The Mechanism of Power

We know dinosaurs only by their bones. The largest, most powerful animals to walk the earth are extinct. Their “arrogance of power” was of no use.

There is an irony here. If we had been their contemporaries, we would never have suspected that theirs would be such a sad and inglorious end. The stronger the better, we assume, in the struggle for existence. The more powerful a species is, the greater  should be its chances of survival.

But this did not prove to be true. Animals of much more fragile structure, whose bodies were weaker and smaller beyond comparison are still around. But dinosaurs are nothing more than memories of one of life’s experiments that failed.

The dinosaurs disappeared not because they were too weak, but because they were too strong. Their fantastic power came from a biological framework which was basically absurd, and the result was annihilation. Can you cure an insane person by making his body physically fit? Obviously not. This would add power to insanity, making it more insane still. The power generated by an irrational structure only tends to aggravate the very irrationality from which it springs. By adding power to the absurd one does not abolish it; on the contrary, it becomes still more hopelessly entangled in itself. Power is like a mathematical number inside a bracket. If the bracket is preceded by a minus sign, it is not possible to transform into a plus by making the number bigger and bigger. This simply increases its negativity.

Power is a simple potentializing factor. It can never go beyond the logic of the structure that generates it. This is why dinosaurs had to die. Their “arrogance of power” entrapped them in the very absurdity of their organic structure. They were thereby made incapable of responding in different ways to the new challenges their environment presented.

Our civilization is behaving just like the dinosaur. Underneath everything it does, one finds the ultimate certainty that there is no problem that cannot be solved by means of a little more power. It is not by accident that for years detergent makers have been advertising “stronger”, “faster”, “more concentrated” and improved formulas. They know that these values control our collective unconscious. What is stronger must be better. Love of power has become our obsession, and power itself our sole god.

(“Tomorrow’s child” Rubem Alves)

FDA Approves Depressant Drug For The Annoyingly Cheerful

Life

“Life is too short to be taken seriously”

Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900)

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The Ride – 30 Seconds to Mars

Interesting and definitely well-prduced video!

Top Ten Conspiracy Teories

01. The 9/11 Conspiracies

The evidence is overwhelming that the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were indeed the result of a conspiracy. There’s no doubt about it: A close (or even cursory) look at the evidence makes it clear that it was carefully planned and executed by conspirators. The question, of course, is who those conspirators were. Osama bin Laden and the crew of (mostly Saudi) hijackers were part of the conspiracy, but what about President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney? Did top Bush advisors, including Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld, either collaborate with bin Laden, or intentionally allow the attacks to happen? Put another way, was it an inside job? Conspiracy theorists believe so, and point to a catalog of supposed inconsistencies in the “official version” of the attacks. Many of the technical conspiracy claims were debunked by Popular Mechanics magazine in March 2005, while other claims are refuted by simple logic: If a hijacked airplane did not crash into the Pentagon, as is often claimed, then where is Flight 77 and its passengers? Are they with the Roswell aliens at Hangar 18? In many conspiracy theories, bureaucratic incompetence is often mistaken for conspiracy. Our government is so efficient, knowledgeable, and capable–so the reasoning goes–that it could not possibly have botched the job so badly in detecting the plot ahead of time or responding to the attacks. I find that hard to believe.

Top Ten Conspiracy Theories

02. Princess Diana’s Murder

Within hours of Princess Diana’s death on Aug. 31, 1997, in a Paris highway tunnel, conspiracy theories swirled. As was the case with the death of John F. Kennedy, the idea that such a beloved and high-profile figure could be killed so suddenly was a shock. This was especially true of Princess Diana; royalty die of old age, political intrigue, or eating too much rich food; they don’t get killed by a common drunk driver. Unlike many conspiracy theories, though, this one had a billionaire promoting it: Mohamed Al-Fayed, the father of Dodi Al-Fayed, who was killed along with Diana. Al-Fayed claims that the accident was in fact an assassination by British intelligence agencies, at the request of the Royal Family. Al-Fayed’s claims were examined and dismissed as baseless by a 2006 inquiry; the following year, at Diana’s inquest, the coroner stated that “The conspiracy theory advanced by Mohamed Al Fayed has been minutely examined and shown to be without any substance.” On April 7 of this year, the coroner’s jury concluded that Diana and Al-Fayed were unlawfully killed due to negligence by their drunken chauffer and pursuing paparazzi.

