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Pa1n No 03
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- - -> PA1N MAGAZINE volume 3 <- - -
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$'.-' '-. '$ [ Masterminds, Co-Conspirators: ]
' ' .d$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$b. ' [ ]
l .$$$$PA1N$$$$' '$$$PA1N$$$$$. l[ Editor in Cheif _______ alienbinary ]
' $$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$ '[ Co-Editor _______________ Turnspike ]
'b_. '$$$$$$$~ ~$$$$$$$' ._d' [ ]
'_ .--' '--. -' [ Editor ____________________ Nemisis ]
// ' _. ._ ' \\ [ Bandwidth Lord _____________ Cheezi ]
\\ . .' '. // [ Sheeple Huntress ________ angel ice ]
))i' .' '. '!(( [ he's fuckin' metal ______ Zerachiel ]
// '$$. .$$$$$$$$$. .$$' \\ [ AB's Voice of reason __ AngryMonkey ]
'_.' ' $$$$$$$$$$$$$ ' '_.'' [ The American Asshole __ RumblingSky ]
' $$$$$$$$$$$$$ ' [ WASTE Distro ______________ Jib_Cat ]
\ $$$$$$$$$$$$$ / [ ]
'-. '$$$$$$$$$' .-'
'-----------'
[ T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S ]
PA1Nv3x1a Letter from the Editor ................ alienbinary -- -
PA1Nv3x1b Letter from the Co-Editor ............... Turnspike -- -
PA1Nv3x02 Alternative uses for POP3 ............. alienbinary -- -
PA1Nv3x03 The American Caste System ............. alienbinary -- -
PA1Nv3x04 Editors' Choice: what to pack .......... PA1N Staff -- -
PA1Nv3x05 America's Downfall ...................... angel ice -- -
PA1Nv3x06 Less Talk, More SKYPE ................. RumblingSky -- -
PA1Nv3x07 Diary of an Insomniac: Part Two ....... alienbinary -- -
PA1Nv3x08 The Best of #RantRadio part three ...... #rantradio -- -
PA1Nv3x09 Defining 'blackice' ................... alienbinary -- -
PA1Nv3x10 Where has all the oxygen gone? ........ alienbinary -- -
PA1Nv3x11 Musings on Mars ......................... Zerachiel -- -
PA1Nv3x12 Outro ................................. alienbinary -- -
-?------------?------------???????????????????????????-------------------??----
PA1Nv3x1------------------------------------------------------------------[ACE]
[ Letters From the Editors ]
[ alienbinary and Turnspike ]
[ACE]------------------------------------------------------------------PA1Nv3x1
-?------------?---????????????-----------???????????---------??????????????????
The world is in a constant state of war. Such is unavoidable, for people
are driven by conflict and power. Such people can only be satiated by these
things. But the people who are fighting are growing fewer in numbers, as the
legislative strong arm of the corporate-political hybrid rulers strike blow
after blow against anyone who dares speak their mind. Most people I know think
that their only place in society is equivical to that of a docile farm animal,
leading a life set on a pre-determined course, run by puppeteers they cannot
see.
But if you're reading this, you probably are not one of the people who have
lost hope; because PA1N is an entire group of people that put out a magazine
about the things that need to be fought, either in the streets or in the
courts. We are just a few of the soldiers gathering and consolidating
intellectual ammunition with which to fight against corporate slavery.
You can always choose to stand off, and let other people be marked for
speaking their minds. It's so easy to hang up the picture of the student
putting a flower in the barrel of a tank, jeopardizing his life in tienneman
square. It's so easy to just honor the memory of Martin Luther King, Caesar
Chavez, Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Leonard Peltier, Mohatma Ghandi, Henry David
Thoreou, etc., and not live by the examples many of these people died setting.
But the 'harder the road, the richer the reward,' as Paine said in his
"Common Sense" dissertation.
The road is so hard now, that I cannot fathom the reward. The idea of
having a world with free speech, free people and predominately peaceful lands
is so intoxicating, that it requires a reality check to sober up to the world
still in our sights.
Fight with the weapon you have. If you can write, don't leave pages blank
out of fear. If you can draw, don't let your ideas be washed away like so much
ink in a studio. If you can code, don't let anyone stop you from making
something new and beautiful.
The RIAA, MPAA, and all sorts of neo-nazi fascist groups just like them
would have us beleive that we must only follow their rules. But their rules
don't even correspond to those of the populace. Who can honestly see logic in
allowing themselves to be corralled and arrested by a cop without a badge?
Corporations are big, but they still have to answer to the same laws we do.
And if they don't abide by the laws, such as Oren Hatch, who would have
black ice destroying every machine with copyrighted material churned out in
droves, then why should we? I say that if our society is so far askew from what
matters, find your own code of ethics and laws, adhere to them, and try to stay
out of the crossfire of the corpolitical war. Let's just keep going about our
lives, perhaps one day, people like Jack Valenti (the MPAA's President), or
Ashcroft, or whoever, will finally get lives of their own. But one can only
hope.
In the meantime, stay safe, but don't stay silent. Be alert, and be
cautious, but don't be driven underground. After all, it's them, not us, that
are afraid of freedom.
- alienbinary
September, 2003
.-[0.0]-------------------------------[O.0]-.
!| ''' ''' |!
!| "Those who say it cannot be done should |!
!| not interrupt the people doing it." |!
!| |!
!| - chinese proverb, seen on a bottlecap |!
!| |!
'--------------------------.----------------'
'-[ courtesy of Firehazard ]-.
|
.------'
'
Hope you enjoy this, our third issue, of PA1N. I am in awe of the time that
alienbinary has poured into this project, and the talent of all the writers who
have contributed thus far.
Remember the saying "All the best things in life are free"? Well
information is one of those free things that make our lives so much better, so
as wogs in the free world, our mission should be to spread as much good
information as we possibly can, and to keep the exchange of information as free
as possible. I believe this is the charge of PA1N. Every contributor of this
zine has something to say that they have not heard echoing around them already,
so they are eager to bounce their own thoughts around in the same arena.
So if you are reading this and you have the same feeling that your words
should be here in this zine, look just below for the e-mail addys of myself
and alienbinary and submit something! Now if you don't fancy yourself the
writer, support PA1N and free speech by telling people about this zine.
Spread the virus! Alternative media like PA1N, RantRadio,and others
need word of mouth support unlike any other form of media around, so any
help would be greatly appreciated. Once again, enjoy the PA1N.
Turnspike
September 2003
alienbinary | pain@e-lite.org
Turnspike | turnspike@spfd2600.org
Official Pain Forum on SPFD2600!
-?------------?------------???????????????????????????-------------------??----
PA1Nv3x2 -----------------------------------------------------------------[ 2 ]
[ Alternative uses for your inbox ]
[ alienbinary ]
[ 2 ]------------------------------------------------------------------PA1Nv3x2
-?------------?---????????????-----------???????????---------??????????????????
