I'm pretty far North at the moment and can't see the aurorae. Maybe tomorrow.

It was easier in the past when there were fewer members. I began with a charter so's I could maintain more in the queue-This does not work anymore and it has everything to do with my reputation here of calling bullshit bullshit, with reckless disregard for keeping people's damaged, emotionally-dependent, psyches comfortable and undisturbed.

BF's correct, popularity contests akin to a middle-school pep-rally prevail. If there was a brownnoser's hall of fame here some of the top users with regard to status/votes cast would get a big gold star from the teachers/enablers.
For example: NetRuiner caters to the news-addicted liberal, whose only hope for significant change is on another channel that does not rhyme with "box" (the rude awakening comes much farther down the road, when all news is found to be no news at all, it all having been formulated and programmed for mass-hypnosis)

Or gwiz665, who feels compelled to comment or offer his two-cents on any and all subjects, erudite Ren-man that he fancies himself to be....His claim to fame? He has no life and put in ungodly hours to excel.

Now arvana on the other hand, has an eye for the ultra-unmundane-He speaks little, and finds some incredible stuff-His rise to fame here was nothing short of Hercules' quest for fleece and he did it without Jason, kissing-asses, etc. Perhaps we should all find a Tantric high-priestess and disappear to the far-north.

My advice? Talk more shit than you take, up the volume on your posts, and sift stoned.

In reply to this comment by therealblankman:
Do you mean Malibu inlet, up the north end of Princess Louisa inlet? No, I've never been that far up that way. I was born in Powell River, and have spent many happy summers in the area of the Sunshine Coast however. Nice part of the world, and I've always planned to retire there- or maybe as far north as Ocean Falls. Come visit me in 25 years or so!



Yes, I mean the Malibu inlet. Awesome. I'd love to come and visit in 25 years, but I, in all likelihood, won't be around.

Have fun getting your diamond today. A mutual friend asked me to help put you over the top. Welcome to the club!

Do you mean Malibu inlet, up the north end of Princess Louisa inlet? No, I've never been that far up that way. I was born in Powell River, and have spent many happy summers in the area of the Sunshine Coast however. Nice part of the world, and I've always planned to retire there- or maybe as far north as Ocean Falls. Come visit me in 25 years or so!

In reply to this comment by silvercord:
If that happened to me, the Environmental Protection Agency would have had me arrested for fouling the waters with my own waste. I envy your experience. Love Vancouver. Have you ever been north to Malibu?



In reply to this comment by therealblankman:
The croc was pretty cool. I might have upvoted if he'd succeeded in stealing dinner from those jerks .

I'm reminded of a story from a few years back. I live in Vancouver and have spent a lot of time out on the local waters and have experienced Killer whales close up on several occasions- once when out alone in a small 12 foot Laser sailing dinghy I was surrounded by a pod of a dozen or so VERY large whales- a little intimidating to be surrounded by those predators who are much bigger than me and the tiny boat I'm sitting in with my butt less then 3 inches from the water. They circled me several times, jumping and spy-hopping to check me out. One of the coolest experiences of my life. But I digress.

There had never been an attack by Killer whales in our waters on a boat or a person, until about 6 or 8 years ago. There was a graddad and grandson out salmon fishing in a small aluminum boat in the waters between Victoria and Vancouver. The grandson hooked a big Chinook and was reeling it in when a Killer whale, who was part of a pod in the area that was feeding on the salmon, decided he wanted that salmon that the kid had hooked. The whale nipped at the fish, taking about half of it off with a little bite, but the kid wasn't about to give in to the whale. He reeled in as quick as he could, the whole while with the whale trying to take the fish.

The kid actually managed to land the salmon, pissing off the whale in the process. The whale banged against the boat several times, nearly upsetting the little craft. Eventually he went away, I presume sulking the whole time.

I dunno, I think I would have let him have the fish.



In reply to this comment by silvercord:
No problems. People are barbaric. This was an example of that, I suppose. I was more interested in the brave croc that decided to stand up to all five of 'em to try and get a meal.

Thanks for the explanation, Blankman.



In reply to this comment by therealblankman:
Looking at my own comment on your video, I thought I was a bit harsh. Sorry about that, but it really made me angry watching this video and seeing a bunch of fat, rich, ignorant, over-priveleged jerks proving their "bravery" by killing a beautiful animal like that shark. It's exactly this BS that has driven all the great top predators of the world- lions, tigers, wolves and now sharks to the brink of, and sometimes past, extinction.

I might not have been so angry if I hadn't watched the documentary "Shark Water" a few days ago.

