The Easter Bunny Owns A SweatShop

Now I guess you can say I am an animal lover and all, I have had my fair share of pets and my mum can tell you a bizzillion of animal stories of having an animal farm in a Suburban st. But as of Wednesday, I have become very alarmed.

Wednesday at 9:30, Channel 10 premiered a show that they advertised as “controversial”, and that ladies and gentleman was an understatement. The show was presented by the chef Jamie Oliver and it was about the plight of the “product” chicken.

You might think, why on earth would i care? I might of had said the same thing, until i saw this show. It started off with Jamie revealing to the audience newly born chicks and he then asked the audience to seperate the males from females (this can be done easily by anyone who isn’t colour blind as males and females are of different colours). Jamie then took the seperated chicks and put the males in a large see through container. We were then told that he was going to show us what happens with chicks owned by factories. He then proceded to gas the chicks and kill them. Yes, he killed them right before my very eyes.

The reason for this show was to show the injustices givent to these chickens. Seeing the dead chicks I could not think of anything worse, until I saw the life the live chiks would expirience, and let me tell you, if they had a choice, they would take death. The chickens once they start to mature are shoved in an overcrowded tiny cage in which there is so little room that their feathers are ripped off from the bars of the metal cages. The chickens would be covered in their own filth and looked diseased. I asked myself, why does this happen, why do these poor creatures suffer such a life? Well the blame goes directly to you the reader and myself.

It was revealed in the show that for every chicken the farmer recieved the equivalent to 5 cents. Imagine how many chickens you would need to make some money. You would need hundreds of thousands and who has the money to properly care for chickens when they are worth so little? The things is saw were disgraceful and it needs to change. In some places it is changing, by 2010 it will be outlawed in Britain, but this will be the only place.

We need to stress the to help those who cant help themselves and we can start on a very small scale. Everybit counts. You can help simply by spending a little more by getting FREE RANGE EGGS and MEAT, check the labellingit will have it there. Sure it costs a little more, but isnt it worth knowing you were not responsible for the harming of creatures who cant help themselves?

-Daniel

The Lockout

So, Im guessing your thinking, “What on earth happened to Season 2?” Well the emabrrising fact is, i forgot my password, yep, it’s true. So ummm I will be returning with Season 2.0.1 yep, we have a small patch to be loaded, with small (very small) improvements to my writing.Sorry guys.Oh, I’m not going to forget again, I kinda tattooed it with pen on my forehead. I looked at it in the mirror, and well it’s backwards, but I can get passed it. 

Sex, Drugs And A Joystick

This is something that really gets into my grill. The portrayel of video games in society. Recently the Fox News Network in America had a very one sided, Today Tonight style discussion about the long released game, Mass Effect (this is the discussion here in it’s entirety).

 Now after watching that, it infuriated me, again media looking for the easiest thing to blame for why the children these days are so screwed up. We see that every single person except for the games expert, have no real idea on what this game is about. Now as many of you would know I love my games (especially World of Warcraft) and I have been playing them since I was about 4 years old. Now it is true that there is a sex scene in Mass Effect BUT it’s nothing that you wouldn’t see at 7:30pm on prime time tv. After that discussion, the author of that book was forced into apologizing for the statements she made as they were false and completely misinformed. Shame on you, grabbing all that publicity for something you had no idea about.

Now, to the core of the problem. Here comes a revalation “GAMES DO NOT MAKE YOU KILL YOUR FAMILY AND TAKE DRUGS!!!” No, it’s envionment and the upbringing parents have enforced. Grand Theft Auto doesn’t teach you to shoot a gun, or slaughter policeman. Mass Effect isn’t porn, your children probably get that from the internet. Call of Duty 4 isn’t a reqruiting game for Al Quiada and Man Hunt on the Wii doesn’t instruct in the art of killing someone with a plastic bag.

Again “PARENTS TAKE SOME DAMN RESPONSIBILITY!!!” 

Water, Water Everywhere

You wish. If like myself you live in Australia, you would know the scarcity of water and how every drop must be conserved.  The water crisis has escalated and we are now searching for new ways to create a water surplus. One of the cheapest and most readily available solutions was that to recycle waste water. This option is probably the best and most reliable if for not it’s only road block: the majority of people living in NSW.  When we think of waste water we see, umm well you know. Your probably thinking about it now. Poo water you say? But is it really? Firstly, lets look at where our existing drinking water comes from. We receive our water from Warragamba damn, a place surrounded by the bush and habitats. Not so bad right? Couldn’t possibly be worse than recycling water. Well, you could be wrong. Before it is processed the organisms that surround the Warragamba habitat use the damn for their very survival. Animals will clean, drink and even use it as a toilet, but this does not seem to bother us. Maybe its because we never think of this, maybe it’s about time you did.It is said that this recycled water is more clean than the drinking water we currently recieve because as it is recycled, it must go under more strict cleaning processors. Now contrary to the belief  this water does not have solid waste amongst it so when you take a drink your not going to get chunk of you know what in your mouth (Yes, i went there. Now lets move on). So what really holds us back? We have the best opportunity to relieve our suffering water level, but we can’t get past ourselves and our imaginations, there is nothing wrong, dangerous or distgusting about recycled water. Now, who wants to get me a glass of water? 