Some people complain that they never get e-mail from anyone but spam. I
think that's a tragedy that can be avoided. In fact, I think that the inbox has
been pretty much eliminated for it's original purpose, so here are several ways
I've found to make my inbox a more useful tool. It's the equivalent of a
software PDA. Neat huh? Just the other day this header made it's way to my box:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Some assclown at the MPAA <somedick@riaa.org>
Date: Sun Sep 07, 2003 11:30:57 PM US/Eastern
To: pain@e-lite.org
Subject: Wired: Senator Wants Answers From RIAA
Return-Path: <somedick@riaa.org>
Delivered-To: pain@e-lite.org
Received: (qmail 18862 invoked from network); 8 Sep 2003 03:30:45 -0000
Received: from gaucho.hotwired.com (204.62.131.2) by 0 with SMTP; 8 Sep
2003 03:30:45 -0000
Received: (qmail 29844 invoked from network); 8 Sep 2003 03:30:59 -0000
Received: from wheref.hotwired.com (HELO where.hotwired.com)
(209.202.221.119) by gaucho.hotwired.com with SMTP; 8 Sep 2003
03:30:59 -0000
Received: (from www@localhost) by where.hotwired.com (8.11.6+Sun/8.11.6)
id h883Uvc01449 for pain@e-lite.org;
Sun, 7 Sep 2003 20:30:57 -0700 (PDT)
Message-Id: <200309080330.h883Uvc01449@where.hotwired.com>
X-Authentication-Warning: where.hotwired.com: www set sender to
somedick@riaa.org using -r
nope. no security issue here.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now wasn't that nice of both the RIAA and the MPAA to say hello via WIRED
Magazine? Not only that, but he sent me a really nifty link about how someone
in congress caught on as to the fact that the RIAA is a psychotic terrorist
organization hellbent on destroying the music industry.
It's not hard to have a good meaningful exchange of email with oneself
using the sendmail features that all major media outlets are offering lately.
The great part of this type of bantering is that you get to choose the topics,
and decide who you want to have send it to you, all you need is to know their
email address. it's okay, no one cares if you enter that into the "from" field.
Honestly.
Now what about those damn shopping lists that no one can ever remember the
second they step foot out the door? Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier to bring
an interactive shopping list via a WiFi card? It's working pretty well for me.
You name it, you can have a friendly reminder emailed to your inbox. This is
especially usefull if you don't feel like writing down "36 pack of Trojan-ENZ
Condoms, the dark blue box" on your grocery list; hell, some condom companies
have applets set up to fit you to the perfect profilactic for your... hardware.
In fact, I've even turned my inbox into a shopping list of shit I would
like to own using design-a-product applets, then mailing the designs to my own
inbox, this way, anywhere I go with my WiFi card, I can remember all the shit I
would like to pick up at the store (but don't have the cash) while I'm out of
the house. Here's a messenger bag that's not only sitting in my inbox, but five
feet from me in meatspace:
http://www.timbuk2.com/flash/UID/graphicbag.html?uid=g2mjb14jbjbnnnnnnnmjbnnnn
It get's better. I personally have the biggest problem keeping track of my
spending, that is, I used to, until I started always checking "send invoice to
email address above." Now all I need to do is keep my POP3 account nice and
secure and I have a ledger everywhere I go. Hell, if you think about it, the
average mail client has a built in address book. Even pine does, so why not use
it? In fact, the version of pine I was running off of e-lite.org a little while
ago would parse all relevant data from messages to and from my inbox into
annotated address book entries. All I had to do to remember an email address
was login to root. Pretty simple stuff. Think of the features so far: we have a
great source of news, a secure shopping list with interactivity and if you have
a brain, at least blowfish encryption, a personal finance ledger, and an
address book all built into your inbox.
-?------------?------------???????????????????????????-------------------??----
PA1Nv3x3 -----------------------------------------------------------------[ 3 ]
[ The American Caste System ]
[ alienbinary ]
[ 3 ]------------------------------------------------------------------PA1Nv3x3
-???------------?---????????????-----------???????????---------??????????------
When I was in grade school, I learned that a bunch of great men escaped the
evil king of England, to found a great country that allows everyone of every
race and conceivable human difference to co-exist with one another. I was
taught that these great men are the "founding fathers" and that they gave us
inalienable rights, and that our flag means freedom.
They taught me a lot of shit that simply isn't true anymore.
If we look to the generations before the "new terrorism," we still find a
trail of blood. If protecting American children from the evils of communism was
necessary, it still cannot explain why Colonel Oliver North did so by selling
cocaine and weapons to countries who regularly killed their own citizens for
speaking their minds. Put Contra-gate on the back burner, and examine vietnam.
When LBJ ordered american troops to be deployed on the soils of Vietnam, he
did so under the air of a concerned official, claiming that the potential for
the spread of such an infectious ideology as communism was far more terrible
than the actual loss of human lives suffered by all sides involved. Our nation
was founded on principles that were alien and foreign, even "terroristic" in
nature to the rest of the world. A guerilla war was waged accross this
continent to protect the right of every person to excercise their beleifs.
If such is so, why did the former President fear the communists so much,
that he sacrificed entire generations of american boys to the war machine. If
we really were afraid of the violations of human rights committed by the
Viet-Cong, then why did we ignore those of the Ayatollah in Iran, and why did
we fund the fascist dictators in South America? The amount of murderous
officials instated into power by the federal government far outweighs the
number of lives put at risk by General Ho Chi Min. During the same time period
that we deployed troops to the jungle of vietnam, only to be cut down by
shrapnel fire from the enemy, or later scarred and poisoned by Agent Orange,
courtesy of CIA.
What does America stand for? What do any of the major powers stand for?
The events of September, 2001 were so horrifying to a people unused to such
violence on domestic soil, that laws that had been in play for decades were
ratified without question. The time required to form a new federal agency is
now a fraction of what it used to be, and the requirements on disclosure of
intelligence data have been relaxed so much, that almost no one knows why we're
doing what we're doing in any part of the world, at any given time. All this in
mind, I can draw several conclusions.
America has lost all sense of what it was supposed to stand for. If the
"Founding Fathers" were really drafting a document with language they meant
heart and soul, then we have become a new country, without the idealism
inspired in Franklin by Thomas Paine, and his contemporaries. If we really
don't beleive in what's down on the consitution, then the entire American
Nation was founded under false pretenses.
I'd like to believe that this was once the land of the free. I would like
to believe that there are people in the government concerned with the welfare
of people other than the rich and powerful. Unfortunately, I have seen no
evidence of such. Instead, I have seen the following trends.
[ the new upper class ]
The new first class citizenry is comprised of a lawless subspecies of
aristocrat that cares not for the welfare of any one being but themselves.
Although the Enron scandal cost hardworking American citizens several thousand
jobs, the only CEO sentenced to prison yet is serving a measly five years
behind bars. Granted, the man never killed anyone with his bare hands. But the
strokes of a few of his golden pens did. The insider trading cost income,
insurance, and the security of countless families that worked hard to earn
their money up to the very end.
People who had families to feed and houses to maintain, citizens who broke
no laws lost everything they owned, because the shameless sons of bitches in
smoke filled rooms sold out their entire roster of employees and jeopardized
their families to line their pockets with cash they didn't need, and now won't
be able to spend.
As I draw this peice to a close, I can only conclude that every flag should
be held at half-mast, if it is to be held at all. The death we should be
recogizing is that of the American Ideal.
It makes me wonder what our children will be taught in grade school.
-?------------?------------???????????????????????????-------------------??----
PA1Nv3x4 -----------------------------------------------------------------[ 4 ]
[ Editor's Choice: our gear ]
[ PA1N Staff ]
[ 4 ]----------------------------------------------------------------- PA1Nv3x4
-?-------------?---????????????-----------???????????---------?????????????????
.---. ..---. . .. . _____
.1| | || | /| |.\ | /'-_ / \ _-'\ [------------------------]
|| | || | /|| || \ | \.'-_/ \_-'./ [ PA1N MAGAZINE ]
|'---' |'---| || || \| '-x x-' [ EDITOR'S POLL: ]
|| || | || || | .-- 'i ' i' --. [ gear, kit, essentials ]
-''- -''- -'- -''- -''- -'- \.' ''' './ [------------------------]
One thing that's almost never covered in zines is kit. What the hell do you
pack for your daily reconnaissance into the world? Seeing as the world is
getting more and more bizarre, and you never know what you might run into,
myself and many of the other members of PA1N have compiled lists of kit we
carry. Remember, always be prepared... for ANYTHING. EVER.