In reply to this comment by silvercord:
From Liveleak:

The video, posted last month by the Cape Don Barramundi fishing lodge in the Northern Territory, records an epic angling saga that pitched man against shark, shark against shark, crocodile against shark and, eventually, man against crocodile.

All appears to be going well when the clip begins, with one of the party land More..ing a fair-sized shark as he fishes off the side of a yacht. Things become more exciting when another shark swims in for an easy lunch, prompting the cameraman to note: "Oh! Another shark's attacking him!"

The valiant angler labours on, and before long the greedy interloper disappears and the thrashing shark is dragged on to the beach with the help of a boathook. But the triumph is short-lived. Within seconds the dark green outline of a saltwater crocodile appears at the water's edge and the reptile dashes on to the beach to make a grab for the shark.

Disaster is averted only by the swift intervention of another member of the fishing party, who leaps towards the thief and delivers a warning blow to its snout with the boathook. Suitably chastised, the croc turns tail and swims off.

The video ends with the slightly shaken group posing for a photo around the unfortunate shark. The man who landed it seems a little distracted and has to be reminded there is a protocol for such occasions. "You've got to do the old put-a-foot-on-its-head thing," the cameraman reminds him.

Crocodiles in the area appear to have realised it is often easier to let the humans do the work. Last November the Northern Territory News reported that a three-metre "saltie" spied on a group of fishermen before tucking into the shark they had just reeled in.

A biologist travels to the far north to conduct a land-survey of the effects of climate change on Arctic ecosystems. He hires a local Inuit guide to take him out onto the tundra, and they set off on a dogteam.

After a few hours, they stop to have some tea and warm up. The biologist walks over to the nearest hilltop to get a better look at the scenery. He is completely lost, and asks the Inuit guide to come up to the hilltop to show him some landmarks. As the guide gets up there, he sees a Polar Bear not 30 feet from them on the other side of the hill. He pulls out a Swiss Army Knife, and tells the biologist to slowly back away towards the dogteam, and not to panic.

They retreat to safety, and travel for another hour before stopping for some tea. The biologist turns to the guide and says "You only had a Swiss Army Knife back there. Could you really kill the Polar Bear with it?"

The Inuit guide laughs and responds "No, I wouldn't have killed it if it attacked. All I'd have to do is stab you in the leg."

This is very interesting footage from a paleontological perspective... I had no idea that Graboids traveled that far north!

No news could very well be a good thing at this point. It means you haven't been outright rejected anywhere. I too applied to eight schools, and I've already received five rejections. From what I've heard, decisions could come as late as June, or perhaps even later than that if you get on a waiting list.

In reply to this comment by RhesusMonk:
I don't know how the application process works in the far north, but have you been notified about admission from the schools you applied to yet? All my apps were complete on Jan 30th, and eight schools still haven't even made a decision yet, let alone mailed said decision 10000 miles around the world to me. I'm so fucking tired of waiting.

I don't know how the application process works in the far north, but have you been notified about admission from the schools you applied to yet? All my apps were complete on Jan 30th, and eight schools still haven't even made a decision yet, let alone mailed said decision 10000 miles around the world to me. I'm so fucking tired of waiting.

completely ridiculous scene, weather-wise:

it's melting. you can see puddles, huge puddles everywhere. you can't see their breath, even when they're talking. it's probably +5 or better (40F for you people who think fargo is the far north). no one puts on a gigantic fur-trimmed hood when it's melting and buttons it up. you wouldn't even need a toque, probably. and what's he doing with that broom, pushing slush off his driveway? lots of snow left to melt, you'll just get sheet ice after it refreezes. this is the kind of weather we see in march if we're lucky, april if we're not.

saskatoon weather forecast tonight: light snow (5cm expected), low -28, NW winds at 20 km/h with windchill -40.

I saw these guys back when I was in High School.
They opened for Red Rider In Prince George BC, Canada.
We had to travel several hours to get to the concert.
None of us knew who they were, we were there for Red Rider.

But had to admit, when we left, we were all saying they were better than RR.

Ahh, what did we know, we were just stoked that a big artist (RR - at the time) had come that far north as we never got concerts up here.

Mullets came as far north as Yukon Territory....and left their vibe and story.....O' Canada!!!

...catchy like rocky mountain spotted tick fever......

-------------------------------------
> Paul Volcker is one such exception, but as you yourself pointed out - Greenspan made 180k per year. I don't know if you quite get this, but the average American makes around 33k per year.
Average American doesn't have Greenspan's qualifications. The point is that someone like Greenspan could make over a million per year by accepting a position in private sector. And a quick google search shows that Greenspan's family wasn't rich either.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/martin-greenspan.html



> "The Congress would always be pressured to lower the interest rates and stimulate the economy, regardless of long-term consequences."
> Here's one question for you - assuming the Congress took over control of the monetary system(as they have the right to do), what would be the purpose of an interest rate? The interest rate only sustains the profits and dividends of member shareholders of the Fed - operating costs are covered by the budget of money the Fed has allotted itself to print. So why would there be a need for an interest rate?

