A Woman’s Body

A short story from a possible future only a few years down the track

http://amandaching.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/67/

Read it and weep, or at least get a bit angry that this almost falls outside the realm of fiction.

PC-Mass

A Christmas Wish !

I wanted to send some sort of holiday greeting to my friends and
colleagues, but it is difficult in today’s world to know exactly what to
say without offending someone. So I met with my lawyer yesterday, and on
her advice I wish to say the following:………….

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for
an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non
addictive, gender neutral celebration of the summer solstice holiday
practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or
secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular
persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice
religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically
uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar
year 2012, but not without due respect for the calendar of choice of other
cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great
(not to imply that Australia is necessarily greater than any other
country) and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical
ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee .

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely
transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no
promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/him
or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the
sole discretion of the wisher. The wish is warranted to perform as
expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one
year or until the issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the
wisher.

Best Regards ( without prejudice )

Name withheld ( Privacy Act ).

China vs US… who’s our sugar daddy?

How many soldiers left with nothing to do now that Iraq is being emptied, and let’s face it, not all of them will be willing to return to civilian life.

What’s the solution? Post them to Australia!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/us-troops-headed-to-australia-irking-china/2011/11/16/gIQAiGiuRN_story.html

If the US really is hoping to use us as an entry point into the asia-pacific (now that Europe can’t afford to play ball) it’s going to need another response point to protect shipping from the pirate activity in those crowded waters.

In the mean time let’s leave all those heavily armed folks, from a gun-crazy culture, in the hottest part of our nation with little but croc infested waters and posi0nous fauna to keep them occupied. They’ll either use up their surplus ammo, or get eaten/stung/bitten and generate more work for the medical corp.

It also helps explain why Kevin has been shuffled off into a corner… if we’re going to be friends with benefits with the US again the Beijing friendly former PM had to be hidden away like a dirty secret.

Ursula Le Guin

Some authors write prose that never seems to touch the ground. Others show us wonders and delights, fantasy and fiction to marvel at.

Few however can show people at their worst while still delivering the other two. One such author is Ursula Le Guin and here is her classic The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.

Octavia Butler

There are gems out there in the literary world, some of which we all know about, some pass us by unnoticed. So just in case you missed this one, have a peek at Octavia Butler’s short story Bloodchild

Morality vs Religion

Disclaimer: Everything I’m about to write is wrong, or flawed, or easily debunked……. probably. I’m writing it as it comes, while it is still fresh in my mind and without looking up outside sources that would no doubt send me of on in a tangent that would result in a very different post.

So Morality contrasted with Religion. Keeping in mind that Ethics is really something else again. Morality is, at it’s most basic level, comprised of three facets.

The first and most important is Empathy.
“I will not go up to that person I hate and shoot them in the head, because I would hate it if someone shot me in the head simply because they didn’t like me.” It’s the foundation concept, when children become able to understand this concept of self, and extrapolate that other humans must also have self, this is the point that they can become moral beings.

The second is Self Interest
“I will not rob that bank and take all that money, because if I do I will probably get caught, I will go to jail, and much of my life will be wasted.” It’s a less compelling facet, because it can be derailed by simple logic. If it couldn’t there wouldn’t be crime. To use an economics term, it is all about Risk versus Profit

The third and final is Group Identity.

“I will not cheat on the husband I no longer love with that handsome, younger, man with the cheeky smile and bedroom eyes. If did, and my community found out I would be embarrassed because that is not what my community does. Worse I might be cast out from the group, and let’s face it I hate being alone.”

Religion by contrast is comprised of the same three facets, but in the totally opposite order.

There isn’t a lot of empathy demonstrated by believers, despite the fact it is often one of the underpinning concepts. Kill the pagan and their family, isn’t often prefaced with consideration of how I’d feel if that other group came and killed me and my family for worshiping what they consider to be a false god. I don’t see many folk thinking about the homosexual, or non-believer in their community and wondering how they themselves would feel if reviled, mocked, avoided, or bullied by a majority with a different world-view.

Self Interest?

Well there is ample evidence of self-interest, but usually at the top of any given religious institutes food chain. Let’s face it, religion is big business. Church leaders can have multiple cars, mansions, power over thousands or millions, and all with an unquestionable stamp of authority. “Bow before the book, because the book tells you to. Do not question the book, because the book tells you not to. Do what I say, pay my tithe, for I am the holder of the book.” I’m not saying that all religious leaders are evil, or even that they are aware of this hypocrisy, but those attracted to roles of power are often the least suited to wield it.

Last, and in this case most importantly, is Group Identity.

“I am with the group of US, they are with the group of THEM. In my group we believe in idea X, we perform action Y, we don’t do Z. This is how I know I am a member of this group, and how I know that those who do not are THEM.” It is a perfect system, self sustaining logic that appeals to our primitive pack mentality. If you do not believe in X, you are one of THEM. If you do not perform Y, you are one of THEM. If I see you do Z you are one of THEM. THEM is bad, simply because you are not one of US, you do not belong, you are different, therefore you are to be feared. Religion is about identity rather than belief, which is why there are secular Jews and Catholics, identifying with the community, just not the spirituality. It’s all about belonging, no one wants be be on the outside, not really. Best of all, in the end, when we face the great darkness of our own mortality, we get to convince ourselves that we will not only still continue, but we’ll be carrying on with a group exclusively comprised of US. There will be no dissenters, no differences of opinion to scare us, no challenges to the concept of US that might shatter our fragile psyche and make us think. It will be… Heaven… as long as we don’t think about it too hard.

A few posts of interests over here.

Feel free to comment, mock, or flame, I’m a lot more interested in peoples ideas then I am in assuming everyone agrees with me.

Asteroid 2005 YU55

Right now we are living on the edges of a few thousand sci-fi and post-apocalyptic novel concepts. Asteroid 2005 YU55, is this very minute winging it’s way between the earth and our moon. That’s 400 meters of solid rock, easily capable of vaporization a city should it impact. Of course at it’s closest point it will be 324,600 kilometers away from the planet, but when we’re talking about distances in space, this is a hair’s breath away.

Of course an impact from Asteroid 2005 YU55 wouldn’t be an ELE (Extinction Level Event), certainly no Apophis. We can however look to the skies and wonder if the one that does hit (and one eventually will) will be in our lifetimes, or those of our grandchildren, or long after our species has faded from the planet.

For the morbid scientist in each of us here is a link http://simulator.down2earth.eu/# to a site that lets you input data (size, materials, speed) of a potential impact, and calculate the damage, effects and crater size that would result.

Now you can get some factual research done on your own Armageddon or Deep Impact story.  Have fun smiting your hometown like the fist of an angry god.