WARNING: when we list what we carry, there are times
when you leave the kit at home. The PDA and Cellphone
excluded, a lot of this stuff you should keep in your
CAR TRUNK if you are in a situation where someone else
might notice what you have. It's very easy for someone
to get labeled dangerous, just because they don't know
what you do. I can generally get away with carrying a
blade and a leatherman, because I work engineering
sometimes. If I worked as a grociery clerk, I don't
think I could carry all the gear I bring with me daily.
- alienbinary
[ alienbinary's everyday kit ]
[----------------------------]
- old as dirt 5 gig iPod
- CRKT folding knife
- Zire71 Palm Pilot
- flash ROM expansion card for palm containing eBooks for boring lectures
- Leatherman "Pulse" multitool
- Motorola 120c Cellphone
greeting: "Kill the Trendy" (thanks nixter)
banner: "Memento Mori" (old latin expression from the baroque period,
it means "remember that one day you will die.")
- black stainless steel throwing spike
- kevlar/leather/nylon ankle holster for spikes
- black TIMBUK2 courier bad with iPod sleeve and navy camo pattern
- Blue Zippo (in a shoulder-strap case on my bag)
- chrome and black riveted zippo (leather case on belt)
- Maglite, Mini-Mag or "solitaire" model
- nylon tactical wallet with ID display
- misfits cigarette case (sometimes with cigarettes, often without)
- earbud headphones
- set of pigment liners
- paint markers (spraypaint base)
[ alienbinary's road trip kit (not including what's above)]
[---------------------------------------------------------]
- short range FM transmitter
- Zire cradle
- black NATO issue rucksack
- iBook g3 w/charger
- airport card
- S&W S.W.A.T. Neck Knife
- tea. no shit... I have a problem. I admit it. in fact,
I'd probably be bringing Chai or Kava Kava. (one to go up, one to go down!)
- Stainless Steel Thermos
- MetRX Bars (emergency sustenance)
- military grade duct tape
- backup camera
- burnable media
- krazy glue
- parachord
- a whole stack of books
[Turnspike's everyday kit]
[------------------------]
- LED Flashlight
- Single-edge Razor Blades
- Pocket knife
- Multitool
- Storm Whistle
- Cell Phone
[ Turnspike's Extra Gear for General Mischeif ]
[---------------------------------------------]
- Laptop
- Wireless Adapter
- Family-band Radios
- Digital Camera
- Police Scanner
- Laser Pointer
[ Nemisis' everyday kit ]
[-----------------------]
- My Pager (AB's idea btw)
- ID (Since I still get carded, even with a full
goatee and sideburns to my chin)
- A pack of Parliment lights.
- A lighter, but more likely matches.
- 5 or 6 Free Lunch cards for Papa-Ginos.
- A bunch of crumpled up peices of paper with phone numbers on them.
- A notebook to write rhymes in.
- A good CP book if possible.
-?------------?------------???????????????????????????-------------------??----
PA1Nv3x5 -----------------------------------------------------------------[ 5 ]
[ America's Downfall ]
[ angel ice ]
[ 5 ]----------------------------------------------------------------- PA1Nv3x5
-?-------------?---????????????-----------???????????---------?????????????????
Sheep, drones, followers, fake and plastic are just some of the terms used
to describe those less than human people who travel in herds. Yeah you know the
ones Im talking about, the people who dont seem to be affected by anything.
The ones that you want to grab, shake and scream, dont you ever feel pain?!
They are machines who can only be affected by the label on their clothes. Do
you remember way back when your mom used to write your name on all of your
clothes so you wouldnt loose them at camp or at a sleepover? It seems that
these people just couldnt get enough of that, only now they want someone
elses name tattooed all over their clothes. Then they have the audacity to
turn around and say were strange? At least we dont need to pay $20 for a pair
of underwear with someone elses name on it.
It is just not possible to come up with any reason why these people
are not the biggest waste of space. If we still had natural selection these
ones wouldnt have lasted a day. There is just no purpose for them. What could
they possibly be good for; to promote homicide? And what does this say about
the theory of evolution. Doesnt it stand to reason that we should be getting
smarter not less and less devoid of intelligence? I say lets reinstate the
olden day version of justice. Lets just rid the world of people like this. I
think wed find that we would all get smarter just because they are no longer
around. Getting rid of these people would make room for people with purpose. We
could have cured the world of every pain we have if these people would get off
their ass and contribute. Its these people who make me think that maybe the
death sentence shouldnt just be for people who commit crimes.
Heres a thought lets send these drones to war. Yeah, well send
them in their Abercrombie and Fitch uniforms with their NSYNC cds and their
tripped out cars. When our enemies realize what we have to put up with day in
and day out theyll have a new found appreciation for Americans. And if that
doesnt work, surely they will kill themselves after having to listen to and
watch these sheep for more than an hour.
Its understandable why we all have rage problems and anxiety
disorders. No matter how hard we try, and no matter what we do we can never be
as happy as these people. It always seems that they have the secret and they
dont want us to know. Well Ill tell you, Ill spill the beans ignorance
truly is bliss. If you dont know anything, then how can you possibly be
affected by the world? Even still there have been times when Ive had to hold
myself back from trying to literally slap them back to reality. I can just see
it now when they go to get their poster child jobs, with their cookie-cutter
houses, no doubt with some label plastered across the front, and their poor
children having to grow up listening to boy bands. Maybe all they need is a
swift blow to the skull to get them to wake up and look at themselves with
disgust.
Personally I see nothing wrong with being unique. Not having to
worry about walking into class and seeing someone with the same shirt. I will
never understand why so many people want to be just like them. In fact, to do
that most normal people would have to drop an average of 50% of their IQ. I do
however have to feel some kind of pity for them. They will never have a passion
in life. They will never stand up for something they believe in if it isnt a
group consensus, they will never know what its like to feel sheer and utter
pain and then the feeling you get when you grow from that pain, but most of
all they will never be able to have an intelligent conversation. And for that
I thank God everyday that Im not one of them.
-?------------?------------???????????????????????????-------------------??----
PA1Nv3x6 -----------------------------------------------------------------[zix]
[ Less Type More Skype ]
[ RumblingSky ]
[zix]----------------------------------------------------------------- PA1Nv3x6
-?-------------?---????????????-----------???????????---------?????????????????
"The Hype about Skype" or "Less Type.. More Skype"
By: RumblingSky
For years, internet users have dreamed of the possibility of trashing their
telephones - along with the excessive long distance charges and hidden fees
associated with this necessary communication device. We've suffered through
inital attempts at real time voice communication, such as Roger Wilco,
Microsoft Net-Meeting and Net2Phone. Even the Instant Messenger giants MSN
Messenger, ICQ, AIM and Yahoo Messenger have tried to delve into voice
communications and success has been spotty at best. That was until the
inception of Skype. Skype (http://www.skype.com/) is the first realistic
manifestation of our dream becoming a reality.
To put it bluntly, Skype is the absolute best voice communications software the
civilian world has ever seen. Skype was created by the founders of Kazaa and
uses technology that is based on the true concept of a peer to peer (P2P)
network. A true P2P system, in their opinion, "... is one where all nodes in a
network join together dynamically to participate in traffic routing-,
processing- and bandwidth intensive tasks that would otherwise be handled by
central servers. A true P2P application empowers small teams with good ideas to
develop software and businesses that can successfully challenge those of large
companies. True P2P, when applied to ripe markets, is disruptive technology."
