Obfuscated Thoughtlessness Inversed

"Seven Oaks magazine is a publication which stands outside the realm of false consensus, in unapologetic alliance with those in this country and around the world dedicated to social justice, world peace, gender and racial equality, as well as equality of language rights, self-determination, environmental sustainability, and the celebration of cultural achievement and critical thought." from the Seven Oaks Magazine manifesto.

It isn't just the blog that has created a political stir this year. Even as new mediums allow instantaneous publishing power for anyone with access to the technology, a hard-core of experienced propagandists spend countless hours disseminating the in-depth written arguments and ideas that create the platform on which this freedom is built.

The failure of victoria.indymedia.org and its counterpart at vancouver.indymedia.org to live as long as our foggy memories of Seattle '99, ushers in a new challenge to the left, to create content in open forums, that leads discussion without debasing the debate to the point of irrelevance. Even bc.indymedia.org, created in the ashes of vic & vanindymedia and seen as a way to bring together a province with alternate forms of debate seems abandoned with no new posts in nearly 8 months.

Let's hope these same brilliants writers and activists who are creating on-line places like thetyee.ca and sevenoaksmag.com move quickly to adopt the use of new forms of media. Check this attempt of what I hope for by some local film-makers, now viewed over 5,700 times on YouTube: Guantanamo Bay.

Labels: bc blogs, bcmedia, blogosphere, indymedia, leftist content creation, new media critique, youtube

To mark the 50th post on this blog, I have finally sat down and made Obfuscated Thoughtlessness Inversed legible. My apologies to those of you who were forced to squint through the previous design to try and read what I was writing.

My initial tinkering with the Blogger template had the effect of loading the content on a little too strong and I haven't gotten around to fixing it until now.

The template changes include:

• Increasing the font size of the headline on each article,
• Added a line to the article headline with a visible link to what the article is about,
• Changed the headline so it links to the individual article page,
  
• Moving the randomly generated image thumbnails to the bottom of posts from the top (really only affects the first post as they are still between each post),
• Adding a custom header to the blog with some random photos from a trip in the state of Victoria, Australia (mostly from the Great Ocean Road),
• Reducing the font size in the header,
• Removing the annoying blog description line (it did read: Specific thoughts I've encountered on the net... Occasionally, I'll even add incomplete ideas of my own - just to write them down.),
• Changed the font colours to a more uniform orange,
  
• Fixed the postings link, and
  
• Moving the gray background from behind the text to behind the side-bar.

Sometime ago I also:

• Updated the url to http://blog.morganisageek.org/ with the site feed found at http://blog.morganisageek.org/atom.xml, the old url will continue to work at http://morgan.is-a-geek.org/blog/,
• Linked in Technorati,
  
• Placed Adsense advertisements all over the page,
  
• Added the floating adsense advertisements in the bottom left-hand corner, and
  
• Added performancing.com advertisement.

Really, I pretty much abandoned the initial look of the Blogger template a long time ago.

Remember:

• there are varying shades of political opinion,
  
• one of the shadiest of these is the Liberals,
  
• an outspoken group on many subjects,
  
• 10 degrees to the left of centre in good times,
  
• 10 degrees to the right of centre if it affects them personally,
  
• so here then continues the lesson in safe logic, on to post number 51...
  

with apologies to the great Phil Ochs ..

Labels: internal

The cost of producing power at Kemano is about $5 (Canadian) a megawatt hour. The proposed agreement would have seen B.C. Hydro pay an average rate of $71 a megawatt hour. - Ruling Puts Smelter in Limbo the Globe & Mail

If the Nechako water system was the bathwater, yesterday's announcement by the BC Utilities Commission saved the baby. Not approving the Alcan - BC Hydro deal to sell us back our own power destroy's a key part of Gordon Campbell's ridiculous privatization plans that threaten to throw out an incredible resource for this province.

The flooding of the Nechako system to create the Kemano power station included the drilling of a 16 km tunnel the width of a two lane highway through a mountain 50 years ago. In the history of mega-projects the first Kemano project was a giganta-project. It reversed the flows of more than 75% of a major tributary of the Fraser River (which in turn drains an area of 220,000 square kilometres).

