92 transferring numbers slowly bricking my iPhone

Technorati Tags: O2,iPhone,number transfer fault

After just under 2 weeks of having my iPhone I have a problem. That is I have made the foolish mistake to transfer my old number from my orange phone to the iPhone O2 sim. The problem being that there is some sort of fault which has no resolution date, nor any way in which I can check to see if it is solved.

 

Thus I have had over 2 days worth of bricked iPhone. NOT HAPPY.

 

Looks like my first experience of O2 customer support is both good and bad.

 

Good. The woman who I spoke to was incredibly helpful and did everything that she could to resolve my issue! And I will get compensation. Time to plan beeding 02 dry.

 

Bad. She simply couldn't tell me anything useful. Communication is non-existent from the techys to the call centre support teams and as a result anything I really wanted to know couldn't be told to me. Thats nothing new really though... Most tech companies are like that.

 

Anyone else out there in the great wide internet having issues with this?

Y-Not Weather Forecast

Religion is...

Superficially maybe...

 

Religion is an exercise for the intellectuals and "the opiate for the masses".

 

I am listening to 'the forum', a world service podcast, and a discussion comparing gardens to ceramics eventually results in the metaphor being extended to religion. This seems like lazy intellectualism, bringing the uncertain to the uncertain. A unfitting (though similar) pair of metaphors to something that is infinitely able to accommodate any form of through.

 

Maybe this explains intelligent people who follow religion for the atheist.

Technorati Tags: Podcast,world service,religion,intellectualism

This weeks TWiT

Don't get me wrong, I love This Week In Tech. It, and the host Loe Laport, rock. But I have just had to give up listening to the show with more than 30 mins to go on account of the back ground noise.

 

 

 

 

NOT GOOD!

 

Anyway.

 

Just wanted to moan.

Technorati Tags: TWiT,Podcast,Noise

Job Title of the Week.

 

I am doing some work for my dad within the social work sector... Mostly data entry and retrieval of names, emails and phone numbers at the moment.

 

So look what I should find? There is actually a job title within the London Borough of Harrow's social services called...

 

Teenage Pregnancy Coordinator.

...Sounds like... Well... Dodgy to be honest.

Is your lappy-top buggered?

Engadget has a rumour posted that many of Nvidia's 8400M/8600 chips are drastically faulty... Humm. Worth keeping an eye on.

 

 

EDIT!

 

Here is a list of the cards that seem to be affected.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geforce_8_series

 

Yup, the whole GForce 8 series. Crazy huh?

The most unlikely civil liberties defender of all!

Based around the recent events of David Davis surrendering his position of MP causing a by-election in his constituency. All because the bill to extend pre-charge detention to the ridiculous and horrendous length of 42 days, here is a punk band who have written a (bad-ish) song on the matter.

 

 

Not the best ever, I grant you. But I'm very chuffed that someone has actually done this.

 

Rock on!

I WANT TO WORK AT GOOGLE

Shame I probably don't have anywhere near the skill sets that would be needed...

 

Shame..

 

Click on link for why. The slide looks ace.

Call me a geek...

...Or whatever but the concept, even when it isn't even sketched out of a Civ MMO makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Heavens knows how in the hell (ha) it will play out... Heres to hoping that Sid figures it out.

Contact Juggling

Ignoring the cheapening comments of 'FAKE!' from the numptys who read the blog, Dvorak.org/blog has a great vid of someone contact juggling.

I was genuinely excited whilst watching this vid, about half way through it somehow hits you and becomes remarkably compelling. That being said the noise at the start is annoying.

Enjoy.

For those that care

I have had a bit of a restructuring of my web experience. I now do three blogs, which instead of making posting less likely should focus things.

1) This blog, which is going to be basically a chilled out personal effort highlighting cool things online.

2) http://anthonyconstable.blogspot.com Which will be a more focused attempt to comment on politics, building up something of a library of work. I hope, that some day I will be able to use it to back up applications for work and such things.