For the Kazaa founders, P2P telephony became a natural next step where P2P
could have a significant disruptive impact and Skype was founded to develop the
first P2P telephony network.
Unlike it's predecessors, the concept of using Skype is extremely simple. The
display looks much like an Instant Messenger service, except that it obviously
focuses on audio chat, using the already familiar concept of telephones. You
use it just like you would any other IM program. You add friends to your
"Friend List," double-click on a name and, rather than opening a text chat
window, you "call" the person you want to chat with. You then hear a phone ring
if the recipient is available or you get a busy signal if they are on another
call. There are log displays that show you when you've talked with someone or
alert you to missed calls. The Skype designers have already rendered answering
machines or call waiting features obsolete by including a text messenging
option. You can still send text messages using Skype, whether someone is on a
call or not. In fact, you can send text messages to someone you are on a call
with if you wanted to send them a web link, for instance.
If you are worried about security, you are pretty much wasting your time. While
your comminucations are sent through the public internet, "Skype uses AES
(Advanced Encryption Standard) - also known as Rijndel - which is also used by
U.S. Government organizations to protect sensitive information. Skype uses
256-bit encryption, which has a total of 1.1 x 10^77 possible keys, in order to
actively encrypt the data in each Skype call or instant message." I'm actually
more comfortable with Skype's security than I am with the deadbolt on my front
door!
Currently, Skype is still in it's beta testing stage, so some of the features
are limited. At the time of this writing, Skype only works pc to pc and you
have to register with the Skype service to use it (although registering only
entails giving an email address, a user name and a password). The service is
currently free, while it is in it's beta stage. There are plans of adding
conference call features and the strong possibility of allowing you to call
real phone and cell phone numbers. At that point, there will probably be a
subscription fee of some sort. However, they are planning on keeping the direct
pc to pc communications free. To be honest, so long as they don't gouge the
price, I would be willing to pay for this service if I am able to call real
phone numbers - especially if I can call anywhere around the world.
For people who have a semi-decent microphone (I prefer and recommend my $20
headset mic), the quality of the sound rivals that of a standard telephone and
dominates the sound of your basic cellular phone. The only problems I have
noticed involve either substandard equipment or improper microphone settings.
The software itself allows for amazing sound quality. The conversations happen
in real-time, as well, with no obvious latency on a broadband connection. I was
speaking with another user on the telephone while using Skype. We were watching
the same television program, but I had my sound muted. I could hear his
television through Skype and the sound matched up perfectly with what I was
watching. Talk about real-time communications!
For those of you who are worried about bandwidth, on average, Skype uses
between 3 - 16 Kilobytes/sec, depending on bandwidth available for the other
party, network conditions in between, etc. In my tests, I found the actual
average to be around 5 kbps. When there is no active call, Skype uses between 0
and 0.5 kbps while the friend list updates. The only real effects bandwidth has
had in my tests come from intensive web activity (such as having multiple
downloads active at once while searching the web and streaming an internet
radio station - all at the same time.) You can use Skype with a dial-up
connection as low as 33.6 kbps. However, simply surfing the web, file sharing
or email could disrupt the voice communication.
All in all, Skype has a very high call completion rate and superior sound
quality. It is extremely easy to use and provides totally secure voice
communications. Best of all, Skype contains absolutely no spyware,
what-so-ever! There is no doubt that Skype has the potential to totally
revolutionize the telecommunication industry. The founders were looking to
create a significant disruptive impact on big business and they are well on
their way with Skype!
[ ed. note: this is one of the coolest peices of software ever released since
the original 'Pong.' - alienb ]
-?------------?------------???????????????????????????-------------------??----
PA1Nv3x7 -----------------------------------------------------------------[ 7 ]
[ Diary of an Insomniac: Part Two ]
[ alienbinary ]
[ 7 ]----------------------------------------------------------------- PA1Nv3x7
-?-------------?---????????????-----------???????????---------?????????????????
[ed. note: this is the second installation in my late night stream of
consciousness peices. In PA1Nv1, there was a peice called "Twilight induced
nostalgia," this is the same concept. When I can't sleep, I write. And
sometimes I get lucky and this is what happens.]
[ September 22, 2003 12:10 AM ] Sometimes I hate the people I hear outside my
window, around this time of night. They yell and they cheer. Why? What is so
wonderful as to warrant a cheer so loud that it wakes up everyone who's trying
to sleep? What makes them so special? And I start to hate the way they coast
through life like it's just some stupid game. Games. Sometimes these loud peels
of people yelling are the screams of triumph when the home team scores over the
visitors. You can take a dumb bastard with nothing to show for his life, save
ten years worth of a beard, and the guy will know jack shit about anything.
...Unless you ask him about football. In college, these rampaging groups of
athletes celebrate each victory by imbibing alcohol and for some taking
advantage of the girls whom they have helped reach a state of intoxication.
Then the next morning it's time for class, and they have to figure out what
time zone they're in, and whether or not they fucked, before they can take
turns puking in the latrine.
My eyes are blood red right now, the color of extreme fatigue and toxic
overload. My brain can't stop for a few minutes so I can get to rest. Instead,
the data becomes garbled, mixed with antihystamines or sedatives. I used to
smoke an awefull lot. I used to smoke enough for several people all at once. I
could tell by the way the cherry burned in pitch black what kind of cigarette
it was, in case I felt like bumming one. I'm annoyed at myself because I had
quit smoking a few years ago. But there's no such thing as an ex-smoker. All it
means to not regularly carry cigarettes around with you, and take "smoke
breaks" is that you don't want to be identified as someone who smokes. I
understand, it's the way I feel. Sometimes, I get so convinced of the
propaghanda and rhetoric that's everywhere about the hazards of smoking, I
think that I'm a healthy person as long as I don't light up.
No one can be healthy if they don't sleep. It's a fact. No one's sharp, no
one's on the ball. [ 12:24 AM ] When you don't sleep, your body can't make the
neurotransmitters needed to function... my mind is wandering again. I'm
thinking about the day ahead. I'm thinking about the long hours in classrooms,
listening to lectures about topics I don't give a damn about, and about the
fact that I'll have to deal with these people around me in daylight.
I don't hate them, I just don't understand how they operate. I gave up
drinking a long time ago. it wasn't something I could continue, and it's really
expensive lately. Regardless, the most important and pressing matters that I've
heard some of my fellow students discuss include where the beer is, how much
beer is left, and how much beer can each individual have. I can't help but
wonder if these really are the most pressing problems in their lives, and if
so, what kind of lives they lead... Will they be productive; full of fortunate
suprises and upward mobility? I wonder if, for them, it will turn out to be
everything they hoped it would be. Do they want a picket fence, a dog, a cat,
three kids and a swimming pool? Why are these things even the things that
popped into my head just now? After midnight, I start to think in questions,
not answers.
Do these kids have any idea of the world they live in, and what the price
of their indiscretion could be? Thirty thousand dollars of someone else's
money, and all these poor fucks can think to do with their time here, is drink
themselves to death. Death. I'm one to talk.
The entire world right now sleeps while smoke filled offices deep in the
various defense departments and ministries around the world come up with more
and more plans to annhilate large groups of people. When we sleep, we close our
eyes, taking our watch away from the things that might prevent us from getting
another good night's sleep ever again. Nerve gas, nuclear weapons, westernized
jyhad, all these things are borne at this hour, when the populace sleeps. I
wonder if the reason these people plan such horrible schemes at such a late
hour has any link to this sort of destruction. Perhaps these people were once
fresh graduates from MIT, bright organic chemistry majors with degrees in
applied engineering in fields so specific it would take a month to define. And
now perhaps, after a year and some change of working under the wing of DARPA,
they can no longer sleep, let alone live with themselves and what they have
helped to acheive. I don't beleive these people are inherently evil. They just
have a job to do, and their job is devising effective ways to kill people. When
you put it in such wording, it seems civil, respectable, devoid of the horror
it embodies. I wonder if any of them will ever read what I'm writing here. I
doubt it.
