"A Life Connected"

Update: I find the sentiments espoused by the above video genuinely inspiring and worth striving for. I wish I could claim to embody them in their entirety. As Mike Clelland asks in the comments, what do I feed my cats? And aren't I sometimes seen wearing a leather jacket?

(Tip of the hat to The Teleomorph.)

Terence McKenna: "I think if it's out of control then our side is winning."

(Thanks: The Teleomorph.)

Wal-Mart worker dies after shoppers knock him down

A Wal-Mart worker was killed Friday when "out-of-control" shoppers desperate for bargains broke down the doors at a 5 a.m. sale. Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers shouted angrily and kept shopping when store officials said they were closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.

Boy, they must have had some really good deals on PlayStations . . .

When Jim Kunstler blogs about the future, I listen.

Terence McKenna on individuality and democracy's inherent tendency to atomize, cheapen and reject the human experience: "We have been infantilized by our cultural institutions to accept the notion of ourselves as citizens consuming these regurgitated scientific models which are then hashed through by Madison Avenue and then handed down to us by the organs of mass culture and this is supposed to be what we anchor our lives on."

American lifestyle must change, says neuroscientist

According to neuroscientist Peter Whybrow, head honcho of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Behavior at UCLA the concept of the American Dream is a "biological impossibility."

Personally, I've always thought the much-vaunted "American Dream" is the stuff of nightmares.

Real live Pokemon auctions for $925 million

We capture each one after your order, so we guarantee its health! These are Pikachus plucked straight from the natural Pikachu forest, so they're of much higher quality than ones you'd get from a breeder or in other regions.

A feat of Japanese genetic engineering? Your call!

Chinese Air Bars

In a short post on MadRegale, Wired correspondent Alexis Madrigal suggests that we should open a series of "Chinese air bars" so that people around the world can temporarily experience what it's like to breathe the polluted city air of China.

China, home to some of the most polluted cities in the world, could thus capitalize on its newest export: vials of urban atmosphere. They'll simply export the sky.

My thoughts exactly.

Terence McKenna: "Conspiracy theory is a kind of epistemological cartoon about reality. I mean, isn't it so simple to believe that things are run by the Grays and that all we have to do is trade sufficient fetal tissue to them and we can solve our technological problems."

I may never wear slacks again -- although, truthfully, I find this ad's wanton misogyny far more funny than disturbing. (There might even be a science fiction story in it.)

Dacron has a lot to answer for.

(Sighted at Boing Boing.)

Walmart Growth Video

The other day at work, I made this video showing the opening of Wal-mart retail locations over time. It's pretty fun to watch how it starts very slowly with the first location in Arkansas in 1962 and then spreads into different regions over time.

(Via Boing Boing.)

I'm not sure "fun" is the operative word.

UK astronomers to broadcast adverts to aliens

Although each and every television advert already broadcast has leaked into the heavens, the caper marks the first time one is to be targetted at an other worldly market, a zone in the constellation Ursa Major that could harbour alien worlds, the snack manufacturer Doritos announces today.

*sigh*

Obesity 'requires climate plan'

Professor James, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, was speaking in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

He commented: "This is a community epidemic that is actually a response to all the wonderful apparent industrial and economic development changes that we've seen, with a collapse in the need for physical activity, and now a targeting of children to make profits by big industry in food and drink.

"We have to change that, and it will not come unless we have a coherent government-led strategy. The issue is: have we got the political will?"

Old ad suggests caffeine triggers child abuse

Thank god for decaf Sanka!

The Ruins of the Unsustainable

I've been thinking about the fate of declining suburbs, bombed out shrinking old industrial cities and the drying up ghost towns of the high plains, when I came across a journal note mentioning something Bruce Sterling said to me this fall in San Francisco:

"The ruins of the unsustainable are the 21st century's frontier."

About a year ago I was in a deplorably ill-conceived suburban coffee-shop sipping espresso and using one of the complimentary computers (which, remarkably, hadn't been trashed by viruses). I struck up a longish conversation with a girl on the adjacent terminal (mostly about subjects covered by this blog, which I was busily updating).

At one point I casually mentioned that the shop in which we were sitting would probably wind up as a bona-fide archaeological site within the next thirty years. I don't think she liked the sound of that, because the conversation ended shortly thereafter.

But hey, she asked.

H.R. Giger's creatures in '80s Pioneer ads

Because nothing says "cutting-edge audio-visual" like an acid-drooling xenomorph.

Making a clean break from old gadgets with Second Rotation

Launched in July, Second Rotation's goal is to promote reuse and recycling, while helping consumers who are looking to unload unwanted electronics make a buck or two. The company began with a focus on cell phones and digital cameras, but has since expanded to include Apple laptops, consoles, digital media players, camcorders, and GPS devices.

I'm all for this. Click here for more information from Futurismic.

"The Story of Stuff": holiday must-viewing.

Count on Mondolithic Studios to rouse me from my general pessimism and cast the future in a hopeful new light:

My Kind of Environmentalism

30 years from now, we're going to look back and wonder why we ever thought that it was going to be so hard to change. We're going to look at the new fortunes made by new industries and wonder why we ever thought that going green would bankrupt our society and sound the death knell of capitalism. We're going to see the resurgence in local manufacturing, local ownwership and self-employment and wonder why we ever thought we needed to ship cheap underwear and crappy lead-laced toys across oceans in shipping containers. We're going to see the garden home ghetttos and lonely McMansions replaced with communities and wonder how we could have stood with living so isolated from each other. We'll see the cooperative adaptive energy network that replaced our obsolete power grid and wonder what took us so long to get our act together. We'll see the skies above our cities cleared of smog, and wonder why we ever listened to the desperate lies of corrupt leaders and corporate shills when they told us that reorganizing our society was going to be too difficult, too expensive, and would destroy our way of life.

It won't be easy, of course, but ultimately we might not have a choice.