3) http://silentdawn-guild.blogspot.com A WoW guild on Dreanor EU server. Open for anyone to join. At the moment, just a group of friends, about 10 or so, who are thinking about growing into something more.

 

Right, there you go.

 

Have fun,

Anthony

Real music.

Not really a big blues person in general. But this is great. :-)

 

As you may realise this is a repost with the second vid. oh well. Too lazy to sort it out. Enjoy.

Source.

Internet dies after fires at server farms.

Every blogger will probably have been effected by downtime recently from what I hear was caused by fires at google. On the same day (24hours) as another load of servers have brought mayhem to the internet, including my WoW guilds forums.

 

A fire at a Texas data centre known as The Planet has affected 9,000 servers, bringing down web pages across the globe.

Nasty. An easy way to 'bring down' large portions of the Internet? Meh.

Real music.

Not really a big blues person in general. But this is great. :-)

The wonderful inadequacies of the UN

 

Now I am never going to be the best sort of person to comment on such things, so take anything I say with a pinch of salt. Even so, I had to point out what I think is a failing in this understanding of the United Nations. The UN fails in doing exactly what it sets out to do in its charter. Don't Set Fire to Your Jacket comments.

This can hardly be surprising, if you set up a system where vastly disparate values are represented then you are unlikely to get a coherent voice.

Not only disparate views, but disparate politics, levels of human rights, free speech, economical development etc. The important point for Fire and Jacket was the seeming incompatibilities with the politics of some of those allowed into the UN and the charter. He (presumably) points out that the second and third clauses are basically demanding the political situation of democracy. I don't doubt that, there has been and will probably never be anything other than democracy which will be able to defend justice and human rights in quite such a comprehensive way. BUT the conclusion on the acceptance of such states which don't fully commit to these ideals is simply dangerous.

So it is interesting that McCain (and others) have postulated the idea of a "League of Democracies".

This league will be a condescending self-justifying group of states with the moral strength that allows them to invade the next Iraq and Afghanistan with whatever reason they cook up to suppress the apathetic political internal situations within the domestic scene. Maybe this is a little cynical and maybe its a little far fetched, but still it would create an in built coalition of the willing which will be ruled by the United States... or something.

Point 2. The reaction by the rest of the world will be constructive to create another bloc of themselves. A counter-point, but just as the democratic group will be solidified around an idea stronger than any ideology. The idea that their world, their sovereignty and their ways of life were under threat from a crusading force within the world.

The UN may fail at committing itself to the radical position that all within the world should be democratic and etc. But so what?! It does something far greater; it gives all states within the world a chance of having their voice heard at the 'highest' level of international society. The UN is a universal pressure valve that will only work if it keeps the pretence - and only the pretence - of an ideal.

Football + Blackberry = social greatness

Taken from the BBC's 'have your say' or something on the match tonight.

2203: "Tense or what? A group of passengers boarding a flight to Sydney are gathered round my Blackberry, hope the flight's delayed. Due off at 10.15 and looks like penalties."
John via text on 81111

Anyone know what is wrong with 4OD?

Its getting annoying, so I am making a call. If anyone has any more info please enlighten me! I want to (legally) watch peep show damnit!

Technorati Tags: 4OD,Peep show

MMO Storylines - A much neglected resource?

Over at WAAGH! (A Warhammer Online Warhammer Age of Reckoning blog) there is a great article that tackles the general lack of quality within MMO storylines and story telling.

 

The actual piece is quite long, but as I say well worth having a good look at as it highlights many important areas where I can see MMOs developing within the next 5 years or so. That being said, nothing will be able to take on board all of the suggestions as many of them were conflicting and all of them together would be a game of epic proportions needing impossible amounts of resources.