[ 12:43 AM ] The bright light of the LCD screen on my iBook is burning
itself into my retina. I close my eyes, and it's still there. Insomnia is
almost like one step closer to wet-wiring in that respect. Sometimes I'll find
myself with the answer to a problem I couldn't solve when the world was going
on around me. But when all is quiet, no one is around to bother my thoughts...
...except the innebriated young man who just got into a fight with a metal
garbage can outside my dorm room, announcing in between belches "I love the
world." in a drunken singsong fashion that made me want to go outside and smack
him. Is this our future? Now that we understand large portions of the human
brain, are we doomed to start letting our lives be governed by chemistry? In
this dorm alone, there's probably three rooms full of people doing rail after
rail of cocaine, a hundred or so beer cans in various stages of consumption,
and several packs of cigarettes being turned to ash.
In the morning, these enterprising young neurochemical explorers will seek
refuge in copious amounts of coffee and cigarettes, shaking the haze of the
night before away, and into the trash can reserved for "last night." They'll
plod off to more hopeless lives, only to return and begin the ritual anew. When
I worked at a coffee shop, I knew people who regularly did hits of
methamphetamines because the only way they could work was to stay wired, and
the price of the drugs was small compared to the price of being unemployed. We
have arrived at a state in human society where it is an acceptable risk to do
something unutterably stupid just to maintain a job. Just to maintain that
sense that they have a place in this well built machine, so they can churn out
products and children intermittently until their death rattles; the last
exhalation of carbon dioxide before they too can be said to have lead a "full
life."
[ 12:54 AM ] I feel dirty and exposed. My mouth tastes of tar and blood,
and my clothes stink. I'd like a hot shower now, but I fear having to deal with
the people running through the halls pleading for more beer.
-?------------?------------???????????????????????????-------------------??----
PA1Nv3x8 -----------------------------------------------------------------[ate]
[ The Best of Rantradio: Part Three ]
[ OtherSide Servers, #rantradio ]
[eat]----------------------------------------------------------------- PA1Nv3x8
-?-------------?---??????--???????????---------?????????????????---------------
-----------------\ why models need to eat more carbohydrates /-----------------
<[-Soultrance-]> anything that you fuck and hit tail bone isn't attractive
<ghost> i like women with curves
<alienbinary> HAHHAA
<[-Soultrance-]> especially when you rub em and feel their ribs...
<ghost> ugggghhh
<Gryphin> oh god, i just came in my pants listning to some Beethoven
<Gryphin> beautiful
<apanthropy> ewww
<Gryphin> makes me wonder how i got by with those other headphones for so long
<SpyAFK> uhm
<SpyAFK> tmi
<apanthropy> oh god, I just came in my pants masturbating
----------------------------\ No one likes the RIAA /--------------------------
<Alpha736> dannyp writes "CNN is reporting that Kazaa is suing the record
companies, claiming that
they used an illegal client to log in to the P2P network - an
interesting twist." The
lawsuit also claims "...efforts to combat piracy on Kazaa violated
terms for using the
network."
<Alpha736> wooooo
<Alpha736>http://slashdot.org/articles/03/09/24/234211.shtml?tid=123&tid=185&
tid=99">http://slashdot.org/articles/03/09/24/234211.shtml?tid=123&tid=185&tid=
99
<alienb_[away]> rawk
<alienb_[away]> I hope they take the RIAA to the motherfuckin bank.
<Coyote23> poor RIAA getting taken advantage of my malicious file traders
<Coyote23> by
<alienb_[away]> yeah, everyone with sympathy raise their hand.
<alienb_[away]> see? no one likes the RIAA.
<Alpha736> woooo
<Alpha736> hehe
-----------------\ ...good friends will help you move a body /-----------------
<SpyAFK> Sometimes the corpse is too fragile to be moved; in that case make it
fast. Or just break
off the head, hand or lower torso and take it with you for added
convenience.
<wifigurl> spyder.. that almost made the link queen vomit when i read that
<wifigurl> thats some rough ass shit..
<Alpha736> okay
<Alpha736> i'm going to sleep
-?------------?------------???????????????????????????-------------------??----
PA1Nv3x9 -----------------------------------------------------------------[N1N]
[ Defining "Black Ice" ]
[ alienbinary ]
[N1N]----------------------------------------------------------------- PA1Nv3x9
-?----------|--?---??????--???????????---------?????????????????---------------
'----.
|
------------+----------------------------------------- -- -
"You see, late in the evening, fucked up on my computer
and my mind starts roaming, I create like a heathen the
first cycles of this virus I can send through a modem."
i
| -- Deltron 3030, "Virus"
- -- ------!-----------------------------------------------
i
'----.
|
In 1984, William Gibson published the CyberPunk masterpeice, "Neuromancer".
The repurcussions of the novel spread like wildfire through the online and
hacker community. The very concepts that are now commonly used as plot staples
in the majority of c.p. literature were defined in that very book. However, not
everything that Gibson wrote about has stayed in the realm of fantasy.
Unfortunately, the less welcome ideas have leaked to the exact wrong people. In
his short story "Johnny Nmemonic," Gibson goes further into depth in the
discussion of a type of software known as "Black Ice." Black ice is now one of
the major industrial software products being written, and none of it is legal
or even sensible to utilize.
First, before I start to tell you about what the recording industry among
others have done with the idea, I must explain what black ice is. The concept
of black ice is a peice of software that is embedded within an application
harboring malicious intent. The goal of this sort of application is to prevent
certain forms of piracy, invasion, or unauthorized entry to restricted areas of
code or computer systems. In Gibson's universe, the primary function of black
ice was to cripple, or even murder any unwanted intruders. He wrote about
peices of software being riddled with computer viruses and other snippets of
deadly code that could cripple the machines of any intruder, or, if the
intruder was using wetwiring, the ice was capable of frying the cerebellum,
rendering the attacker useless, if not dead.
The real life black ice is a more insidious type of software because it's
uses are unclear. I'm sure many people are familiar with at least one form of
malicious code that's been used in a manner that's perfectly legal, but
horribly annoying. About ten years back, software corporations started to get
obscenely paranoid about the concept of software piracy, or 'warez.' This fear
inspired these companies to embed complex subroutines that were malicious as
all hell, but would only be activated by an unauthorized attempt to use
software that was not licensed to the individual. Mind you, I don't condone
software piracy or theft, especially as a coder myself; hobbyist hacker and
professional as well. However, the majority of companie that did the following
were just trying to instill fear into consumers, so they would pay. The whole
reason people don't pay for software often is because they simply cannot afford
the fucking stuff.
So back to the way companies combatted piracy with blackice: The most
common way of doing this, of course, was to have a certain serial number be the
trigger for the subroutine. After the serial number was decided upon, agents of
SPA, (the Software Protection Agency) began to disseminate these false serial
numbers into bulletin board systems and then infiltrate serial number lists and
warez groups. The idea was brilliant in a twisted way. When a person illegally
copied a peice of software and tried to activate said copy, they would need a
serial number. The majority of these people would simply consult large
compilations of serial numbers and use the ones floating around the internet.
And this was precisely how these numbers made their way into the hands of
software pirates. Once the false serial number was entered into the
registration dialog, a new dialog would appear admonishing the user for
software piracy. After the admonishing and 'I told you so' aspect wore off,
these subroutines would do any number of things. I've even heard stories of
software with a similar trigger; shareware that began to dismantle the host,
after a single attempt at entering an unauthorized code-- then moving on,
illegitimately wreaking complete havoc on a board, or a personal computer.
