Are you a victim or an anarchist?

Hi,

The internet news is pretty much dominated by stories about stupid people doing stupid things and usually ending up broken or dead.

The stories get even more popular when they have an angle on a popular issue.

This kind of victim watching makes people laugh and helps to reinforce their low view of their fellow man - which is fine by me. Though it can contribute to victim behaviour in my opinion.

Though I do get a chuckle out of the thought that house prices could tumble in a "fat suburb". I loathe the fact that people can blame any kind of metric or net available study for the fact that they eat too much and don't exercise.

I get much more enthusiastic about people actually refusing to be victims and actually doing something to change their lives.

Take the recent case of Indian villagers taking exception to a large corporation planting a chemical research station next to their homes.

Or US citizens objecting to USD 50 million being spent on security for a government event when basic services are not available to people living in the city where it is being held.

These people are working outside of their local governments and corporations to force changes to their communities.

Do these acts make these people anarchists? Are they doing the right thing?

Hell yes.

Np Out

Trash Thieving Bastards

Hi,

I am dangerously close to complaining to a local authority. As I'm an anarchist at heart you can see that things must be pretty bad...

I was reading yesterday about how recycling theft is rife in the US.

People go around in trucks and steal the high value recycling items from people's green bins (such as paper and aluminium cans). Leaving behind the low value stuff such as plastic.

This means that the local authorities and genuine recycling companies make a loss and an important green service starts losing money.

So I got out of bed this morning and noticed on the way to my car that our recycling had been rummaged through and the cans and paper removed.

The bastards!

My better half didn't see a problem with this banditry, seeing the thieves as people helping recycling to take place. I had to disagree, on the basis that the real recyclers wouldn't be able to make a profit from what was left. The high value items help to pay for the recycling of other low value materials.

Oh and recycling was left strewn around the road (including glass).

If I catch these wankers I'll shove my recycling so far up their arse they'll need a pot-holing team to get it out again.

I'm not being pro-authority here. But I am definately for a good business recycling my trash and helping to reduce the mounds of crap that I contribute to landfill.

Np Out

A new / old Fertility god in the heavens

Hi,

The third plutoid (dwarf planet outside of the orbit of Neptune) has now been officially named.

To my delight it has been called Makemake. An Easter Island deity, who is a major fertility symbol in the Rapa Nui mythology.

I'm a big fan of fertility gods, and even more so of the Polynesian male fertility gods. The western male gods of this type were some of the first to go under the chopper.

The icing on the cake for me is that the nickname for this plutoid before its official naming was EasterBunny.

I wonder why they've switched from a major western fertility symbol to a Polynesian one?

OK maybe I don't :-) Acknowledging the ancient gods and symbols that were absorbed by western Christianity has always been a bit fraught.

Choosing a fertility god from a defunct, tiny, religious pantheon just seems like a cop out to me. I would have been much happier if they'd gone with the bunny and explained why.

But I'm still ecstatic they've gone with a god representing a huge stiffy.

NP Out

Evil Genius Blog

Hi,

Just a quick post to say that this is too cool to miss.

A sing-along blog written by a super villain - written by Joss Wheedon.

So stop reading this and go watch these 3 blog episodes right now.

Np Out

I'm bloody man sick

Hi,

Today I'm going to have a self indulgent whinge...

Last night at 02:00 and 05:00 I spent an unpleasant hour throwing up in the toilet and then couldn't get out of bed at the usual time.

All day I've been sitting upright and doing alot of napping and visiting the aforemented toilet alot.

I missed an important video-conference and just generally felt crap all day. Like I had vomit coming out of my stomach and everything below my navel was a solid block of pain.

It turns out there's alot of it going around. And it has been dubbed by many the "man flu".

Which bascially means that when women get it they get better quickly and guys just drone on about it for days and think they're dying.

Here's a good case in point from youtube.com

It might be all true - but I still feel like I'm dying :-)

But at least I can use the computer now without getting sea-sick so things are looking up already!

NP out

Would Henry VIII be in favour of Female Bishops?

Hi,

The Anglican church has been making the headlines of late.

I've been applauding their efforts to update their church to the moral sensibilities of the last century. From accepting gay couples into their congregations and truly opening up the Anglican churches in the UK to become part of a modern community.

This kind of slow moving revolution has recently reached the point of ordaining homosexual priests and female bishops.

This has caused a massive outcry from Anglican conservatives in the UK and elsewhere. With cold war style defections being publicly discussed.

All I can say is that I'm enjoying the spectacle of modernity versus church values.

Rather than discussing "what would the current Pope do?", or even "what would St Paul do?" I think we should be asking a different historical figure - the founder of Anglicanism - King Henry VIII of England.

Anglicism was of course created by the good King to fuse together state and church, and stop the Catholic church from restricting his god given right to rule. Henry was an egotist but also a realist, and I think he would have a few pointed and practical words to say on the subject, something like:

"How dare you lessen the power of the Anglican church! Is she any good at her Job? Oh she likes girls huh? Send her and her friend around to my quarters later."

The funny thing about writing this post is that I was pretty sure how Henry would act - but completely unsure as to how our current Queen would.

As head of the Anglican church I would really like to hear what she has to say on the subject.

NP Out

Shopping - the Hunter Gatherer in me

Hi,

Well for a change I had a few blog-able things to talk about today. I could have gone with any of the following:

• Natural "Gun" Selection
• Sticks and stones escalation by Hippies
• Strict Vicar gets bad press
  

Instead I'm going to go with my love of shopping.

I just love going out on a shopping trip and finding really cool stuff to buy that I was not expecting. Think of it as the modern version of game hunting.

On-line stores are always a last resort for me, because finding and ordering what I want is a short, direct, exercise. It's just no fun at all.

However I've come across an on-line bookstore which actually encourages good old fashioned browsing.

OK it doesn't have every good book I've read in it, but it does encourage me to walk amongst the shelves and spy out something new and unexpected.

I like that alot.

NP Out

Wotcha bro!

Hi,

One of my long time pet peeves living in NZ is the ability for Kiwis to get a pseudo UK accent by virtue of spending a week drinking in London while on their OE (overseas excursion).

It turns out that a newly documented case of a stroke causing an accent change has happened in Canada.

So maybe these Kiwi travelers are suffering some kind of medical stroke, or extreme brain trauma, when spending time in the UK.

My money is on these poor individuals being hit in the head by a 2 x 4 by a cockney enraged by their fake accent...

10 cool points to anyone who can describe who the role of the people in the photo above, and where the tradition of wearing pearl buttons comes form.

NP Out