Maybe that is the point. The fact that games have tight resources makes storylines on a micro level a lesser priority, especially if they are to be developer/programmer/GM driven. Isn't it much better to have a rich and developed world on a macro level, to which small amounts of text boxes (or whatever) alude to. Doesn't this satisfy to whatever extent the needs for both those who enjoy the game mechanics, as well as those who enjoy story based gaming within the finite resources available.

The point I wanted to make, was something I was slightly disappointed to not see with the WAAGH! post: the specific example of WAR. From my reading and understanding the story of WAR will be player driven through RvR just like DAoC ultimately became for most of the players involved. Not driven by the IP but enhanced by it.

RvR became the game and the story of DAoC. The battle between the realms creating narratives all of their own. An underdog realm, underpopulated, depending on better co-operation and comradery to succeed (or not) against two other dominating realms. Tragic moments where the best laid plans of a raid were thwarted by chance, or by mischief. Keeps defended against the odds, or whole battlemaps dominated by a single realm. All of which were player driven and all of which changed night by night on account of the dedication and enjoyment by the players.

Some of this is discussed within the article shown above, but nothing I could see relating to WAR. For me WAR is the natural successor is not the the DAoC Intellectual Property but of this style of player driven story; and to a large extent extended to the world at large. Here the two factions (shame there isn't three as the extra dimension really helped with the dynamics) have the ability to not only fight on distant shores for dominance every night but take the main cites of their enemies. Supposedly safe towns will become battle zones to the point where you really begin to engross yourself within the created environment.

This will be no sandbox DAoC style battle zone (though some aspects of this will be there), but something more enhanced... I hope. Maybe the post on WAAAH! by Spy is as confused as I seem to be now I come to think of it. Do we want a single player-styled IP driven experience, or immersion through gameplay?

The point is that in reality MMOs can only develop stories through their players involvement and total immersion. Immersion is not possible with games through prose or knowledge. This immersion does not have to be in the story itself, the background, or indeed the NPCs but in the freedoms allowed for within the game and a loose set of ideals to place their own narrative upon.

As I say, WAR is seemingly doing this. Making the involvement as effective within the environment as it can, whilst at the same time preserving the sandbox style of play held for DAoC.

 

"FOR THE HORDE!"

"FOR ALBIAN!"

"FOR THE EMPIRE!

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Technorati Tags: MMO,WAR,Gaming

:( - ColonOpenBracket

With reckless abandon here you will something of a unique band. Honestly. Really! Unique! Don't believe me? Well you are probably right, but as far as unique is possible nowadays we have a band of the sort that you will never expect.

8-bit, New wave,

"nintendoemocoreodancethrash", punky, music. Yup! You heard it right. Playing around with the noises you can get from computer keyboards (and other bits of electric wizardry) they create some strange form of jerky beauty. Full of life and love and good times, here is the embryonic beginnings for a group of people who may just take over the world with the aid of Mario, Sonic and Kong.

The tracks they have online are a mixed bag though, which is a shame (when I first got into the band there were 4 gems of which three were taken down). Start with Twin Chevron Action Flash, a tour-de-force for their attempt to hack out (with ASCII-formed pick axes) their own niche space in the world of music. Strong emo hooks held together with tuneful computer-ness and a driving beat.

Other songs available for download include Bring the summer, Game Over and Negative Ways. All available from http://myspace.com/colonopenbracket

"8-bit up your ass"

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Technorati Tags: Colonopenbracket,:(,Free Music,Myspace Music

Meta life sucks

This is a big one.

I have figured out life.

The whole concept of meta sucks. The most poignant example of this is Web 2.0, the web talking about the web acting within the web allowing for the social and society based within the web.

This all sucks, or indeed is generally false.