SPA knew that they had the warez groups in check, since any and all
attempts to file a suit against the agency for destruction of personal property
would reveal that there was illegal activity going on. This meant that the
companies could, for a remarkably long time, entrap people into destroying
thier own computers, and then being left without an option to fight back.
No one ever learns from history. Just as many wars were started over
asassinations that were done by one group, and blamed on another, SPA and it's
cronies unleashed the first credibility attack on pirates and moved on to just
calling them "hackers." The way the nail was hammered into the coffin of the
media view of the underground community was inspired by the infamous Internet
Worm, the worm that devoured the entire ether in a matter of hours, cracking
thousands of passwords and compromising and infecting estimated millions.
Seeing an opportunity to cash in on this idea, bulleten board systems were
penetrated by agents of software firms, and virii were planted in place of
promises of free illegal software. The man who originally wrote McAfee
Anti-Virus still talks about those "damn hackers" who started infecting all
software on the 'net. These trojan horses were uploaded by SPA agents, and when
unzipped, unglued, untarred, unstuffed, etc., they would do anything from lock
the user out and "call home" (sending an alert back to the author of the
software,) or even going as far as wiping systems clean.
As with one of Sir Isaac Newton's laws of motion, for every action, there
is an equal and opposite reaction. In this case, SysOps began to offer infected
files on purpose, notifying all trustworthy people not to download the code,
far less execute it. Any spook; or for that matter, any newbie on the board,
would pay the consequences for invading private territory. This was the real
start of modern black ice: code or software tweaks that padlocked systems with
an "if all else fails" mechanism.
So, we know what black ice is, but no one's explained why this is important
now. After all, none of the PA1N staff have active roles in piracy, etc., we
have nothing to do with that 'scene,' as it were. The truth is, all of the
world's peer to peer networks that are used for any purpose, have been infested
with unbeleivable amounts of ice. Several months ago, Madonna's record company
put out a rediculously long mp3 saying "what the fuck do you think YOU'RE
DOING?," encoded at the highest bitrate, with extra data to bulk it up.
Frustrated fans would find after an hour of waiting for the album to transfer,
that they had been duped. Consequently, two days after the scheme was
publicized, www.madonna.com was cracked wide open, and the front page contained
the words "this is waht the fuck I think I'm doing," along with full length,
untainted MPEG Audio Layer 3 files of every single track on the entire album.
But it's true-- that wasn't anything to get excited about. Several years
ago, I was introduced to a metal band that had some of the most original
concepts and lyrics I had ever heard. Wanting the entire cd for myself,
especially since it contained all these special features, I legitimately
purchased this album myself, attempted to rip the CD, and found that the B-Tree
header on my harddrive had been corrupted. A couple restarts later, the
computer was long dead, no longer able to read it's own hard drive. Needless to
say, but I will anyway, you cannot imagine how furious it was, and how many
times I tried to figure out how purchasing a CD for transfer to one's own iPod
in the most legal of fashions was worthy of black ice like this. It wasn't the
last time it ever happened, but possibly the first time it happened to me.
After several days of retooling the system, it was up and running again,
and I, of course, attempted to re-rip the CD, since Iw as sure it was an
encoding error. It wasn't. The CD extras contained peices of code that
scrambled everything from my 60 gig maxtor to my logic board. For the rest of
the month, I refused to even listen to polular music out of disgust.
It's now more than before, that we should be aware of this blatent
disregard for the consumer. The Recording Industry Association of America
doesn't like you, but they expect money for nothing, nonetheless. Now Gnutella
has been invaded with worms and trojan horses, or even songs renamed to waste a
user's bandwidth and time.
It was not long ago this year that Orin Hatch asked during a senate
judiciary hearing whether or not it was technologically possible to adopt these
schemes, to fight off music piracy. In a very public situation, the recording
industry attempted to gain the right to break into users computers and destroy
them from the inside, claiming that this would curb audio piracy. Since this
happened, however, the Senate has been incredibly interested in just what the
hell the industry has in mind, since they are in theory supposed to operate
within the same confines of the law as everyone else.
My suggestion is a simple one: don't buy a CD from any major record
company. Fuck 'em. If you download the music to prevent yourself from being
jacked by the RIAA's malicious code, find a way to send the ARTIST some cash,
not the record companies. If you see a CD in a store with lots of added
features, it's a very safe bet that the feature included that you'll care about
most is never mentioned, that of the fact that a data layer has been spread
over the audio, making all rips corrupt, possibly destroying the system it was
being ripped on. Look, everyone and their grandmother has an iPod or an MP3
player these days, and it's nothing to hide. There is nothing at all illegal in
ripping legit discs for future listening on one's own machine. If you aren't
sure whether a particular CD is safe, rip the disc onto a non-system drive,
then boot off said drive, restart, and scan the filesystem for any new errors.
For the most part, this should allow you to at least know what's going to
happen, and you don't need to worry about excercising the right to use a
computer as a stereo system. Last time I checked, computer speakers were being
manufactured by the best names in the industry, because retailers have
recognized now that MP3 files aren't going anywhere. So in conclusion, don't
buy anything that a mega-corporation has had their greasy, slimy hands all
over. Stick to independent, but always remember you can support an artist by
attending a gig in person. That's how I get my CDs. So, for all those RIAA
agents that are so greedy and pathetic that they will use a nine year old
tactict to curb piracy, and sue a six year old girl for the same 'crime;' fuck
you. Fuck the RIAA, and fuck them hard. As a consumer, I think I speak for more
people than just myself when I say "back the fuck off, leave music alone." We
don't want your trouble, we just want to be left the fuck alone.
+----------------------------{ And remember: }---------------------+
| the best ICE has ALWAYS been written by deckers for deckers, not |
| industry. For every stupid idea a software, motion picture or |
| recording industry can contrive, some bored kid can write code |
| that will mop the digital floor with industrial black ice. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
- alienbinary
-?------------?------------???????????????????????????-------------------??----
PA1Nv3x10----------------------------------------------------------------[ 10 ]
[ Where has all the oxygen gone? ]
[ alienbinary ]
[ 10 ]----------------------------------------------------------------PA1Nv3x10
-?------------?---????????????-----------???????????---------??????????????????
[ Preface ]
I just recently finished reading Neal Stephenson's book "Zodiac," a novel
written from the point of view of a so-called eco-terrorist. True to Snow
Crash, and sort of to the Diamond Age, the protagonist is resourceful, can get
around pretty much any obstacle, and has a superior knowledge of urban survival
skills, making him the ideal cyberpunk hero. The catch is, nothing in the book
is totally farfetched.
After reading the book, I found myself thinking back to Bruce Sterling's
"Distraction," and the many discourses about breathing difficulties, then of
course to his "Heavy Weather," which deals with what I'll be talking about in
the last portion of this essay. Suffice to say, this article is a scientific
breakdown of why the warnings of Cyberpunk literature [in regards to our dying
ecosystem] need to be heeded, and how they will come to pass.
[ ecological entropy ]
There is a rule in physics, or at least as it pertains to ecology, that "in
nature, all systems are and will eventually break down." This is known as the
Law of Entropy. Everything that nature can create, nature can, and probably
will destroy. This law, however, says very little about a species that is so
fundamentally divorced from nature, that almost no one in modern society
recognizes the actual drop in anything not made by a machine. People have
become accustomed to the idea of the destruction of the ozone layer, they have
accepted it, and are trying to move on with their lives, ignoring the very
important problem of how much shorter their lives will be if nothing is done to
prevent a man-made collapse of all natural systems.
