2002-07-30

SIMULACRA: a work by Baudrillard or here

reference to Neuromancer by William Gibson, mix it into cleancut kungfu style fighting and an ominous soundtrack, put in some cool names such as Thomas Anders-son and Morpheus or Trinity, and get some young inexperienced yet determined directors to film the epic of their lives... and you have (or don't) the Matrix...

2002-07-29

reading: Alain Finkielkraut: "L'imparfait du présent" - a journal for 2001...

"Aucun petit caillou dans la chaussure n'entrave la marche vengeresse des idées reçues..."
"Etre poli, ce n'est pas faire valoir ses titres, c'est se reconnaître obligé. Ce n'est pas s'affirmer, c'est s'amoindrire.Ce n'est pas se poser, c'est s'incliner." (AF, p.54)

AF se bat contre cette société de consumérisme, d'autonomie absolue de l'individu qui finit par se désintéresser pour tout. Il s'oppose à l'autocensure de la presse, à la "fuite en avant" du "bien penser" (politically correct speaking) qui empêche radicalement toute idée capable de renverser l'ordre préétabli par les lois "vertueux" des marchés et les "dictats" de l'ordre politico-socio-moral international; fruit de la marchandisation de la vie et de la créativité humaine, voire de l'âme de l'Homme.

Ignorance is bliss...Knowledge is power. Be creative or disappear.
friday five:

1. weblog presence: since april 4th 2001.
2. first post: initially supposed to adress launching of new site, postponed it, then tested it, and first real blogging in september: reference to sept.11th
3. off site first @ nautilus.blogspot.com, then integrated into new domain in september. Name changed from NiC to Wacondah.com
4. no CMS, except randomized mental categories:
5. rather read weblogs than online journals

2002-07-24

0,06 on the PALERMO scale: that's pretty close to MAYAN certainty, is it not?

Whoah, since you only have left 'till the 1st of February 2019, check out the world's coolest places to live...
Belgium ranks on n°4... Can you believe it? Who would have thought that the country that's usually one of the first to be invaded (WWI & WWI) or blown up by aliens (check Independance Day, ID4, the movie...), presents such a great vantage point to the beautiful spectacle of mankind ruining this planet....Here's the threat list...

note: the Maya calendar in fact ends in 2012
The end is near... Or why the Mayan calendar stops in 2019...

Just absolutely f*cking great... this flash traffic is just in: ... believe it or not, all the best scientists in the world can NOT determine whether a 2K-large rock will impact the earth or not in 2019... Why have we wasted so much monney in deep space astronomy, if we can't simply calculate the trajectory of a simple piece of rock? And what about all the armements races.... The rock was discovered on july the 4th... independance day... So get out there, enjoy life, you've got 17 years left and counting...

-> BBC.CO.UK - article

-> Asteroïde raakt mogelijk Aarde in 2019

LONDEN -- Astronomen hebben enkele weken geleden een asteroïde ontdekt, die in 2019 de Aarde wel eens zou kunnen raken. De enorme steenklomp is volgens wetenschappers momenteel het meest bedreigende object in de ruimte. Dat meldde de Britse zender BBC vandaag.


Volgens berekeningen zou de asteroïde 2002 NT7 op 1 februari 2019 met de Aarde kunnen botsen. Maar er bestaan nog veel onzekerheden over deze voorspelling. Het brokstuk is ongeveer twee kilometer groot, genoeg om een heel werelddeel mee te verwoesten. Ook zou de inslag voor wereldwijde klimaatveranderingen kunnen zorgen.

Onderzoekers in de Amerikaanse staat New Mexico signaleerden het hemellichaam voor het eerst op 5 juli. Sindsdien houden astronomen uit de hele wereld de asteroïde nauwlettend in de gaten, iets wat wordt vergemakkelijkt door het feit dat ze de komende achttien maanden gemakkelijk observeerbaar is.

Volgens de Nasa zou nader onderzoek kunnen uitwijzen dat 2002 NT7 de Aarde toch niet zal raken. Er is immers nog te weinig over het hemellichaam geweten.

