have done as CNN and posted a headline proclaiming ISIS BEHEADS US JOURNALIST JAMES FOLEY.
Now to what actually pisses me off:
Nowhere on Google or other major search-engines you can find any articles, forum posts, or headlines questioning the truthfulness of this story. Nothing! I refuse to believe I am the first person in the world to doubt this video and write a blog post about it. Possible, sure - extremely unlikely however. That tells me something.
This is propaganda. Propaganda from some entity that has major search-engines in their pockets. Possible? Sure, Extremely unlikely? Maybe.
That is why this rambling blog-post is written. I want to search it and see if I get a hit. Simple as that.
Anybody, journalist or otherwise, out to speak the truth (or otherwise for that matter) deserves better than being beheaded while forced to read a scripted message on camera. Everyone deserves better than being fed propaganda without the means to question it.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Healing powers...
So, I was out drinking with some friends yesterday, and as usual you end up paying the price for it the next day... We've all been there; the throbbing headaches, the unquenchable thirst, your tongue feeling like it's been coated with several layers of sand and varnish.
So, naturally we invent all kinds of homemade remedies in an attempt to cure our self inflicted pain, everything from large amounts of aspirin, Tylenol and isotonic cocktails to the more chemically inoffensive ones with raw eggs and tomato juice.
Personally, I think I've found the perfect cure and since I feel it's relatively safe I thought I'd share it with the world:
The healing process
1: Get dressed, prepare mentally to go outside.
2: Take a taxi to the closest McDonalds, have the car wait for you
3: Double Quarter pounder /w extra cheese <-- !!!!!!!
4: Supersize? YES!!
5: Take home, crawl up on the couch and start the healing process ;-)
Hope this helps you as much as it's helped me.
(naturally we could all save ourselves a lot of pain simply by drinking less, but that's just no fun, and in some circles even considered bad form)
So, naturally we invent all kinds of homemade remedies in an attempt to cure our self inflicted pain, everything from large amounts of aspirin, Tylenol and isotonic cocktails to the more chemically inoffensive ones with raw eggs and tomato juice.
Personally, I think I've found the perfect cure and since I feel it's relatively safe I thought I'd share it with the world:
The healing process
1: Get dressed, prepare mentally to go outside.
2: Take a taxi to the closest McDonalds, have the car wait for you
3: Double Quarter pounder /w extra cheese <-- !!!!!!!
4: Supersize? YES!!
5: Take home, crawl up on the couch and start the healing process ;-)
Hope this helps you as much as it's helped me.
(naturally we could all save ourselves a lot of pain simply by drinking less, but that's just no fun, and in some circles even considered bad form)
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
It's all about work
First off, sorry for the slow updates everyone. Guess I'm not that good at blogging.
Second of all, I'm going off on a rant about copyright.
Sooo... For most of you this is old news, but I've been trying to see some logic in this - but I fail - and I fail hard. I can see why it's illegal to download/distribute a movie that still is running in theaters. I can see why it's illegal to download/distribute a movie that you ONLY can rent on DVD/VHS (Does anyone use VHS anymore?)
What I fail to see is: Once something is broadcasted on TV, why isn't it free?
The answer lies in the work. What work you ask? Well - it's pretty simple. You are not allowed to watch a movie or TV-series on TV without watching the commercials (or paying to get rid of them - read TiVo)
Thus, when you first pay for recording equipment and record a movie or TV series from your TV-set you are not doing something illegal. However - most incomes from a movie or a TV series is from commercials - the networks even sell the same TV series to different networks running different commercials "earning" more and more money from the same piece of shit commercials...
So - Why is it so frowned upon by the networks that we download TV-series of Televised movies from the Interwebs?
The answer is simple. NO COMMERCIALS! Someone has painstakingly taken the time to edit out all those commercials from the material you can download.
Now, you might be inclined to believe that "well, this is really not an issue since the networks would lose revenue since you could only sell the commercial once if you allowed free downloads". NOT TRUE. Since what matters is how many people sees the commercials the networks could simply charge more for commercial time.