[ the air we breath and the rock we breath it on ]
A little background. As far as scientists of today can tell, the earth is
approximately 4.5 Billion years old, however, human beings in any recognizable
shape or form didn't begin to surface around 6,000 B.C. [1] Now, the first two
geological eras on earth, (the Hadean, and the Archean), were anaerobic. That
is to say, until the middle of the Paleoproterozoic era, the atmosphere was not
made up of oxygen. [2] In fact, for the earlier creatures that inhabited this
planet, Oxygen was toxic. The Precambrian Era was the first of the Earth's
epochs as far as geologists have speculated, and it was during this time,
between 1,600 to 2,500 million years ago; a transition happened that changed
the atmosphere to oxygen. I'll stop boring you with geology for now, as long as
you keep in mind that oxygen was NEVER originally the atmosphere.
Now why have I bothered to cite these facts? Because the air we breathe
isn't going to be with us forever, if something doesn't change. In Mexico City,
there is a condition that we would categorize in North America as a weather
warning, but this condition is unlike any of the ones we would come to
recognize. These warnings are called "Pollution Warnings [3]," and they occur
throughout the course of the year. When major industrial fires break out, you
might find something like this [4], where the smog is so thick in Mexico City,
that children and the elderly are dying in vast numbers from asphyxiation and
exposure to carcinogens.
[ oxygen as a commodity ]
On some visit to the Cambridgeside Galleria, in Cambridge MA., I was
browsing the various booths that line the area around the shops, and I found an
oxygen bar. This was quite possibly the oddest thing I'd come accross in a long
time. Everyone remembers the famous scene in Fight Club where Brad Pitt asks
"do you know why they put oxygen masks on planes?" and Edward Norton replies
"So you can breathe;" to which Pitt replies "Oxygen gets you high..." This was
the very thing that crossed my mind when I observed what was going on.
It was exactly as Tyler Durden had laid it out. The customers of this
boutique were sucking down tanks of O2, just drinking it up like addicts. And
every time a customer was thoroughly 'refreshed,' they would have this
extremely pleasant look on their faces, and would float off to the next
adventure. I could hardly beleive it.
.------{|[___________________________________________________]|}------.
| |
| "This is madness, I'm drooling with a locked jaw, my elevator don't |
| go to the top floor. I hold my breath cuz the O2 killed, I'm |
| suffocating, I can't pay my oxygen bill." |
| |
| - Biohazard, 'New World Disorder' |
'------{|[___________________________________________________]|}------'
Could the air we breathe have become so toxic that it's considered a "high"
to imbibe pure oxygen? The answer, sadly, is yes it has. I'm no tree-hugging
hippie. I don't go for the greenpeace factions, I'm not huge on saving the
rainforest, in fact, to be honest, I generally don't worry about it. What with
all of our rights and freedoms being taken away, I find the chance of ever
reaping the benifits of a preserved planet farther and farther away. I will
probably never see the rainforest, if any of it survives the clear cutting
activities that dominate the few remaining forests.
I'm also aware that the majority of our oxygen supply does not come from
trees. In fact, the more complex the organism, the less helpful it seems to be
in the production of oxygen. The vast majority of our replenishment of oxygen
seems to come from Phytoplankton[5], small algae that, simply put, make oxygen
through photosynthesis, the same as all plants.
[ death takes a swim ]
So if our rainforests aren't essential to the oxygen supply, then what's
the worry, since we'll always have the ocean?
The answer is really fucking obvious. Our waste systems drain into the
oceans. Our industrial byproducts drain into sewers, then resevoirs, and
eventually they reach estuaries that lead the byproducts into the ocean as
well, carrying a payload of tons and tons of PCBs, or Polychlorinated
Biphenyls, simply put: really bad shit. With the administration cutting down on
every possible EPA regulation and all funding to environmental efforts, we
stand not a chance to fight this.
And certainly, we must send big fucking ships around to kill off vast
swatches of human (and otherwise) life, annhilating the ecology of the marine
systems in it's wake. And of course, we did a splendid job of raining all hell
down on the cities of Iraq. While I won't enter into a debate about the
necessity of that, I will suggest that the cost of life goes beyond the
soldiers, the people of the region, and the lives of other societi
es. I was
sent a photograph from a USGS Satellite, so large in scale and so clear, that
it took up 3.5 megs of space. The photograph was of Bagdhad, or what little
could be seen. Unfortunately, the majority of the photo was pitch black,
showing billowing carcinogenic clowds, spewing disgusting amounts of toxins
into the air. Burning petroleum products emit solid waste, as well as gasses
into the atmosphere. Subsequently, those storm clouds did a fantastic job of
blocking out light to the area. If we block the light from the sun, by
perpetually billowing clouds of smoke, be it from war or from industry, we will
starve the Phytoplankton of the light they need to survive, and to produce our
breathable oxygen supply.
So perhaps, just perhaps, before we go and bomb more things, and pollute
the oceans with toxins so dangerous they can kill on touch, maybe we should
consider the fact that every time we do so, we tighten the noose just a little
bit; sealing mankind's fate just as has been predicted by Gibson, Stephenson
and Sterling.
[ ] [ References: ]
[1] [ http://www.ecology.com/ecology-today/earth-vital-signs/ ]
[2] [ http://www.ecology.com/ecology-today/earth-vital-signs/ ]
[3] [ http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/1992/54/54p19b.htm ]
[4] [ http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/americas/9805/29/mexico.fires/ ]
[5] [ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/07/980715084309.htm ]
--?------------?------------???????????????????????????-------------------??---
PA1Nv3x11-----------------------------------------------------------------[ele]
[ Latenight Musings on Mars ]
[ Zerachiel ]
[ven]---------------------------------------------------------------- PA1Nv3x11
-?------------?---????????????-----------???????????---------?????????????????
Mars. The big red planet. The subject of countless bad movies about
extraterrestrial life. Also the subject of half of an overrated book
on how to stop being so pathetic, and talk to (and supposedly understand)
the opposite sex. More likely known by you, as the "big red thing I never
see when I look up", this concept was slightly altered for me tonight.
No, it's still a big red thing, and it's still up. You see, this
mystical red ball, the object of so much unwarranted attention
(at least when compared to some of the other planets out there
or even our own moon), is, at the time of the writing of this article,
floating in outer space, approximately half of it's usual distance from
the Earth. What might be more interesting to you, is that this
particular cosmic alignment hasn't occurred in about fifty-thousand
years. Now I'm sure some of you are saying "wow, I wonder what the
dinosaurs thought". Well, chances are, they were thinking nothing
since they were dead for millions of years, even then. If they
were alive, however, they most likely were thinking "wow, I wish
I was alive to see this"... either that or "big whoop", considering
they were around for a lot more interesting things than this.
But I digress.
My interest in this, extends deeper than the fact that it hasn't
occurred for millennia. No, I choose to look more closely at the fact,
that it WILL not happen again for over two-hundred years. See, I find
it interesting that despite everything that's going on, the news
chooses to take up valuable airtime to broadcast the details of said
"event". No, it's not what you're thinking. I'm not going to put down
the news for ignoring more important stories, most likely involving
the suffering of others, since, frankly, I couldn't care less.
No, I'm not an unfeeling prick. It's just that the news ALWAYS has
stuff like that on, and although it's nice to have a little box in my
house to let me know that there are a lot of people in this world
a lot worse off than I am, I'm glad they took two minutes out of
informing me of all the exploding children and the men flying
hang-gliders into giant fans (no that never really happened, but I wish
it did) to let me know that there was something obscurely profound
happening so far away, that I shouldn't really care.