Having caused the environmental destruction of 120,000 acres of the Upper Nechako valley and the massive environmental damage that went along with that flooding, some 50 years ago, now is not the time to sign a contract with Alcan to supply that power back to our publicly owned utility BC Hydro. Especially, at these ludicrous prices. BC doesn't need the power as a solid continuation of the PowerSmart campaign could produce a larger amount of available power than this deal ever would. However, if we did need it I think there are two simple and viable options, buy the power directly from Alcan while introducing a tax on the water going through the tunnel or nationalize the power production parts of the Alcan operation at Kemano in the public interest.

I know, these two suggestions will go over as well as my 2002 motion at the UVic Board of Governors to use the board's expropriation powers to produce revenue for the avoidance of a tuition fee increase (this motion didn't receive a seconder). This land, water and power were stolen from the local First Nations and should not continue to be held by a company that is unwilling to commit to the future of British Columbia.

It is the position of the town of Kitimat that the 50+ year old deal that created the Alcan smelter at Kemano prohibits the sale of electricity. I don't think it matters if the deal prohibits it or not, the public interest in this substantial of a land-use decision should put this power in the hands of our provincial power utility, not provide $66 markup on a product we gave the company in the first place. It appears the BC Utilities Commission agrees at least in part, declaring the deal "unenforceable and not in the public interest."

Let's hope the ominous words from the Premier's office today, expressing disappointment with a commission, that can ultimately be replaced by this Government don't result in that outcome. I'm sure the public outcry would be deafening, but I have a feeling the Premier of British Columbia may already be deaf.

Labels: environment, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, nationalization, public power

“Mr. Majoub, Mr. Jaballah, and Mr. Almrei have been detained on security certificates for five and six years without charge, without conviction, and without knowing the evidence against them. They cannot be deported due to the likelihood that they will be tortured in their countries of origin. There is no place in Canada for indefinite detention without charge or conviction, and there must never be deportations to face torture or death.” Bill Siksay, MP Burnaby-Douglas

The xenophobia of Ministers' Day and Solberg does not represent the Canadian public. We must protest the on-going detentions at the the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre. The centre was opened in late April of this year and represents the worst of our immigration policy.

The Government argues that "these individuals are free to leave Canada any time they wish, and return to their country of origin or to another country, provided that these countries are willing to accept them." Clearly, no suitable third country arrangements or acceptable return arrangements have been made. There can be no deportations to torture or to countries that will not guarantee that the death penalty will not be used.

"Since 1991, 27 certificates have been issued. ... Once signed, the certificate is referred to the Federal Court of Canada. The judge examines the information and evidence in private, in the absence of the person named in the certificate and their counsel. Upon examining the information and evidence, the judge determines what information cannot be disclosed for reasons that its disclosure would be injurious to national security or to the safety of any person. ... [T]he judge provides to the person a summary of the information and evidence which does not include anything which, in the opinion of the judge, would be injurious to national security or the safety of any person if disclosed." from Canadian Boarder Security Agency website.

In short, these people have been held without knowing the nature of the accusations against them for five and six years. Family members are forced to go without visitation rights and are without the primary income earner in their families.

This is Canada. Do your part to speak up for those who are suffering in your country and community.

Labels: canada, day, human rights abuse

Unless they are the subject of these masterful works of art.


Kitten Wars has definitely met my definition. Enjoy!



Oh, by the way Doris and Aurora. A little nb: YOU AREN'T KITTENS SO STOP ACTING LIKE THEM. Stop the senseless violence before it goes too far. Can't we all just purr and be friends? I hate how you bring the humans in your lives into these manipulative games. Unless you stop soon there will be hurt feelings, unscratched ears or damaged egos.

I propose a simple truce. You should watch this video and STOP (animation) the war.

Labels: anti-war, cat, kitten, myspace

It is time to dump Photoshop for the more stable and functionally equal GIMP and not just because it is free!

GIMP is available for MacOSX, Windows and Unix-like OS's (Linux, FreeBSD etc). The source is open. The price is great as GIMP is a GNU Project distributed under the GNU General Public License. You may even already have it installed if you are using the Gnome Desktop it was probably installed at the same time as the rest of your desktop.

What are you waiting for?


Ginger is waiting! This image was animated in GIMP and below are some screenshots.

Ok,
1. stop reading this.
2. go download GIMP, and
3. start editing images at a professional level, for free, right now.

Labels: alternatives, photoshop, tools