The reason why it sucks will be explained in a more general term in a moment, but the reason why it is false is simple. The reality is that the lives of the people (the currency of Web 2.0) are not based upon the web but are based upon the structures they have developed externally of the Internet. These can be families, hobbies, jobs but entirely not reliant on the web for anything other than as a function of support for these. The perfect example of this can be seen in the TWiT network of podcasts, all of the presenters are at the high end of technology but all use this as an aside from their 'real' lives whilst at the same time can be seen as major proponents of the meta-web (though they may not except this themselves). As journalists (in the main) they hold down positions within the Internet but only as ways to make money for their families, to develop hobbies... To drink the best coffee and so on. In this vain, no matter how creative, or complicated or indeed complex the Internet will become its convoluted reality is no better than television.

Unproductive television usage waste lives. That is television usage that is dependency without reflection. The same can be said with the Internet. That is without a critical focus, without a crutch of reality with which to look though the looking glass nothing good can come of it. This is the meta life. A life where actions and activities are a basis for themselves and never about anything more. Just like watching a bad soap on t.v. can be an inane activity, it can also become an activity that stimulates a social context - chatting about how rubbish it is with your friends - using the Internet from the position of needing to be in the Internet is similarly inane. Just as the TWiT'ers have a crutch so should you on what activities you partake in whilst surfing because even though the richness of this new medium is so great it does not escape the reality of banality simply through complexity.

Thus in this state, the only way to grow as a person is through escaping the meta. Escaping the idea that a context can have no context other than itself. You cannot be you without a reason to exist (friends, family, money). The meta Internet should be a tool towards your goals; games should be social, blogs should be career enhancing, facebook should be networking. And in the wider context, fun should be soul enhancing.

Technorati Tags: meta,web 2.0,life,TWiT

Myspace Music Share 1: Benni Beard

After the other day's comment on various things I realised that one area where I could give this blog some content that people will actually want to see is through piggy-backing the talent of musicians of a generous heart.

 

Decoded that means that I will try to find artists everyday who allow their music to be downloaded for free and enjoyed by the masses. Fun times eh?

 

Right well the first victim to my failing attempts at description is, as the title may suggest is Benni Beard. A singer-songwriter from the Lancaster area who seemingly cannot get a gig no matter how much talent he shows to the world.

 

Three songs (EP 1 anyone? ;-) ) of an acoustic bent covering a wide range of topics with a unique northern delight - Benni is well worth a listen. Catch him at www.myspace.com/bennibeard.

 

"Pull your socks up Billy Timon. "

 

Technorati Tags: Myspace Music,Free Music,New Music,Acoustic

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Final Template Post - Plus!

 

Ok, At last a template I am almost happy with.

 

I will not comment on this again, though I would like to get some sort of feedback. I am not 100% happy with the background colour as of yet, but it is a much improved one over all the others I have tried.

 

Anyway.

After a shot discussion with a Benni (Pictured and linked above! Great singer-songwriter from Lancaster) the other night I think it would be much easier if I just posted here the things I use to make voyaging the internet much much easier.

 

Firefox. Nuff said.

Windows Live Writer. When looking around for some form of program to compose my blog postings I saw that for a change no-one was really ripping apart the 'Live' suit of products from Microsoft. Enough to say that I find it incredibly easy to use and its form which attempts to mirror the layout and style of your blog is a nice touch. As far as features go, it has a budding addon community (See Social bookmarking tags at the bottom) and everything else you would want. (Sorry for the reviewing cop-out but if you drank the amount I did last night... Well... you will probably be ok. But meh.)

Feed Demon . This is a program which aggregates, manages and generally holds in one nice place all the RSS feeds you are looking at. Not quite as friendly from a user's standpoint as WLW but VERY powerful. It used to be a paid program until recently and though I think their model of economics is now based upon selling the data of its users I do not believe that any of this is personal or individual to you. The major benifit, though I am yet to have a situation that will use this, is the fact that the management of the feeds is online based. This, much like a POP3 email service to a client, means that you can look at your feeds from two different computers and keep both up-to-date and current.