World Cup Curiosities and Oddities

1950 – Scotland try not to qualify

With the home nations refusing to participate in the pre-war World Cups, FIFA were desperate for participation from the home of football. FIFA made the very generous offer that the winners of the Home International Championship of 1949-50 could play at the Brazil World Cup of 1950. They also allowed the tournament to remain intact with no home and away qualifiers, unlike the rest of Europe. Amazingly they also offered a place to the runners up! With the kind of foresight we’re so accustomed to in our football administrators, the secretary of the SFA, George Graham (no, not that one), declared that Scotland would only participate should they actually win the Home International Championships! Going into the deciding match between Scotland and England at Hampden both sides had won their previous two fixtures and thus a draw would suffice. Scotland would be declared joint champions (goal difference was a mere glint in the milkman’s eye in 1950), pride would be intact and the SFA could start buying buckets and spades for the Copacabana. Unsurprisingly, Scottish hubris was completely undone when Roy Bentley scored the only goal of the game in front of the obligatory 360,000 Hampden crowd to give England, (who had no qualms about going as runners up) a 1-0 victory, and the title. Scotland captain George Young desperately tried to persuade the SFA that they had made a monumental error, but to no avail. The committee were men of principle and their imbecilic decision stood. Two points arise from this. Firstly, maybe Graham was a man of vision. England were humiliated by the USA and came home after the group stage. Secondly, this was a splendid system of qualification and one that the home FA’s should campaign FIFA to reinstate. If it was good enough for 1950 (and 1954 as well, when Scotland did accept a place via the runners up spot), it must be good enough for 2010. Lord Triesman, contact Herr Blatter forthwith. It is surely inconceivable that some foreign desk Johnny could possibly refuse this request from the motherland. And from a Lord to boot!

1950 – Not Quite the All-American Hero

The man whose goal lead to one of the World Cup’s greatest shocks, the USA’s 1:0 victory over the then mighty England, was in actual fact from Haiti. Joe Gaetjens, born in Haiti with a Haitian mother and Belgian father, was only allowed to play for the Americans because he’d declared an intention to become an American citizen. However, after the World Cup he moved to France and played for Troyes before returning home to Haiti in 1954 without ever having gained U.S. citizenship. The story ends with a terrible twist though – he was arrested by the country’s secret police, the notorious Tontons Macoutes, in 1964 and is presumed to have been killed by one of their death squads.

1962 – Chile’s Special pre-Match Meals

Back in 1962 the host nation came up with the strange idea of replacing their usual pre-match meal with something that reflected their opposition. So before the opener against Switzerland they had cheese (presumably with holes in) and before their next game against Italy they polished off some spaghetti (obviously). With the idea serving them well (they beat the Swiss 2:1 and the Italians 2:0) they took it into the quarter final clash with the USSR. However, not fancying a big plate of cabbage, they opted for a few swift vodkas, and it did them no harm whatsoever as they triumphed again, 2:1. The semi-final against Brazil was a pre-match binge too far though, with the mighty Brazilians winning 4:2, the strong coffee proving to be a weak substitute for footballing excellence.

1974 – Cruyff’s Adidas Dilemma

Anyone watching a re-run of the 1974 World Cup might be forgiven for thinking that the sight of Johann Cruyff sporting an Adidas top with only two stripes was down to the grainy quality of 1970’s videos. It wasn’t. Cruyff had a lucrative deal with Puma and insisted that he wouldn’t play in a shirt advertising their big rivals famous three-stripe markings, so the Dutch FA had a special shirt made with only two stripes on it. Everyone was happy again. Except Adidas.

1978 – The 1000th Goal

The World Cup’s 1000th goal was scored during the 1978 tournament when under-rated Dutchman Robbie Rensenbrink opened the scoring after 34 minutes with a penalty in the epic game against Scotland in Mendoza.

1978 – More Oranje Controversy

Looking back on some of the controversial incidents that surrounded the Dutch team of 1978 it’s pretty impressive that they managed to eventually get it together and nearly win the thing… 1. After helping the national team qualify for the 1978 finals in Argentina Cruyff then promptly announced that he wouldn’t be attending the finals. Amongst the various theories for his absence were that he refused to play in a country that was now under the rule of a military dictatorship, that his wife had banned him from travelling to the tournament, and that he’d had enough of the financial and tactical disagreements that had come commonplace with the Dutch FA. 2. Whilst the loss of one of their top players may be considered unlucky, to lose two was downright careless. So when creative midfielder Wim van Hanegem legged it out of the pre-tournament training camp the Oranje fans back home wondered what on earth was going on. Another calssic dispute between a player and the Dutch FA saw the latter claiming that van Hanegem was tired from a tremendous season with AZ67, whilst the player claimed that it was over disagreements regarding money. Whatever the reason. the Dutch had just lost another creative force. 3. After Cruyff had pulled the old “I’m not wearing 3 stripes” trick back in 1974, you’d have thought both the Dutch FA and Adidas would have wised up to it. They hadn’t. This time not one, but two players refused to wear the trademark Adidas stripes, and so two special shirts were made for the Van de Kerkhof brothers. Cruyff may not have been there in person but it seemed he was still there in spirit.