NT7 daait in 837 dagen rondom de Zon. Indien de steenklomp met de Aarde zou bosten, zou dat met een snelheid van 28 km per seconde zijn.


it's HEAT time again, one of the best movies ever to hit the screens..., along with the Matrix...

"I keep my angst here, I preserve it because I need it. It keeps me sharp, on the edge, where I gotta be." (Vincent Hanna aka A. Pacino)

2002-07-22

to start off the week: some interesting links, after all this is a weblog

2nd law of Thermodynamics (ever increasing entropy) has been broken:
read the article

An introduction to Buddhism
and some interesting teachings forwarded by a friend

The Internet MARK II: THE GRID

Considering the amount of desinformation that's poisoning are level-headed minds, read the 17 techniques of Truth Suppression: the truth shall set you free. Knowledge indeed is power

And for some fun, look up the geographical situation of your family...Absolutely ridiculous...

2002-07-19

Friday Five!

1. Brussels, B
2. Since commuting between Bxl and some major other city to the south that's connected by one of the most interesting railway tracks, don't feel like moving either place permanently right now. For the time being, both place present serious advantages. In the long run, will obviously move back there.
3. Safest? home is where the heart belongs, that's were we feel safest (practically, that could be anywhere, - for safety some basic services need to be available: water, food, oxygen, shelter and ... the heart. Otherwise, atomic shelters, underwater in nuclear submarines, in a sensory depriviation tank balanced in a salt-like solution.
4. Do you feel well-travelled? Well, sort of, in the limits of a certain geography, and then again: time-space continuum as we experience it inhibits us from going places. Just in case travelling without moving counts also: the power of the mind enables fantastic voyages...
5. Most interesting place... Jago's lookout (BE), Montania (PY), Chiloé Island (CH), Alhambra Granada, CORRUBEDO Faro, Valluga (AU)
Defaced web sites inventory: in case you need to see who's been hackked... http://defaced.alldas.org/ (Copy 'n' paste into navbar, since the administrators demand that we don't link)

the new PACINO movie: http://www.s1m0ne.com, starring a digital superstar...

http://entropy8zuper.org/; one of the great, the few, the proud, ...
The World Will go NUCLEAR

B. Richter (Nobel laureate in physics, director emeritus of Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, member of the US Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee) about climate instability : "If people don't change their fossil-fuel-burning ways in a big way and soon, surface temperatures around the globe will rise by 3.5 to 6 degrees Celsius by 2100. (...) We must act soon and nuclear power is the only carbon-free power ready for large-scale deployment now". (WSJ-Europe – 19/21.07.02)

2002-07-16

reading: Noreena HERTZ: The Silent Takeover & La Bruyère: Les Caractères
listening to: David Bowie: Heathen ->track 11...
viewing options: The Ice Age vs L'Auberge Espagnole vs Minority Report vs The Bourne Identity vs Spiderman (definitely NOT)
state of the world: the usual incomprehensible mix of seamingly non-connected atrocities: state of siege declared in Paraguay, assassination attempt on J.Chirac (cf. The Eagle has landed), masacres in India & Pakistan, a catfight between Morocco and Spain over a few ha of deserted island, drought, famine, and holiday traffic jams.
quote of the year:
"if you can't beat 'em - arrange to have 'em beaten"
1. destabilisation & dollar/euro parity: a randomized reflection
For the first time in years, the weak dollar has reached euro-parity, reached... well plummeted through the artificial ceiling. Looking at a distance to the spectacle of the markets, and the larger-spreading panic reaction of the stocks, you wonder if the real goal of september 11th was reached: destabilisation of the so called western democracies. Is it too much to consider the reopening of the trading floors in september and the heroic efforts "not to let the terrorists win".
Worldwide confidence is at an all-time low. Seemingly random events appear to be connected, and the horrendous truth is lurking around the corner and no soul dares to speak it... Corportations worldwide profit from the 9/11 aftermath to clean out the dead bodies that they have been accumulating. Enronitis, Worldcomitis, ...
2. het witte kinderbos verdwijnt!!!
they are going to cut down all the trees planted in memory of the missing children: what can of politicians have we elected? sad but true, some of the heroes of the dutroux era are now cutting down a forest to connect the railway systems... miserable decision, for the commemorative trees... It's like the old URBANUS adagio all over again: in Belgium when we have a forest, we construct a highway trhough it, that way, we create 2 forests...
3. resistance is futile: ontological shock
http://www.playskins.com/ is just one of the applications developped to counter mass male_dominated computergame culture...
read the article (in Dutch)