 

Well meh, there are a few things that I use to keep the Internet in order. Any advice on alternatives that would be better then just say. :-)

 

One issue I am having at the moment is what media player to use. I mean I used to be WinAmp through and though but now I am not so sure; it simply went too unstable for me. Now I use an odd codec-and-DRM-driven combination of iTunes, VCL player and media player... None of which I am happy with. Oh well. :)

Ok, layout number 2.

Ok, well that last one sucked also. Right I will get this right at some point... Its just a shame I lack the ability to make a site myself. I mean it wouldn't need to be too complicated... Just something that Was clean, simple, slightly different and had was easy to make small html (or whatever) manipulations.

...Anyone? ^_^

 

Right well this one is staying until I get fed up with it; though the probability will be how it looks in Wondows Live Writer when you "enable the style of your blog in the program" or something. Well trust me. It looks terrible.

Oh well. Right now. Its Easter. So  that means ignoring the Christian origins and enjoying a few weeks of drinkin' and playin'. No more theology. No more essays. No more typing into Microsoft products in a semi-cohesive way.... err...

 

...Hang on!

 

What am I doing here?!

 

Buh bye!

Moonwalking bear

 

Just do the test. Comedy, missing the seriousness of the issue... Right?

http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

new layout, because the old one sucked.

Technorati Tags: Twitter

Does what it says.

 

Anyway, a quick update before I go and have a shower.

(Damn I need to get out of twitter mode and stop telling people every little insignificant thing that is happening or going to happen or I am thinking or looking at... a wall at the moment. GAH!)

Yes. I am on Twitter. Please follow me. I am lonely and keep bugging the various people I find interesting and enlightening on the Internet; The Devils Kitchen (link right for main site) for one, and then Will Harris of Channel Flip fame, on mediocre points that could only be annoying for the both of them. Well thankfully they answered my questions and I am a happy Internet stalker.

So yes. Come on twitter. Follow me and hear even less thought out comments on there from me. Honestly, its worth it. It will make me happy and you all want that. Right?

Ok, well its good as well to keep tabs on your friends (if you get them on here) as well as people like the before mentioned Internet goliaths that produce online tit-bits of goodness for your pleasure.

Good good...

 

UPDATE

I failed to really explain what twitter was. Click here for a short snappy vid on the phenomenon. Its actually worth watching even if you are not interested in the big T.

eBooks for Universities

An odd little idea I have had that seems remarkably sensible in almost any way is for all university students to be advised to buy ebook readers by their university at the start of their first term.

The point of this is simple. All universities, even if the legalities of this are uncertain, give out an incredible amount of photocopied handouts from books to allow all their students to read the important readings on a course. The solution to this time wasting, tree destroying and ultimately annoying situation would be a single eBook reader that was able to access the documents remotely and allow the student to carry the work in one handy module.

So yeah, this seems to me to be a good idea. I picture it like this. The student will by an reader. They will go to their first lecture and be informed that a reading is on the course's virtual workspace and that by using a secure password etc. the student could easily pick up the work and carry it around with them.

The ease of this method cannot though be without some disadvantages. The chief of which I see is the difficulties to which publishers have with the digitalisation of work. Thus I can only assume that DRM has to be involved somewhere, it would be desired not to be the case, reliant on the fact that the institutions only gave out parts of people's work. Another solution to this problem would be that a subscription service paid for by the universities to the publishers could be made so as to allow for this activity to happen. Even so there is always some way around the difficulties to which will be faced with the possibility of people simply taking the files and making them publicly available after the event.

There is more to the above point than is expressed. And there are more difficulties to be faced. Even so I believe that this would be a remarkable change to universities across the world. Benefiting everyone involved. The Students will have less to carry and will be able to access work often more comfortably. The use of paper will be severely reduced within out institutions. The Institutions will not only be likely to save money, but also will be able to save staff time by making this the only way in which students could obtain any readings, lecture notes or other important articles.

Meh, its an idea. Not very well looked into at the moment, as I am tired. But still I think it holds some merit.

 

Anthony

Tom Robinson's Introducing - BBC6 - Rocks

Festivals! Festivals! Festivals!