So - in conclusion - why are they suing us? The answer is simple. We put in a little effort. We work.
We spend time to remove those annoying commercials from TV-shows and movies - and that in essence is der Kern des Pudels. (Read Goethe ;)
Second of all, I'm going off on a rant about copyright.
Sooo... For most of you this is old news, but I've been trying to see some logic in this - but I fail - and I fail hard. I can see why it's illegal to download/distribute a movie that still is running in theaters. I can see why it's illegal to download/distribute a movie that you ONLY can rent on DVD/VHS (Does anyone use VHS anymore?)
What I fail to see is: Once something is broadcasted on TV, why isn't it free?
The answer lies in the work. What work you ask? Well - it's pretty simple. You are not allowed to watch a movie or TV-series on TV without watching the commercials (or paying to get rid of them - read TiVo)
Thus, when you first pay for recording equipment and record a movie or TV series from your TV-set you are not doing something illegal. However - most incomes from a movie or a TV series is from commercials - the networks even sell the same TV series to different networks running different commercials "earning" more and more money from the same piece of shit commercials...
So - Why is it so frowned upon by the networks that we download TV-series of Televised movies from the Interwebs?
The answer is simple. NO COMMERCIALS! Someone has painstakingly taken the time to edit out all those commercials from the material you can download.
Now, you might be inclined to believe that "well, this is really not an issue since the networks would lose revenue since you could only sell the commercial once if you allowed free downloads". NOT TRUE. Since what matters is how many people sees the commercials the networks could simply charge more for commercial time.
So - in conclusion - why are they suing us? The answer is simple. We put in a little effort. We work.
We spend time to remove those annoying commercials from TV-shows and movies - and that in essence is der Kern des Pudels. (Read Goethe ;)
Monday, February 16, 2009
Simpsons + Pixels = Win
Seems The Simpsons is taking the step up to HD and the awesomeness of more pixels is really showing here.
Just have a look below for the very first intro to a HD Simpsons episode!
Just have a look below for the very first intro to a HD Simpsons episode!
Monday, February 9, 2009
*effort*
Long time now since I updated, so I guess it's about time.
Anyway, when I started this little blog-project I decided that I wouldn't feel any pressure to update it all the time, and as you see atleast that part has worked out pretty well. However, I'll try to post updates a little more often, because at this pace you can hardly call it a blog at all.
In the last few months nothing noteworthy has passed really; work, eat, sleep - the same old routine... Kinda pathetic to be honest. Guess we'll have to do somthing about that pretty soon.
Oh well - to get back on track, *effort* seems to be what we all lack in the winter-darkness, myself included, and it's really starting to piss me off. Atleast I myself should be able to muster enough *effort* to motivate me to do stuff - but that's apparantly not the case... So here's a shoutout to God himself: Seems there's a design-flaw somewhere around here; either make humans not dependent on sunlight - or - moar summer kthxplz!
Oh and also, almost killed my best friend with a Christmas gift - but that's a story for the next time.
Anyway, when I started this little blog-project I decided that I wouldn't feel any pressure to update it all the time, and as you see atleast that part has worked out pretty well. However, I'll try to post updates a little more often, because at this pace you can hardly call it a blog at all.
In the last few months nothing noteworthy has passed really; work, eat, sleep - the same old routine... Kinda pathetic to be honest. Guess we'll have to do somthing about that pretty soon.
Oh well - to get back on track, *effort* seems to be what we all lack in the winter-darkness, myself included, and it's really starting to piss me off. Atleast I myself should be able to muster enough *effort* to motivate me to do stuff - but that's apparantly not the case... So here's a shoutout to God himself: Seems there's a design-flaw somewhere around here; either make humans not dependent on sunlight - or - moar summer kthxplz!
Oh and also, almost killed my best friend with a Christmas gift - but that's a story for the next time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)