The Fed could loan money at 0% interest rate. Since the Fed can print money, that means it would hand out free money to any bank that asks. Surely you don't think that would be a good idea?


> FYI - I do not sustain any faith for the Capitalist system, as the end result of Capitalism is ultimately Plutocracy(which is what we are currently living under today - people that represent the richest 5% of the population control 95% of the population) - so, just so you know, I would have no qualms with abandoning the Capitalist system entirely.

Abandoning the system for what? Soviet-style Gulags? A lot of the inventions you are using right now are here thanks to capitalism. Take your computer for instance. Proof of concept transistor was developed in Bell Labs, and brought to the masses through capital ventures Shockley Semiconductors and Fairchild Semiconductors. Intel was one of the the child ventures. Those were all possible because of large investment. You need to have a workable alternative to capitalism, or admit that you don't care about progress. Neither communism, nor anarchy have proven themselves workable over long term.


> Bank runs are only a bad thing for the banks in most cases, because it shows, to their clients, exactly the level of corruption of a central banking system. Yes, people will lose faith - and they should. Yes, people will take what little money the bank has left for them out of the bank - AND THEY SHOULD.

It's not the banks that are hurt the most by bank runs, but the people who keep money in the banks. Banks are required to only keep 1/6th of the money it loans out on hand. So if everyone decides to take their money out, 83% of the people will be left holding an empty bag.

And when the people lose faith in banks and stop depositing money there, all the loan-takers will be hurt. How will someone get a mortage for a house? Or take an inventor with a bright idea who needs a large loan to develop it?

A worse thing would happen if public loses confidence in the Fed itself. The currency that we use are the Fed promissory notes. Without confidence in the currency, how will people continue their economic transactions? We could go back to barter, but that is annoyingly inefficient. Imagine having to find 2 goats, a hub-cap and a pile of dirt that someone wants in exchange for a new coat.


> They should be able to, as an exercise of power over the banks. In what is professed to be an ultimately Capitalist system, where is the competition to the banking industry that, should they mess something up, the public will exercise power over them?

What is the competition to the banking industry? The role of banking industry is to accumulate a large amounts of resources to direct into various areas of development. The capital is amassed because of people volunteering to store their capital is the banks. The main advantage of banking is that capital formation is done through volunteer means. One competition to this system is the Soviet-style system -- the government amasses resources through forceful means -- ie, by telling a million people to come together and dig a hole here and there. And if they don't want to dig a hole? Too bad, they should've been born in America.


> If there is to be a central bank, it must be addressable by the people themselves, SOMEHOW. The public themselves must be able to exercise some form of power over the bank in order to keep that very system in check...otherwise, the public is not responsible for what happens, and must not be legally bound to abide by such a corrupt system.


> Ultimately, if the banks are to be private, as the Federal Reserve currently is, the people should be allowed - encouraged, even, to create their own forms of currency to challenge the private form of currency.

What's stopping you from creating your own currency? Fed notes started by being promissory notes -- it was a note that you could exchange for a certain amount of gold if you brought to the bank. So likewise, you could hand out slips of paper, in promise to exchange them for something tangible if a person brings it back. In essence, shops handing out gift certificates are in essence issuing their own currency. There was a period of time in US when there was no universally accepted paper money. Each bank would issue their own promissory notes. However, because banks failed often, people would trust notes from bigger banks more. Eventually the "currency" from the biggest banks would outcompete everyone else.

> T-bonds/bills - what is a bond? The OED essentially defines it as an "Obligation," or a "promise to pay."

That's not the kind of bonds that government issues. The bonds are that the government issues are papers that US government promises to pay interest on. They don't promise to buy it back, and in fact, it's unlikely that the government will EVER buy it back. The government hasn't bought back any bonds since WWII.

> Can you imagine a form of currency that is not interest-bearing, that the people themselves CAN be held responsible for the rise or the fall of?