1982 – One Rule for Diego…

As they’d done in previous World Cups, the Argentinian FA handed out shirts alphabetically to squad members, so Ossie Ardiles was handed number 1 despite being a midfielder, and defender Jose Van Tuyne was given number 22. However, under that system 21 year old prodigy Diego Maradona would have worn no. 12, so to keep him sweet he swapped with Estudiantes defender Patricio Hernandez so that he could appear in his favoured number 10.

1982 – West Germany 1:0 Austria – “de Nichtangriffspakt von Gijon”

Translating as the “non-aggression pact of Gijon”, this was the name given to the dubious final group match between the neighbouring countries, the result of which allowed both teams to go through on goal difference ahead of Algeria. Horst Hrubesch put the West Germans one up after ten minutes, followed by a scandalous 80 minutes of non-football. The situation arose as Algeria and Chile had played their final game the day previous, allowing the Germans and Austria to work out exactly what situation was required for both to progress.

1986 – One Rule for Diego… and Daniel. And Jorge.

When the Argentinian FA announced in 1986 that they would be doing a repeat of 1982 and ordering the shirt numbers alphabetically, apart from Diego Maradona who would swap again to number 10, Real Madrid striker Valdano and captain Daniel Passarella pulled rank and insisted on keeping their own numbers too, so Passarella kept his favoured number 6 and Valdano wore 11, rather than the number 21 that he was originally pencilled in for.

1994 – Everyone’s Happy, at last.

With the threat of multiple dummy’s being thrown out of multiple prams, the Argentinian FA at last reverted to a ‘sort it out yourself’ squad numbering system, and, depsite their being a number of players who hankered after the number 10 it’s safe to say that none of them suggested having a game of scissors-paper-stone with Mr Maradona for it. from: http://www.midfielddynamo.com/worldcup/curiosities.htm

Commonly Confused Words – Part01

The list provided here contains some of the most commonly confused words, along with a brief definition of each.

Accept: Recognize

Except: Excluding

Access: Means of approaching

Excess: Extra

Adapt: To adjust

Adopt: To take as one’s own

Affect: To influence

Effect (noun): Result

Effect (verb): To bring about

All ready: Totally prepared

Already: By this time

Allude: Make indirect reference to

Elude: Evade

Illusion: Unreal appearance

All ways: Every method

Always: Forever

Altar: A sacred table

Alter: To change

Among: In the middle of several

Between: In an interval separating (two)

Appraise: To establish value

Apprise To inform

Assure: To make certain (assure someone)

Ensure: To make certain

Insure: To make certain (financial value)

Beside: Next to

Besides: In addition to

Bibliography: List of writings

Biography: A life story

Breath: Respiration

Breathe: To inhale and exhale

Breadth: Width

Top Ten Conspiracy Theories

03. Subliminal Advertising

Ever been watching a movie and suddenly get the munchies? Or sitting on your sofa watching TV and suddenly get the irresistible urge to buy a new car? If so, you may be the victim of a subliminal advertising conspiracy! Proponents include Wilson Bryan Key (author of “Subliminal Seduction”) and Vance Packard (author of “The Hidden Persuaders”), both of whom claimed that subliminal (subconscious) messages in advertising were rampant and damaging. Though the books caused a public outcry and led to FCC hearings, much of both books have since been discredited, and several key “studies” of the effects of subliminal advertising were revealed to have been faked. In the 1980s, concern over subliminal messages spread to bands such as Styx and Judas Priest, with the latter band even being sued in 1990 for allegedly causing a teen’s suicide with subliminal messages (the case was dismissed). Subliminal mental processing does exist, and can be tested. But just because a person perceives something (a message or advertisement, for example) subconsciously means very little by itself. There is no inherent benefit of subliminal advertising over regular advertising, any more than there would be in seeing a flash of a commercial instead of the full twenty seconds. Getting a person to see something for a split-second is easy; filmmakers do it all the time (watch the last few frames in Hitchcock’s classic “Psycho”). Getting a person to buy or do something based on that split-second is another matter entirely. (The conspiracy was parodied in the 1980s television show Max Headroom, in which viewers were exploding after seeing subliminal messages)