It’s Always Better On Holiday

Like a TV sitcom returning from it’s season 1 finale, Psychobabble Press comes back with season 2, with the same old writing that we call babble. Hopefully Season 2 of Psychobabble Press isn’t affected by the Writer’s Guild strike because umm, I want to finish this (btw I fully support their movement as 2 and a half pennies out of a dollar is definitely deserved by these guys. No writers, no show, simple as that). But before I can continue with my rants about how the world is, I must thank all the readers, but mostly I would like to thank; Amy, who helped me create and establish Psychobabble Press; Samantha, who helped wrote the most meaningful babble when I could not produce (Check out her post here); And thanks also go to Edward whose encouragement made me write more posts than my lazy hands could create.

So, I have had my holiday, now it’s time to get back to business and again, thanks.

Spider Holes and Nuclear Warheads

This blog seems to run on lies. I lie, >>Diplomat lies, Today Tonight lies but usually none of these lies are going to cause thousands of deaths and civil unrest. What really makes me unsettled is the fact that a government can lie and make up false premises to enter war. I am sick and tired of turning on the T.V to find another family ripped apart by the ravges of war, I am sick and tired of reading how we are giving “democracy” for those who have none.
When does it stop?
It can stop right now.
Really?
Yes, one thing more valuable than a war, is staying in power. Power comes straight from the people. People stop giving you power, you no longer have power.
No more war.
In 2003 Amercia entered a war against Iraq when “weapons of mass destruction” were suspected to be hiding in Iraq. They entered a war under the premise of two lies:
Lie #1: They said to us that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
Lie #2: They had us believe that Saddam Hussein had direct links to Al-Qaeda
Lie #3: They were to liberate and create a better life for Iraqies (although it may seem that this plan went ahead, it has in no way benifited Iraq in anyway)
The actions of one leader impacted on a whole nation and the families of tens of thousands. The US entered a war which inflicted casualties on both their own army and the civillians of Iraq. No one likes a war, especially one that is not sanctioned by the UN but this time it was different. Hadn’t we learnt from Vietnam or at least Operation Deseart Storm. This time it seemed that the majority of the public backed the move to invade Iraq. Usually we can learn from history, when we invaded Vietnam people were scared of Communists and the “Dominoe” effect in Asia. In 2003 people were scared of terrorism and the threat of mass destruction from rogue nations, thus this fear fuelled a fire that would lead an invasion of Iraq. Our fear blinded us and lead us to believe there were really “weapons of mass destruction”, alas, there were not. Even I admit i beleived the bullshit.
We don’t have to be affraid because the use of knowledge and asking why should be enough to cure us of the fear that plagues us, but because of our society that likes to be fed their information due to sheer laziness .
If we ask why, we may just be getting somewhere.
The Iraq war has come to be one of the biggest bluders of this early stage of the 21st century, but by having the knowledge to select the right leaders, wars like these can be avoided in the future.

The Game Of Connectivity

1. A computer game, first programmed in 1985.

For all those who are into technology, one thing can be said you should all know the one and only game named “Tetris”. If it weren’t for the man who came up with such an ingenious game, Alexey Pajitnov, what would all people around the world do when in need for procrastinating? Yes there is facebook, myspace and bebo, but even facebook has the Tetris application. In fact if it weren’t for that great application what would I have done in my spare time during the HSC? STUDY??!?! (Yeah right)
But what should be brought to your attention is something more superior and of more complexity involved to just what one may think such a straight forward game.

Life is such a complicated thing, to the extent where at times it is too hard to grasp and understand, however, a mate of mine, Daniel, found an easy way to comprehend it.

So what is the mystery to that famous question that knows one is unable to answer…simple the meaning to life is “TETRIS”. Yes you did read correctly blogers, “TETRIS” is in fact the meaning to life, or at least it holds the secret to the meaning of life and how the world works.

