Where are the Burgers?

Pope Bene doesn’t seem to have the traveling bug like his Polish predecessor. But at least he made it to the US of A - and received a Presidential pickup at the airport. Something Bush has never done before.

One has to wonder how much political power is left with the Catholic Church? It certainly is much weaker in Europe, but seems to flourish in the Americas and Asia. Especially in the new capitalistic China people long for a “meaning” now that they are richer on one side and “feel” emptier in a harsher consumerist society. Weird.

I really hope Pope Bene will publicly kicks Bush’s ass for being a torturer and war criminal - and make some day a stand for Tibet.

I don’t like cars. Don’t like racing. But I do like Jet Fighters and I like the mad crew of the BBC series Top Gear. This one of their coolest ideas ever …

Yes, Americans are pissed off about the economy and being ignored by all parties. Yes, xenophobia, guns and Jesus are some reactions to that. Yes, Obama has touched an uncomfortable truth in America. Yes, and so many people don’t like to face their own anger on one side and political ignorance on the other …

Europeans always love to laugh at Americans for electing the stupid Mr. Chimp twice. Hold your laughter now Europe: it seems that Italy has elected Berlusconi for a third term. Who is laughing now?

Every country gets the government it deserves - but Berlusconi is bad. This will be the 62nd post-war Italian Government.

I love those Top Gear Guys - they always do the right stuff … they blow them up properly …

Simplicity often is the best way to let beauty speak for itself. Robert Mapplethorpe was the Master of reduction - he had a keen eye for just capturing the essence of his subjects.

Here is an excellent article about “Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition” in relationship to Mannerism.

Most amusing side note: here we see the God Apollo - who was also the patron of the Arts.

The title General doesn’t make you a military genius, nor does it bless you with understanding or courage.

PS: That is General Custer - who made his famous last stand at the Little Big Horn.

This is one fascinating story! It would be amazing if we would battle cancer with a killer radio beam - how very SciFi!

More? John Kanzius @ Wikipedia and the CBS article

*Thanks for Sharkat for sending me this one*

Crystle Stewart ain’t your usual bimbo: she has a university degree, runs her own business and isn’t blonde.

But still the whole contest is fixated on finding the most beautiful and fertile cow in the country - bikini contest and all.

Philip Glass is one of the few soundtrack composers that is famous for his movie and classical work as well.

His style is hypnotic, often a bit weird and unusual compared to music from great soundtrack composers like John Williams or classical ones like Beethoven. But he certainly is unique - and therefore not for everybody.

I personally love his hypnotic violin waves and delicate themes. It’s an almost surreal music - I guess that is why it was chosen for Koyaanisqatsi (1983) and later for Mishima (1985).

The Mishima soundtrack is a permanent item on my play lists for now over twenty year - and I am still loving it.

Click to play “November 25: The Last Day” (which is very similar to the Main Title):

Click to play “1937: Saint Sebastian”:

Click to play “Kyoko’s House (”Stage Blood Is Not Enough”)”:

Once again this music is not “easy listening”, but it’s well worth exploring. If you only want to buy one Philip Glass CD ever - than I recommend “Mishima”.

More? Philip Glass @ Wikipedia and Philip Glass @ Amazon.com

Nevermind the Soviet voiceover.

Some gun camera footage from FW-190 attacks.

Some dramatic German Wochenschau Propaganda featuring the FW-190 in action.

The FW-190 was one of the primary German fighters during WWII and served on all fronts in many different combat roles.

The Airwar over Germany was a bloody mess - and the FW-190 was used to destroy American and British bombers. At that time airwar was almost close combat - at least compared to today’s long range missile and radar warfare.

Overall there is nothing romantic about the “good old days”, but at least the pilots had a chance to see their enemy they engaged.

One of our first steps into outer space: Yuri Gagarin made the first trip around earth and was the first human to see our blue planet like on the photography above. A lot of firsts here …

And I like his famous sentence: “I don’t see any God up here.”

He was a great hero and propaganda item for the Soviet Union. His death was less gracious and heroic.

BBC Documentary / 58 Minutes

Carlos Castaneda is certainly one of the most controversial and influential spiritual teachers of the last century. His books about the teachings of the Yaqui Indians was an international bestseller and still a must read for many esoteric’s out there. This documentary gives you an excellent insight in his tragic life and all the controversy surrounding his teachings.

Once again it shows that so called Gurus can turn grains of truth into madness - instead of spirituality and enlightenment you get distortion and lies.

I guess the temptation to abuse the power that some spiritual insights give you are too much for many Gurus.

Money, fame, admiration, sexual offers and power over large groups of people are a challenge most gurus fail to overcome. Instead of resisting temptation they fail to withstand the temptations of leadership and power.