2002-07-12

Getting Mom on the Internet, a hilarious account of what a lot of people are going through...
Crossing the digital divide. The language is different, the peripherals have abstract names ("MOUSE!"). People just have a lot of trouble mastering this whole new range of techniques, technologies and content. And most of all, it's bloody scary! All these crazy messages, windows and warnings... Everything that possibly can go wrong, will go wrong. Or better: it will go wrong, even it is supposed not to...
A big "HOW HOW" for those that muster the courage to tackle these issues.


Note to self:
"Blogging" is not the same as keeping an online diary, it's more or less the work of an abstract online persona/identity that guides visitors through the world wide wait (WWW) and Jungle...

Bon, on a la pêche quoi. Thnk Gd ts Frd Friday Five is not up yet, maybe later, maybe not.
And if you're too stressed and scared, check out Zen Stories to tell your Neighboors

2002-07-11

Just in... Some transcript from some presidential adress...Demagogy for the masses...

President Bush Admits He Saw the FIRST Plane Hit the World Trade Center ... Statement Raises Many Questions

THE PRESIDENT:
I was in Florida. And my Chief of Staff, Andy Card -- actually, I was in a classroom talking about a reading program that works. I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly, myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident. . . . But I was whisked off there, I didn't have much time to think about it. And I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my Chief of Staff, who is sitting over here, walked in and said, "A second plane has hit the tower, America is under attack."

[Hagerty comment: Since there was no news broadcast of the first plane hitting the Trade Center, what private channel was Bush watching ... and why was he watching a picture of the Twin Towers on television if he didn't know something was about to happen? ... The link is to the White House website .... better check it before they make this item disappear.
posted by Hagerty 7:07 PM



No comment...
But if you do check out the page read one of the last paragraphs by Mr. Bush, answering a young kid's remarks:
"it all starts with a great wife, you know..." (applause)
Miscellanious stuff

A big breakthrough by Belgian Doctors: memory storage and allocation in the brain: the last mystery resolved?

The site that belongs to the book: MichaelMoore.com

Feest van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap vandaag: haal uw vendels maar boven... of uw Goedendag...

When is the last time you saw a real pig, a real cow?
Emergency on planet earth. The latest "Living Planet Report" by the WWF... Read this and think about it, then think again. YOU can make a difference! Start today, not tomorrow...

*** Notice to our visitors ***
We regret to inform you that the proposed deadline for the update of wacondah.com has been crossed. Due to a collusion of unforeseable circumstances, we were unable to develop the necessary time-space continuum that would have enabled us to post our new version. We do apologize.
However, we are seriously reconsidering the scope and aim and range and intent of this site. If you do have any suggestions, please contact us
One of our new chapters will be called "la ciénaga - the swamp". Paul R. and his whooping adventures will be back in force, "Travelling without moving" will continue and the usual, crazy and enhanced linking system will bring joy to the world.
On a more metaphysical level, Wacondah.com will continue to bring you the Frogg's view of the world...
After all, right now, you're in the getting entertained by us business...

Oh and by the by: the Second Matrix film is set to be released May 15th 2003, that's one day earlier...
"I know you're out there, I can feel you now ...
I'm gonna show a world without you, without borders or boundaries...
A world where anything is possible"
We are looking forward to see Hugo Weaving morph into characters again. Dodge this!