How?!?!? May be the question on your lips…well easy take each block for instance, each is different in their own way, due to colour, shape and size. So are human beings, no two are alike. Furthermore each block has a purpose within the game. Without a certain block being positioned in a certain way, one is unable to push forward in the game. Humans are the same. One may think that they can do everything themselves, but at the end of the day need the aid of others in order to triumph in their life, and hence reach the next level in their lives.
Levels; anyone who has played the game would know that there are levels within Tetris. The better you are the higher you get, and the more challenging the game gets. Life funnily enough, has the same concept. As an individual progresses day to day challenges arise. Like the certain piece one need in order to complete the line…there are certain tasks needed to complete in order to overcome the particular challenge.

Each colour of the blocks are different, but have you ever pondered why? The most obvious inside the box answer would be so as to differentiate where each block should go and how blocks the same colour have the same shape, however, if colour blind that would not be of any help. The outside the box answer would be that each colour represents a race within the world. And each race has a purpose here on earth. Without one or the other there would be no equilibrium.

Thus through such a simple ingenious game, one is able to seek all the answers they need in regards to life. And so I end it at this the secret to life is merely a game, simple yet affective, this game acts as a metaphor for what life and the world really means. Life is merely a game with many challenges. At the end of the day it is really down to you to conquer the level and move on to the next challenge put in front of you.
–Salt’n'Pepin

Ask Why, Asshole

Take a seat boys and girls and I will tell you a story of magic, wonder, disbeleif and the greediest men in the world.
No, this is no Lord Of The Rings style story (it’s much better trust me), this is the story of Enron.
Now, I’m not going to pretend I know much about all the dealings of Enron, nor do I want to (trust me, it would take years and a PHD in Economics to fully understand), but I am aiming to give you the idea in this story. As all stories go, this too has a moral to be learnt and it will become ever so clear as I continue.
So, firstly, what is Enron. Enron began with the deregulation of natural energy, this basically means that tight restrictions controled by the government were lifted.
Enter Kenneth Lay (founder of Enron) he saw that deregulation meant money. Lots of it. But lots and lots of money wasnt enough, not nealry enough, Kenneth Lay wanted more so he set out to change the way natural resources were dealt with.
Enter Jeffery Skilling, Jeff would become CEO of Enron because of the way he changed the company. Jeff thought up of the wonderful idea of treating the natural resources industry as it’s own stockmarket where resources were traded like stocks and bonds.
So now we have Enron, not only producing its own energy, but also buying other peoples energy to sell. So you ask, how does this make the 111 Billion dollars it earned in 2000? Well this is where the story starts and it starts to get interesting.
Skilling became the idea man, a somewhat profit (Get it? It’s supposed to be prophet not profit. Hahahaha, oh forget it). Skilling used a method called Mark to Market accounting, this is where an estimate is made on future profits. So, this meant that Enron could estimate what it would earn from it’s assests in the future and present them as the current earnings.
WHAT!?!?!?!
So they could say, hmmm, this year we will make ummm, 111 Billion dollars?
YES!!!!
And this meant stocks skyrocketed.
At one time they were worth $90 a stock.
Doesnt that mean everyone wins?
Well here comes the downfall.
Mistake #1: Dabohl Project-
This was were they decided to dip their greedy hands into an untouched market, India. So they built a major plant to produce electricity overlooking one major flaw, India COULD NOT afford the energy. Although it was built, it was never used, it lays in financial ruin. Enron dumped 1 Billion dollars into this project but because of Mark to Market accounting they estimated that if Dabohl did take off it would make them rich. They posted this profit and executives recieved large bonuses.
Mistake #2: Caliafornia-
Now this was my favourite mistake, very entertaining. Enron owned the electricity for California thus it allowed them to switch on and off the power whenever they liked. Enron in the West coast was basically controlled by Enron traders, these people were ruthless, nasty people. They switched off the power and gave “rolling blackouts” to the West coast in order to make it seem like electricity was limited and in shortage. This meant that prices wet up for electricity, even though this meant that people were worse off. In a recorded conversation between two traders, one was quoted as saying (this is 100% real):
Enron Trader1- All that money you guys stole from those poor Grandmothers in Caliafornia
Enron Trader2- Yeah Grandma Mille, man
Enron Trader1- She’s the one who couldn’t figure out how to fucking vote on the Butterfly Ballot. Now she wants her fucking money back for all the power you charged up her ass
Enron Trader2- (laughs)
So, the West coast traders were making millions, infact they made 2 Billion for Enron, but it negatively charged their stocks and they came under investigation for criminal prosecutions.

Ok, so now we have Enron bleeding money, but still they were making a profit. How could this be? It’s impossible, except they had a card up their sleeve, Arthur Andersen accounting. These magicians moved Enron’s debts to their other “companies” most of these were fraudgalent. For instance the mysterious Lebanese banker Mr M Yass, or My Ass.