Yes, its that time again.

Its the time I get unduly excited about going to various festivals.

Glastonbury will be applied for tomorrow.

Leeds festival is on hold after a falling out with a friend. :(

Y-Not festival is just tops. Like bead sticks. Me likey. going there no matter what!

Yes I am... probably... drunk.

Please someone! Join me on the forums! And join me there, it will be ace!

Template change

Just to notify people of a template change. I am not exactly happy with it, but nor was I happy with the other one so meh. Anyone want to help me and make me a good clean snazzy new template?

BBC Bias on climate change?

Just a quicky, mostly caused by my constant reading of the man-made climate skeptic Dk. That coupled with my knowledge of various websites devoted to highlighting the bias intrinsic (for whatever reason) within the BBC, its reporting, programming and whatnot. Example in the from of the Blog 'BBC Biased'.

Anyway, basically the point is that in the title of an article it reads...

Climate set for 'sudden shifts'

Many climate systems will undergo a series of sudden shifts this century as a result of human-induced climate change.

Nice! Climate change is totally accepted and understood fully so as to be able to fully predict and warn about specific shifts. Not only this but these specific shifts are totally the result of human-induced climate change! Great!

Not exactly fully accepted by anyone with 1) a brain 2) autonomy 3) the fecking scientific community. Please read some of the posts here and here. The first being the most recent relevant topic from the aforementioned Devils Kitchen and the second being the result of a random google search (mostly from the laziness induced by man-made climate change man flu. :-( )

Anyway some sort of clarification is made in the article which, when you read it, is just comical. After such a conclusive title you swiftly realize it is based on not fact, not consensus, no other holistically acceptable source that would be expected of such an institution. In fact it is ONE single study amount thousands. A bit misleading don't you think?

Well anyway, im loosing the will to live.... Wheres my Lemsip?!

The End of Scrabulous? I can only hope....

Technorati Tags: facebook,scrabulous,bbc bias,copyright,copyright infringment

Oh heavens forbid. When will the various corporations and companies realise that copyright infringement is not always a bad idea and can sometimes improve sales?

"Facebook has been asked to remove the Scrabulous game from its website by the makers of Scrabble."

Though I can only cheer on one side the impending doom of another scourge of my life via my girlfriend's obsession with all things 'casual gaming' but, WHAT ON EARTH ARE THEY DOING?!  I can't see the makers of Scrabble being able to buy such publicity and promotion for their ancient form of entertainment. Truly, how can games on facebook equate to anything but sales of the board game?

That being said, maybe it is the connotations that they are unable to accept that the Internet is anything but bad and does nothing but watch porn and steal music; offensive and incorrect understandings of what is actually happening in 'cyber-space' (ha! not used that phrase in a LONG time). The final quote and word on the BBC article is possibly telling from the journalist's point of view.

"One message read: "I didn't have any Scrabble sets when I started playing Scrabulous a few months ago. Since I got hooked on that I have bought two sets."

Links have also been posted to the customer service areas of the Hasbro and Mattel websites so fans can register their protests with the toy makers. "

Yup, who said the BBC wasn't biased?

From Not a sheep: The 'Islamic Jesus'

Not a sheep: The 'Islamic Jesus'

In somewhat of an inflammatory comment on a normally right minded blog, 'Not A Sheep' could possibly be highlighting a prejudice held within Britain towards the Muslim faith. Though I may be proved wrong and the tone of the post is stronger than it is intended I would like to make my own opinion and understanding known about the story she/he is referencing.

Essentially it comes down to the fact that an Islamic Iranian Director has created a film which shows the story of Jesus from the Islamic perspective. And in an expressed attempt to create dialogue and understanding between faiths he expresses the Muslim understanding of the story, as well as he admiration for Mel Gibson's 'Passion of the Christ' in production if not in plot.

