A new about page — now with zota timeline — and a new page for the name Zota, with a synopsis of Superman’s dalliance with false memories and lifelike androids.
Lex Luthor explains the “zota layer” to Superman: mp3 1.5Mb
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An essay by Jasper Bernes with all references to “The Internet” replaced with “Language.”
In the end, it doesn’t matter whether I’m being a careerist. If you think the distinctions between my position and yours matter, then it only matters whether or not I’m correct.
– Jasper Bernes
Update
In the spirit of spontaneous group discussion, Jasper the Marxist Revolutionary deleted the following comment from his blog:
I’m genuinely curious about how you imagine “the revolutionary seizure of the means of production” would occur without violence. You do advocate “force” (how quaintly passive). You’re railing against the status quo. You’re calling for Action. You even use the traditional Revolutionary’s justification for revolutionary violence (”they’re worse than we are!”)
Well then! Shouldn’t you clearly discuss the violence you’re calling for in unambiguous practical terms? Because I would hope that your ad hominem attack of Stan’s wan cosmetic gradualism is based on your own clear concrete description of a practical alternative. Surely you wouldn’t be advocating Forceful Revolutionary Seizure of the Means of Production as a mere fashion statement? Surely not…
Unless your description of quiet pranks is in fact your full vision of the Force you call for?
Ways this is painfully amazing:
First of all, finding real live academic poets who actually quote the Grundrisse, and then do a little victory dance because they nailed it! “Ba-Bam! I just Quoted tha fuckin Grundrisse at you, bitch! Try not to cry too hard!” Wow…
Also finding a genuine Revolutionary/English grad student who makes a mashup Manifesto combining Society of the Spectacle with some 20 year old Hakim Bey essays, and then declares it a new moment in anti-capitalist resistance. “Hey gang, check it out! Poetic Terrorism!” It’s like watching the kids re-discover Jack Kerouac. So cute! I can’t wait for the Marxist version of Burning Man.
And having a brave culture warrior call for widespread social disruption. Indeed, call for the de-sterilizaton and re-politicization of Language Itself! But then he deletes a mildly taunting question from his blog.
Oh, academic poetry. Is there nothing you can’t make small and petty?
It’s nonsense, it’s nonsense
it’s nonsense, it’s nonsense
it’s nonsense, I dont have
anything
additional
to say.
It’s nonsense, it’s nonsense
it’s nonsense, I don’t have
anything
more
to say.
It’s nonsense
I reject it
categorically.
We only tear down the best.
Q: About how high was tower of babel?
The Tower of Babel was built by Keebler elves. As a tree-dwelling race, they were unfamiliar with the stone and feathers used by the Tribes. The kept trying to build towers out of twigs and pastry, which did not work very well at all.
Eventually, in one last valiant effort to appease their masters, the elves built a tower out of soft-bake cookies. To their elvish eyes, it was a mighty monolith! By human measure, it was about nine feet tall.
The King was disappointed at the sight of this mushy cookie stack, and he kicked it over with a sullen sweep of his royal foot. In the retelling of the elves — which became the Pentateuch — the tower was struck down by bolts from Heaven. (Elves tend to exaggerate…)
Write your name in Elvish
A timeline documenting the twisty little passages of the Donkey Kong world record.
An ongoing Superbunker research project…
Jason Scott looks at a Wikipedia documentary in which the filmmakers are confronted with shifting facts around an over-sized personalty. Although Scot disagrees with the perspective, he contemplates their situation with understanding and empathy:
How could this reconcile with the documentary? What about the shots of him and his wife and her opinion of the project? How about his portrayal as the guy behind this? Will you include everything that just happened, or will you just cut it out, leading to endless squirming moments when this is shown at Wikipedia festivals and gatherings?
I don’t envy their job. Not at all.
Scott carefully considers the difficult position of these filmmakers when dealing with active conflicts in which at least one side is going feel wronged no matter what they do. What to leave in? What to leave out? How to fairly portray people when the basic facts are in dispute? In the case of Wikipedia and Jimmy Wales, Scott sees this as an unenviable balancing act without a black-and-white answer. (Just coincidentally, Jason Scott has decided he will never make a Wikipedia documentary.)
It’s Cocks the Bunny, your pagan fertility pal!
Jason Scott slammed the film King of Kong for being “loaded with falsehoods” (and, incidentally, causing him to lose access for his own arcade documentary).
When shown that some of his assertions were wrong, he took time for further research.
In a short follow-up, he said that King of Kong is generally accurate.
In a long autobiographical follow-up, he talks about objectivity in documentary film and how King of Kong makes people feel.
Well… okay.
But viciously attacking a film for being packed with falsehoods “like the last Japanese subway car before they have to shut down the line” is just a tiny bit different than speculating about how Billy Mitchell might feel.
And when you’re following up on a rant where you blast people as liars and whores without any corroborating evidence, calling for thorough objective research and universal empathy sounds a little insincere.
Jason Scott is a good historian. But this isn’t quite history yet, and he has admitted his own tangential stake in this series of open controversies. Which makes his self-interested declaration that King of Kong is “fraudulent” hard to reconcile with his sermon on the respectful construction of a complex and nuanced Truth.
Some blogs exist in a near perpetual state of alienation
notch and shintaro-kago at araum
The land’s coagulated
And my mind’s incarcerated
But my helmet’s ventilated
With the souls correlated
Though my father’s fascinated
With the premises negated
And the night will be berated
With the souls of the deflated
Bleed, bleed, bleed, bleed
Bleed, bleed, bleed, bleed
Blood Ocean
Bleed, bleed, bleed, bleed
Bleed, bleed, bleed, bleed
Blood Ocean
If the backyard photographs are valid, they are highly incriminating of Oswald because they apparently link him with the murder weapon. If they are fakes, how they were produced poses far-reaching questions in the area of conspiracy. “Faked” backyard photographs would indicate a degree of conspiratorial sophistication that would almost necessarily raise the possibility that a highly organized group had conspired to kill the President and make Oswald a “patsy.”
From Volume VI of the House Select Committee On Assassinations