Most terrible of all: he damaged the cultures he studied, he put wrong ideas in millions of heads (and therefore caused a lot of confusion and pain) and he did it all for mostly materialistic reasons.

Like L. Ron Hubbard he used his superior mind and excellent insights into the human psyche for his personal advantage.

Once again that phrase “If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him!” is a very good guide to your own spirituality. Don’t follow any illusions! Don’t follow other Buddha’s - be your own teacher and take responsibility!

Follow your own road …

Some stuff might not be rocket science, but some instructions can totally confuse us poor consumers and make simple stuff really complicated.

“And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” Friedrich Nietzsche

Many nations have one important water life line. India has the Ganges and China has the Yangtze.

Thanks to overpopulation and rampant industrialization the Yangtze is heavily polluted and has the lowest water level in about a 100 years. The building of the Three Gorges Damn didn’t help either.

Many different species of fish have disappeared and the beloved River Dolphins are also almost gone.

But the Chinese Government has hardly done anything to reverse the effect - but the people have started to protest in recent years. In many areas there were public demonstrations against new factories that would pollute the river and the surrounding areas.

But it will take many decades to repair the damage - if it can be repaired at all.

Here is a lovely story from Bavaria, which most people think is a real thing. But it is actually a brilliant marketing campaign by BMW.

Enjoy!

Click image for a bigger party.

Huge LAN-Parties are a new form of event - which evolved from small gaming sessions at a friends house. Usually a couple a friends gather, bring their computers, loads of cables and food and game for several hours or even days straight. A lot of soda and pizza is consumed - and electricity.

But these big ass public LAN-Parties are amazing and eerie. There you have HUGE halls or convention centers filled with thousands of young nerds and gamer - and you hardly hear a thing - apart from computers humming.

Why? Because almost everybody is wearing a headset / headphones and they are all fully concentrated on killing each other. You hear the occasional cry of victory or defeat - but that’s it - the rest is silence.

Normally when huge crowds of young males gather they are loud, obnoxious, often on the verge of misbehaving or serious violence (football games etc.). LAN-Parties are very silent, orderly and very odd.

The real action happens in many virtual battlefield and servers.

Do you want to offer your wife some excitement for the weekend? Surprise her with a Golfing trip on a New York Skyscraper. She will crazy with excitement …

One of the greatest Stars of our time recently celebrated his 75th Birthday - Cheeta from Tarzan. He played that charming ape friend of Johnny Weismüller’s in all the Tarzan movies in the 1930s and 40s. And he even got his own Star on Sunset Boulevard. Wow!

And as chimp he is extraordinarily, because their usual  life expectancy is only about 40 years. So Cheeta, you are the real King of the Jungle!

More? Cheeta @ Wikipedia

The modern Homo Officium needs some real thrills when he goes on vacation. Corporate life is boring and only real danger can make him feel alive.

That is why such places, bungee jumping and wild water rides are tourist attractions. Danger is the new drug for the mediocre masses to get out of their emotional caves and feel in touch with (a dangerous) reality …

*Thanks to Edosan for the image*

Here is a troubling image: Chinese soldiers carrying monk robes - why? I am pretty sure they are not going to a fancy dress party or converting to Buddhism. So why are these guys haven ALL shaved heads (short hair is normal in the military, but all freshly shaved?) and carrying these robes?

I wouldn’t be surprised if China would be pushing the truth on the propaganda front to make the monks looks as like “aggressors”.

Does anyone know the story behind this?

One of my teeth decided to fuck up while I was on a business trip this week. So I am a bit down. Sorry for not updating the blog - I was either very busy or drugged.

Smell plays an important role in our sexuality and survival.

We know that things that smell badly are literally bad for us. That is why we don’t eat rotten meat or drink smelly water.

In sexuality smell plays several roles. Partners can sniff out each others DNA compatibility: the more the others side DNA compliments yours and therefore ensures a better survival rate for your offspring’s the more we like the smell of that person.

But there is more: young woman and guys smell much sweeter and seductive than more mature and older partners. The perfume industry is basically built on that effect - with “sweet water” we try to trick others into “loving” our fake scent and find us (sexually) attractive.

But like with rotten meat bad smell of old partners is a warning from nature: don’t waste your time, energy, sperm or eggs with an infertile partner - there will be no babies.

Does anyone know a good perfume for me that works on young sluts?

Back in the early days of desktop publishing these SyQuest cartridges were the best thing to send your data to clients or the printers. And they worked pretty well … most of the time (any one remember all the hassle to mount SyQuests when there was the wrong or a nasty SCSI driver on it?).

44 MBytes sound like a joke today and they were bloody expensive too. You can easily upload that amount of data today or burn a cheap CD. But all these technologies were not yet available at that time.

Digital Life certainly has improved.