You really put a lot of trust in "the people". If people were so responsible, we could give each person a printing press and let them be directly in charge of the monetary policy. They would then rely on their superior knowledge of monetary policy and print more money exactly when it is needed. However, the reality of it is that people are greedy and irresponsible. In the scenario above, everybody would start cranking out money with no regard to economic harm that causes. That's a prime instance of the "tragedy of the commons"

The ideas you are advocating are far from new. People are by nature suspicious of rich people, especially bankers, and there have been many instances in the history when "the people" stepped in to "reign in their power of bankers." For instance, when Lenin carried out the revolution in then-capitalist Russia, his first targets were to take control of the railroads, the telegraph and the banks. The banks became the "property of the people", but that didn't help the people much when their savings have evaporated. My uncle worked as a pilot in Soviet far north for a decade and saved up an equivalent of $60,000 over the years, the savings that disappeared through governments mismanagement. Good politicians make bad bankers.

Or look at early American history. The ideas you are advocating are the credo of the Populist party, whose main ideal is to represent the rights of "the common people." Andrew Jackson was elected on the populist platform, and when he came to power, he destroyed the Central Bank by vetoing the renewal of it's charter. The government's money was then taken out of the bank, and distributed among various private banks. Needless to say it didn't work out too well, and US was back with a national bank 30 years later. You can read more about immediate effects here: http://www.maths.tcd.ie/local/JUNK/econrev/ser/html/destruction.html. Or read about "1837-1862: Free Banking Era" on "history of central banking" in Wikipedia.

The bottom line is that populist philosophy looks good in theory, but doesn't work well in practice, mainly because "the common people" are greedy and stupid. The current system isn't perfect, but it's better than the alternatives.


----

I'm glad everyone likes this! I first heard it playing in a shop in the far north of Oman. I instantly fell in love with Googoosh's voice and I persuaded the shop-owner to sell me his tape. A few weeks later I took great pleasure driving around Iran listening to it!

I hate the way that the US will never let its troops be held to account for their actions by any foreign country or international institution - even if it is one of their closest allies. It's the same kind of exceptionalism that can be seen in America's refusal to sign up to the International Criminal Court. Americans are not above international law!

The Army never release the evidence, cover-up the evidence, and normally won't comment. When they are compelled by huge international or domestic pressure to have an internal investigation they end up convicting low ranking troops - without ever going after the incompetent leadership at the top of the chain of command - look what happened over the prison abuse at Abu Ghraib.

Transcript of tape:

Here are extracts from a transcript of the Sun video.

The aircraft is an A-10 tank buster aircraft, call sign Popov36. A second jet involved has the call sign Popov35. The call signs Manila Hotel, Manila34 and Lightning34 are three US Marine Corps forward air controllers on the ground attached to British units. In the video the pilots are heard becoming upset and swearing as they realise the mistake that has been made.



Popov36: Hey, I got a four ship. Looks like we got orange panels on them though. Do we have any friendlies up in this area?

Manila hotel: I understand that was north 800 metres.

Manila hotel: Popov, understand that was north 800 metres?

Popov35: Confirm, north 800 metres.Confirm there are no friendlies this far north on the ground.

Manila hotel: That is an affirm. You are well clear of friendlies.

Popov35: Copy. I see multiple riveted vehicles. Some look like flatbed trucks and others are green vehicles. Can't quite make out the type. Look like may be Zil157s (Russian made trucks used by Iraqi army).

.....

Popov 36: OK. Right underneath you. Right now, there's a canal that runs north/south. There's a small village, and there are vehicles that are spaced evenly there.

Popov 36: They look like they have orange panels on though.

Popov35: He told me, he told me there's nobody north of here, no friendlies.

.....

Popov36: They've got something orange on top of them

Popov35: Popov for Manila 3, is Manila 34 in this area?

Manila Hotel: Say again?

Popov35: Manila hotel, is Manila 34 in this area?

Manila hotel: Negative. Understand they are well clear of that now.

Popov35: OK, copy. Like I said, multiple riveted vehicles. They look like flatbed trucks. Are those your targets?

Manila hotel: That's affirm

Popov35: OK

.....

Popov36: I want to get that first one before he gets into town then.

Popov35: Get him - get him.

.....

[Sound of gunfire]...

Lightning 34: Roger, Popov. Be advised that in the 3122 and 3222 group box you have friendly armour in the area. Yellow, small armoured tanks. Just be advised.

Popov35: Ahh shit.

Popv35: Got a - got a smoke.

Lightning 34: Hey, Popov34, abort your mission. You got a, looks we might have a blue on blue situation.

Popov35: Fuck. God, bless it.

.....

Manila 34: We are getting an initial brief that there was one killed and one wounded, over.

Popov 35: Copy. RTB (return to base)

I'm going to be sick.

.....


Popov35: Did you hear?

Popov36: Yeah, this sucks.

Popov35: We're in jail dude

.....

Popov35: They did say there were no friendlies.

Popov36:Yeah, I know that thing with the orange panels is going to screw us. They look like orange rockets on top.

It's in far North Dallas... I used to live around there once upon a time.