2002-07-08

listening to: Nusrath Fateh Ali Kahn & Michael Brook: Remixed (realword!)
reading:
Alain de Botton: The Art of Travel (writer of these great books: "The Consolations of Philosphy", "On Love" and "How Proust can change your life"
Conversations with Umberto Eco, on the subject of "time"
viewing: Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
bar of the Month: "Belga" at Flagey, Brussels
last vista-visita: Herentals: where the living is easy, the woods green & the people real friendly
last concert: Wawadadakwa
last piece of action: "SS" by Josse de Pauw, our allready legendary actor-playwright
idiot of the week: the guy that got caught this morning, descending from the Thalys from A'dam, dressed in unwashed army fatigues. We don't understand why these low-life drug runners don't travel in Frist Class, dressed up in clean and cheap C&A suits. They would be able to make a sh*tload more monney

Webstek van de VIW:: Vlamingen in de Wereld

2002-07-05

it's that the day of the week again....

Friday Five

1. Where are you right now? in reality: sitting @ desk in office between Opéra and Madeleine (Paris/France/Earth/Solar System/...), virtually: arriving at Bxl's South station, on time, the moment right before you meet the One.
2. What have you lost recently? myself, in some labyrinthic area of Paris,
3. What was the first CD you ever purchased? Does that embarass you? Aerosmith "Toys in the Attic" - still a fine record, and kept in pristine shape, no embarassment whatsoever.
4. What is your favourite kind of writing pen? MontBlanc ballistic of course, but more generally any kind that comes with the real stuff, with real ink that smothers your hands when you attempt to fill it. Otherwise, anything available that "writes".
5. Favourite ice cream flavour? Wittamer's framboise with a "coulis" of fresh red fruits

2002-07-04

2002-07-03

A l'agenda:

WSSD: Rio +10 World Summit on Sustainable Development, Aug/Sept 2002 - Johannesbourg - South Africa

Défini en 1987 dans le rapport Bruntland,
le développement durable a pour objectif de
"satisfaire les besoins actuels sans compromettre l'aptitude des générations futures à satisfaire leurs propres besoins".

3WWF: 3rdWorld Water Forum: Osaka, Kyoto & Shiga, Japan: 16 - 23 march 2003

2002-07-02

"Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience
Knowing grass, I understand the meaning of persistence"

Hug a tree once in a while, ... you'll feel recharged with energy
Nieuw Stamcafé te Brussel

Found THE bar last Saturday::
Café Belga @ FLAGEY...

fashionable and popular at the same time, they serve their drinks over the largest "zinc" (counter) in the world. Brandnew, opened barely 10 days ago, and without publicity, 2000 people flocked together...
Flagey Bar is on a corner of the Flagey building, next to the "étangs d'Ixelles". The neighbourhood looks a bit run-down, but sooner or later it'll be incredibly fashionable, à la place St Géry. The same designer as Mapamundo, Roi des Belges & Bonsoir Clara, took care of the interior, quite retro, but respectful of the architectural heritage. Sooner or later we'll have our own "costes" tradition in Brussels

Flagey will be opening the last week of September. Be there...
News of the Day in France:
a corporate raider falls in disgrace, and is ousted by the north-american shareholders (Bronfman family), backed by Mr. Bébéar, éminence grise of the french bizniz establishment.

News of the Day in Belgium:
upbeat Mr. Anciaux, minister of culture resigns "because no one is interested in my politics anymore". Sniff,
we will miss you in the cultural sphere, especially since you increased the alloted budget by 50 percent. You wonder why he's getting the sack...
As a result, the Flemish regional governement is no longer legitimate, because a "bruxellois" (well, sort of...) is required for the legal composition. It's going to be a long hot summer. Yiehaa, a little AMOK in the usually dead months of the year.

Site of the Day for today: www.engrish.com, for fun with the japanese...speaking English...
Reading:
Michael Moore: "Stupid White Man... and other excuses for the sorry state of the Nation"
Listening to:
Nusrath Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook, a real world produced encounter of the Sufi Singer with the Canadian Composer
Travelling: without moving...
Link of the week: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Chapter 7: The end of a men: a hilarious account of how nature will eventually eradicate the men of the face of the earth. Not only have men been rendered obsolete by the advancements in science. Men are also by far the biggest threat to the earth's ecosystem....
It's meant to be funny, but underneath the surface, a sharp reality will bite you in the face.

As the saying goes:
"The planet doesn't care whether rainforests live or die, ...
Only humans do..."