"So the "common ground" would appear to be that Jesus existed and was a prophet but not that he was the son of God, or was resurrected. I think the idea of "common ground" might be a little fanciful."Not a Sheep

I have written a comment on this post within the blog, have a look if you want (though it is awaiting moderation). Here I want to focus more on the above comment by NaS. The common ground is massive between Muslims and Christians on this topic. I would like to ask, what more would you ask of the Muslims to believe before it is acceptable common ground?

That he was the son of god as part of the Holy Trinity?
That he was crucified? (indeed the Muslim view is that his body did not die, but ascended into heaven)
Or that he preached a new gospel?


Well number one is right out. That aspect of the story of Christ IS Christianity.

Number two becomes trivial for Christians or external parties when number one is rejected; who cares how he died? Muslims and obviously Christians find it important but to say it matters that he was Crucified to a Muslim on Christian grounds is missing the point and could be mildly disrespectful. Indeed the perception of Crucifixion is seen by Muslims to be correct, but as wikipedia explains, this was a divine illusion.

Thirdly, jesus within Islam is a vital and important figure. In some ways second only to Muhammad as Jesus was a Messenger from God whose message became corrupted by man. However you look at this, this is high praise, and how this has become corrupted, which areas Jesus can be seen as 'right' and also the historical accounts of the time from the dual faith perspective can all be looked at.

Yes. This does open the possibility that there is open accessible cross-faith dialogue within the world community. The only thing that i can see you could possibly be offended by this news article Not A Sheep is the fact that it has come from Iran. But as you may (or may not) now see there is a real theological basis for what the director was saying and how it is ultimately quite a politically neutral topic if taken as such.

Cheers
Anthony

The Devil on Drugs....

Wonderful!

At last someone who is sane and articulate enough to show what I have been thinking about Drugs for such a long time. Have a a look here! This has made my evening so much i may even get all the work I set myself to do completed for a change instead of wondering off into the endless battlegrounds of Internet gaming as per usual.

Not that I should be all that surprised that this has happened in that Dk generally expresses my views before I realise them in their entirety myself, but still its another happy occasion where I can congratulate the Devil on hitting the nail, on the proverbial head.

Whilst giving Magic Mushrooms the verdict of "Fucking Funny" as well as other lighthearted comments, he lines this all with a definite sense of the serious. That being the absolute belief that the illegality of recreational drugs causes more harm and is ideologically a disaster for society by right thinking libertarians.

The point that I am trying to make is that it is in the nature of a good proportion of human beings to want to "escape" from time to time. That can be the simple escape from the hum-drum of working life, through holidays or whatever. For some it's the escape from being oneself, for a while. And for many, it is simply that they like the effect that mind-altering substances have.

And look at the two drugs that we have legalised: smoking provides very little mental effect, and develops into a habit that kills through the way in which it is ingested.

Drinking (especially to escape) very often makes people violent, melancholy and irrational.
Seriously, what the fuck are we playing at? We've made entirely the wrong stuff illegal!

 

Anyway, please read, I'm sure everyone who reads this post will find it both provocative as well as reassuring/fearful to find intelligent people thinking in this way. Me? Well I can't see much changing... Though I can but hope. The only possible practical method of making any real alterations the systems surrounding drugs would be through some sort of total re-jig of the system for some other reason than the blatant reclassification of substances or indeed their full legalisation.

Really it wouldn't happen even if everyone wanted it. How could they then justify the thousands in jail. The social stigmatisation and ruination of thousands more and finally the money spent in an ineffectual law by the sate for nearly a hundred years? And possibly even more to the point, the jealousy held by those in power who missed out within their lives through misconceived fear of the substances as well as the law the joys of drugs.

I am no heavy user, nor will I be. But my minute dabbles would probably have landed me in jail for no other reason than I own curiosity and enjoyment of something that had NO NEGATIVE EFFECTS WITHIN MY OWN LIFE OR THE LIFE OF OTHERS.

Technorati Tags: Drugs,Devil's Kitchen