jennifer government

I finished the book Jennifer Government the other day by Max Barry. It's an awesome little view of the not-so future world. A somewhat dystopian view where the corporations have taken over and you assume the last name of your employer, case in point the title character and the enemy Hack Nike.

Anyways, I won't bother with a review when Mr John Hood has written one that sums and says everything so well: read Oh Jennifer here.

Go buy it here at powell's if you like the sound of it.

quote for the day:
"Unthinking Respect for Authority is the Greatest Enemy of Truth"
- Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

nukeular, it's pronounced nukeular...

Ahh is there no situation that can't be summed up by a Simpsons quote? Probably not.

Was in a discussion with a few people the other night and it swung around to nuclear power. Specifically the use of nuclear power stations in Australia. I'm personally all for 'em. Find any other way of powering Sydney feasibly for the next 100 years considering it's already on the brink of power supply collapse.

Well one guy in the group was totally against them and without any real basis except the fear of another Chernobyl. Fear (sic) enough. Only not quite. The fear is a totally emotional point of view driven by a lack of undrstanding about the actual thing itself. The idea that any and every nuclear power station could meltdown as simply at it seemed the Chernobyl one collapsed seems totally reasonable but it 'aint. It's just that in this part of the World we've never needed to look closely at the concept.

Anyways, I found some good articles and info about the subject here:

:: Nuclear Energy & Society general info
:: Answers.com rips Wikipedia here
:: howstuffworks.com explains the process here
:: FEMA's emergency fact sheet
:: IAEA.org - International Atomic Energy Agency
:: IAEA.org - 20 years after Chernobyl
:: Maps showing power stations Worldwide

Brief info taken from a few links above:
:: The first nuclear power station was built on December 20, 1951 in Idaho USA
:: By 1979 there were 249 reactors Worldwide

So for all the NPP's (nuclear power plants) and the length of time operating, the fact that we can only name one (so far, touch wood) that has ended in complete disaster must mean that things may not be so negative for the future of nuclear power. Just don't get Russian contractors in on the job is all…

quote for the day:
"So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt FDR (1882 - 1945)

a sense of home

I was thinking about the whole theory of what we call 'home'. Not just the four walls and roof where you store your shite, no I mean the sense of warmth and safety you attach to a place. It's obviously a psychological reality and can (in my experience) be projected on and into a building, people, music and film (insert Art in general here also I guess).

Often it takes people ages to find their own home after leaving their parents. I wonder if people who never had a home to begin with find their own easily or not? I mean mostly our own 'home' is driven by an archetype gained through personal experience so if you never had a good experience you'd be driven by an ideal from where? TV? Shite, I hope not, man.

Funnily enough I've had things in my life that let me take a small takeaway home with me. Superficially one film that for many years was not so much a strong source in itself but more a reminder of my parents place (and obviously my security in it) was I'm Gonna Git You Sucka by the Wayans family. I loved it and for many a night between 1990 and 1993, myself and a few friends watched it fueled by a few beers. Anyways, 1n 1994 I spent almost a year in the UK living like shite, earning about £3 an hour as a bar-monkey. Well the year away changed me a lot yet when I got back to my parents place at 11pm nothing there had changed to mirror my own self felt changes. It kind of threw me that a year away hadn't changed much of anything. Slightly jet-lagged and yet suffering insomnia I finally flicked on the TV at 1am to be presented with the opening credits of I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. Classic oddball coincidence (do they in fact exist or is it all as it's meant to be?). Just when I felt vulnerable and down along came this little hit of support. A small, positive reminder and in it, a warm feeling that was not there minutes before. It may sound trite but ofetn (probably all the time, just not obvious to the little people like us) things seem to happen for a reason. Maybe.

I'm always interested in hearing music that tackles the subject. One of my favourite albums Violator by Depeche Mode has a good track called Home which tackles the lost soul patched up by another and then NIN's With Teeth has Home, a broken soul dusting itself off from a fall. Both great tracks and affect me in their own ways.

depeche mode - home

Here is a song from the wrong side of town
Where I'm bound to the ground by the loneliest sound
And it pounds from within and is pinning me down

Here is a page from the emptiest stage
A cage or the heaviest cross ever made
A gauge of the deadliest trap ever laid

And I thank you for bringing me here
For showing me home
For singing these tears
Finally I've found that I belong here

The heat and the sickliest sweet smelling sheets
That cling to the backs of my knees and my feet
Well I'm drowning in time to a desperate beat

And I thank you for bringing me here
For showing me home
For singing these tears
Finally I've found that I belong

Feels like home
I should have known
From my first breath

God send the only true friend I call mine
Pretend that I'll make amends the next time
Befriend the glorious end of the line

And I thank you for bringing me here
For showing me home
For singing these tears
Finally I've found that I belong here


NIN - Home

Everything
Is catching up with me
I awake
To find i'm not at all where I
Should be
And it feels
I'm getting to the end
And it's hard
To figure out what's real
And what's
Pretend

To break from what
We're tied to
God knows
How much i've tried to

And I am still inside you
And I am still inside you

I escape
Every now and then
And to think
I find myself
Back here again
And again

I used to know who I was
Untill you came along
I return
To the only place
I've ever felt
That I belong

To break from what
We're tied to
God knows
How much i've tried to

And I am still inside you
And I am still inside you