But it all came to an end when Enron ran out of ideas on how to keep proving they were making a profit and finally stocks crashed from $90 to 30c when it became bankrupt in October 2001. 20,000 of it’s employees lost 2 Billion in retirement funds and 1.8 Billion in wages. Many people are now unable to retire and will be working for the rest of their lives.
Both Jeff Skilling and Kenneth Lay are serving 21 year sentences.
Yes boys and girls, the moral.
Greeds a bitch.
As the Enron saying goes Ask Why, Asshole.

Special thanks to the movie and book: Enron, The Smartest People In The Room.

2007 Wrap-up

Well, it turned midnight and I happened to be laying in bed (i’m really sick) when I started to think about the year that was 2007. Then I had to type it up.
So what happened in 07?
Can it be said to be a year of difference?
A year of change?
In many ways… No
Yes, no change has come out of this year, now, I’m no peasamist but I am a realist.
Sure we have had a change in Prime Minister, ummm thats all I can think of. It’s a shame when disease and poverty run rampant and the world is self imploding from environmental disasters.
So why was this, well in my opinion it can be broken up into three groups that contributed to the slugish way this year moved. These catagories are:
1. The media
2. Government
3. You, yes you, I’m pointing right at you.
Ok so lets start with the basics, something everyone knows about. This year was the year of the most stupid role models in the history of role models (if you didn’t notice I am talking about people like Britteney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton). How can these people be news? All they do is drag society further and further back into pit of disgust. Really, how far do they have to go before they are classified as unfit for news status. Back in the 60’s Elvis Presely was never shown from the waste down because he was seen as way too provocative. Now if his dancing was enough to cause him to be publicly outlawed, why is it so different today? Our news was plagued with news of Britteney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, these people disgust me, and I don’t know why they arn’t publicly shamed for their actions. What do they have to do, kill someone? They set a bad example for young kids and they are only contributing to the backwards turn we have taken in society.
The government comes next. It’s like we are being run by a Magic 8-Ball.
Does global warming exist?
Don’t count on it.
Do we abolish debt for third world countries?
My sources say no
Should we continue to overun defenseless governments in the name of democracy?
Without a doubt
How many meetings of governments did we have? We had the G8 Summit (always a nice place for riots), Kioto Protocol Summit and most memorable APEC meetings just to name a few. What came of these meetings? Virtually nothing. Nothing. Why is this? I can’t explain it. It’t leaves me speechles to examine what governments have acheived to solve world problems. Maybe here is an answer.
THINK GLOBALLY NOT LOCALLY.
We need to solve global problems before we can fix our own. Why? Because if we don’t, what world will we have left to fix. I know many people who would disagree with this as they are more interested with our economy and making money rather than fixing the environment and poverty and these people bring me to my next point and our final point.
We all have a claim to making a difference, I for one have started this blog, anything to make a difference. Any small action can gather and in turn become a major occurance. People must give up the view of “I’m no one, I can’t make a difference” because if we all tried to make a difference we can make the world a much better place.
So, yes this was a year of nothing but there is always 2008!
Happy New Year everybody!!!
–Daniel

Captain Planet

Ladies and gentleman, I present to you Captain Planet’s obituary:
Born: 1990
Died: Sometime in the 21st Century
Cause of Death: Mullet which controlled the brain melted from global warming

Yes, there is no hope now. While governments argue over Kioto protocols and energy consumption decisions Captain Planet died.
Yep, governments piss away their time arguing while endagered species die, forests are knocked down, polar ice caps melt and habitat destruction is on a massive scale.
Why? Well, in fear of being unpopular, I place the blame solely on you, the reader.
People no longer care for the environment, when it comes to deciding between comfort or the environment, it’s only “natural” (joke for all you HSC students of Advanced English) to chose the comfort.
Here is the thing… STOP BEING LAZY!!!
How hard is it to turn off a light when a room is not being used, you can even sit in the dark with the t.v as your light.
Walk and use public transport for those shorter trips (believe me, you will not regret it when you skip all that traffic), it’s not that hard.
No?
You can’t live without your car or creature comforts.
Ok, fine but you can also live with hotter tempretures, higher sea levels and unbearable pollution.
Have fun with that.
Now it’s not too hard to see this, so I have put it into a nice little diagram
You–> Pollution–> Higher Tempreture–> Polar Ice Caps Melt/Animals die–> Higher Sea Levels–> Costal Destruction–> Thousands Die and Millions are homeless.
We then eventually get the catastrophic event of extreme weather phenomena’s which can lead to disarsterous effects.
All of this because you cannot turn a light switch off or stop using your cars for those shorter travels.
Please on the behalf of myself and our recently departed hero Captain Planet, help reduce the effects of global warming.
–Daniel