Basically, the reason I find this so interesting, is because the
chance to see this sort of thing comes once in a lifetime.
I recall a lot of previous astronomical anomalies sharing this
particular theme. I've been there, watching, for almost every one too.
I just never realized it until now. Now, I'm no astrology buff, so
this intrigued me. How was my mother (no, I don't know why she was up
at this hour either) able to get me out of bed at 5:30 AM, after going
to bed at 3, just to see a little blurry object in the sky?
Well, the answer came to me all at once, like a Weight Watchers
convention converging on a wedding cake. I realized that people like
seeing things like this, because they won't get a chance to see it for
the rest of their lives. Even if they aren't really interested at all,
they can be roused from their beds, in a zombie-like state, to all
gather outside, separately, yet together (yes, I've met neighbors outside
looking
at things like this before), to view something, on the sheer premise
that this is their once chance to see it.
Now, I find this fascinating. Not as something to link all people
involved in civilized humanity together. Been there,
done that, fuck you. More as a profound thought. If we, as humans, can
appreciate something like this, on the simple fact that it's our one
chance to see it, why is it so hard sometimes to appreciate the things
that don't go away. Why is it so easy for us to take it for granted?
Why is it that men hit or cheat on their wives, for no good reason
other than "they were bored of them". Why do we pass by the same
streets, the same shops every day, and not even look at them.
Are we that concerned with getting where we are going to glance at
things around us? Are we that confident that we KNOW what we are going
to see when we turn our eye toward a familiar street? Are we so
arrogant, as to think that just because we've seen it, doesn't mean
it can't change, or be gone in the blink of an eye?
I know it's cliche', but look at the World Trade Center. I wanted to
take the elevator to the top as a kid, but I had an ear-related
injury, that kept me from going up there due to the air-pressure.
When I got older, I was afraid of heights. Then I just put it off,
saying "it'll be there when I decide to go". Well, one day, in the
blink of an eye, I no longer had that luxury of deciding... ever again.
Things changed, and I, as a human being, no longer, for the rest of
my life, had the chance, or the choice to experience that.
I'm not trying to tell you to appreciate things. I just am telling
you of my own personal realization, in hopes that you can formulate
your own opinions on it. Yeah, on second thought, maybe there's a
bit of me that does want you to appreciate things more.
Every time you stand inside a building, realize that another human's
hands helped build everything around you. Helped build the
supports that hold the floor beneath your feet. Helped build every
piece of furniture, every appliance, and every knick-knack you
see around you. And if they didn't build them, they designed, built,
and programmed the machines that designed, built, or programmed it for
them.
I long forgot my original intent when writing this. To be honest,
I couldn't sleep after looking at Mars. Sure, it wasn't any more
visually impressive than the North Star, or the Sun for that matter...
But they'll be gone someday too, and that was my realization.
We lose track of how important things are sometimes, because
we assume we won't be around for their passing, so we won't miss them.
Because people only know how important some things are, once they are
gone... And even if the object, or person it/him/her self wasn't that
important, their end is. I'll illustrate that point in a story:
When my Grandfather called my house when I was 6 years old, my mother
asked if I wanted to talk to him. I replied "no, I'm playing with my
toys". I figured I'd be able to talk to him the next time. Well,
my Grandfather never called again, because he was involved in a car
wreck shortly after. The last time I remember ever seeing him, was
wired up to countless machines, almost a reflection, nay, a mockery of
the car wreck that tore a hole in his lung with his own rib.
I still don't know exactly why my parents brought me in there to see
him, bloated, broken, silent in the darkness, save for the slow hiss
of his respirator. No, he didn't die there. He died later,
of pneumonia, his immune system too weak from an unrelated blood
disorder he had, that was discovered while in the hospital.
But maybe, just maybe, if I hadn't been so damn selfish, and picked up
that phone, I might have had the chance to speak to him one last time.
I don't know how important that phone call could have been...
Probably not very. I don't even recall my grandfather as being the
nicest guy in the world. I don't recall him ever being very close to
me. But I still remember that phone call.
And I still wonder... every single time the phone rings...
Whether I should pick it up.
And what it means, or could mean, if I don't.
So, upon reading this, you will have either missed the chance to see
Mars in all it's glory, or you could have seen it, and not really
thought about it. Or maybe you were thinking the same thing I was,
but in any case, realize that something has happened. Something
you won't get a chance to see again in your lifetime.
The decision you made, whether it be through ignorance
or just lack of interest if you didn't see it... Whether it be through
sheer curiosity, or real interest if you did, was still a decision
you made that effects the rest of your life, as insignificant as it
seems. Just take a moment to think, whether it be when the phone
rings, when you're about to yell at a loved one, when you're about to
sign a contract, or when you're about to close your eyes to sleep.
To think about how much your lovers embrace really means to you.
Even just to think about how important the computer you're reading
this on is to you. Take a second to realize, that nothing lasts
forever. That the mightiest empires crumble to dust. Think about
how much can fade in an instant. Take a second, to think about how
important those things, and more importantly, people, you take for
granted each and every day really are. To think about how it would
feel to lose them, when you had the chance to appreciate them, and
bask in their sheer existence while they were still there.
Because they could be gone in an instant.
They could be gone right now.
And it would be too late. You'd realize that taking something
for granted, hides your true feelings about that thing from yourself.
But it would be too late for realizations.
Too late to tell that person that you really
love them. Too late to apologize. Too late to let them know how
much having them in your life means to you.
Too late.
And that is all.
-Zerachiel
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[ alienbinary ]
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So this is always the most exciting part of each issue, but it's also
always the saddest part on my part. The amount of energy and brilliance that
everyone brings to this is mind-boggling, and I can't be anything but honored
to have such a brilliant and capable staff, who also happen to be awesome
people, great friends, and often sources of wisdom that I direly need; this
prevents me from the otherwise inevitable crash...
This issue has been different though, too. Instead of trying to get enough
material for an issue, the material has almost sprung out of left field. It
seems that just as my life was starting to get as hellish as the state of the
world is horrific, across the world people woke up and decided that they simply
were no longer going to take the abuse. You'll notice that this issue has
articles on everything from consumerism to decking to gear to politics. There
is no boundary on what gets printed here, assuming it's quality. The quality of
these articles, and the way each person wrote something new-- this was
fundamentally refreshing on a spiritual level. At the risk of sounding hokey,
this has been an unbeleivable trip, and it can only get better.
A lot of people have been working almost non-stop to make this issue, and
every issue before it, into the best zine we can create. As SKTFM said:
"...But one day, we won't have to be alone.
One day we can all band together.
And we can
try
to make something better.
We can try
to stand together
--for something
anything
anything that would bring us closer."
-- "Hope Solo"
Sean Kennedy, The Fucking Man
http://www.rantradio.com
So after those words, I think I'll let this peice fire off into the ether,
turning ideology into bandwidth and data. I don't know if the revolution is
coming; because I think it's ALREADY HERE.
- alienbinary
10.5.2003
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------------ We, the people of -------------------------
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-------------------- PA1N Magazine ---------------------
Exhibit A. --------------------------------------------------------
------ refuse to watch as ------------------------------
---------------------------- you destroy our world... --
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-------------- ...rape our planet ----------------------
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------------------------------- and murder humanity. ---
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--- We won't rest until our world ----------------------
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--------------------- has been CLEANSED ----------------
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------- of those ---------------------------------------
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------------------that would seek to destroy another ---
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----------------------------------- human being --------
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---- just because they can. ----------------------------
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------------------------------ Your threats are idle. --
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---------------------------- and your world is weak. ---
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--- It's time to take back -----------------------------
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---------------------------- THIS WORLD OF PA1N... -----
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