Bad news

...there are a few events that can be associated through almost visible lines that eventually will reveal the great picture, even though you can not make out the final strokes, even though this picture is just a faint sketch, because like a good mystery novel the important notes, clues, hints, the masterminds behind the curtains, are unreachable. There are a lot of people that try to assume what will happen, what the multinationals have planned long time ago, or whoever weaves the plot, in order to achieve world domination (like brain in pinky and brain!!! although brain always failed to achieve his ultimate goal), by controlling the economy, the governments, the masses and finally the individual, preferably in this order. Few people deciding over the fate of billions. Governments, unwilling, for any reason, to stand up and act in favor of the citizens, for reasons probably unknown. Tragic misdirection of funds (from the view of the many), and labor, keep making the rich people reacher and the poor poorer. Since we live in a world dominated by imperialism and capitalism it is an expected fate. We are blinded from our urge for consumption of products, as the one I'm currently using to deliver you those thoughts, keeping us in constant search for the best, the fastest the one with the best style, with the most functions, and so on, to keep our minds away from the problems that keep surrounding us, and we like it as it is, no worries, means a happy life. We using technological achievements to keep ourselves occupied, to get away from the boredom of the contemporary life, to get ourselves safe from everything evil. It reminds me of this expression:

see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evilWe tend to resemble those three little monkeys, trying to keep away from evil, although it exist, happy in our ignorance.

This is human nature, selfish, arrogant and self-destructive. Exceptions exist to verify the rule.

But for how much longer? How long our empathy, indifference will last?

What am I referring to with that cryptic prologue? Basically to the latest(s) world wide crisis, the plural under the brackets defines the variety. I do not know how it started or why (although I think that it all resides in the those aspects of human nature described from as the 7even deadly sins)!!!???. Anyway, in a few words, I am referring to what I consider as the greatest crisis till now, that seems to just getting build up. It's not about the oil, about the banks or the downfall of the stock markets, I am referring to a crisis of the most basic human needs.
The lack of food, the high food prices, around the world that is more noticeable in countries where the daily salary of a great percentage of the population is no more than a dollar.

One of those is Haiti, where people where killed during food riots.

from timesonline
from msnbc
from bbc

In Zimbabwe also in the middle of political crisis, during the elections (the link is in Greek, sorry), while millions are disappearing, in a country that a decade ago was one of the most prosperous in Africa.

from bbc

Also in India

from economic times
from down to earth

Asia Food Crisis, facing Rice shortage,

Cambodia
Vietnam
Thailand

Those are just the peak, according to the wiki on world food crisis. The World Bank has donated 10 million dollars and advices other countries to do so( I heard that one from the news on the TV), a total amount of 500 million dollars should be raised to avoid a crisis in much larger scale. Some articles and news reporting sites give the magnitude of this crisis.
USA and UN express their concern, but it appears that they are capable to do only that.
The World Food Program cannot afford the raise in food prices, UN strangle to keep the program going.
France one of the first countries (?) to give 60 million euros trying to avoid the worst. But my opinion is that giving just money, the amount is insignificant, will not solve anything, the problem will remain as long as the causes are unsolved. As a Chinese anecdote says, if you want to keep a poor man well fed, do not give him fish to eat, teach him to fish.
The main causes of this phenomenon are the extreme rise in oil prices and the usage of fertile land as source for biofuel, and of course the climate changes (one more site). Also other reasons exist, such as animal industry, millions of food is wasted to feed our beloved cats and dogs, and I do not want to know what else, keeping the products of the land away from the farmers, and the citizens.


To end this a few more links regarding the food crisis, comments, facts and analysis of the phenomenon.

2007–2008 world food price crisis
Global food crisis looms as climate change and fuel shortages bite
Food price hikes spark riots
US Food Riots Much Closer Than You Think
Already we have riots, hoarding, panic: the sign of things to come?
Riots and hunger feared as demand for grain sends food costs soaring

Food riots revisited - public protests in the seventeenth to the nineteenth century
this one is a rather big article and I haven't read it all...will try
and a site from wiki that try to document the enlisted riots of human history:
List of riots

Finally I've finished it!!!

Top 10 Reasons To Have Sex Tonight (from cbnnews)

Top subject on every conversation, on every text, in our life, is without doubt sex. Even when everything goes wrong, the pressure rising up, we look for the comfort of the opposite gender, to have a person on our side, to have sex with, making love, for the romantic ones.
Once more, from cbn this time, we have all the good reasons to get out of our clothes, literally. Ten reasons to be more exact, in headlines those are:

1. Sex Relieves Stress
2. Sex Boosts Immunity
3. Sex Burns Calories
4. Sex Improves Cardiovascular Health
5. Sex Boosts Self-Esteem
6. Sex Improves Intimacy
7. Sex Reduces Pain
8. Sex Reduces Prostate Cancer Risk
9. Sex Strengthens Pelvic Floor Muscles
10. Sex Helps You Sleep better

This articles reminds me of those chain mails we receive almost everyday, usually from friends. The purpose of those mails is to raise our "stats", such as fortune, luck and charisma, by forwarding them to as many people as exist in their address book. All these for just to get laid. It reminds me of those RPG games and the items a character receives usually randomly. It is the only way for a character to achieve a heroic status, in order to be able to finally defeat the final enemy. These kind of mails magically, found their rightful place into my garbage bin. Anyway, as you can read there are ten sentences above, all starting with the sex word, implying that action. I could say that reasons 1, 5,10 maybe 6 and 7 are known to everyone that had sex. One can argue about the beneficial of having sex without being an expert, with a pHD in medical science, that kind of expert, for hours and he will probably be right.
Those kind of arguments do not solve any problem, it is not like visiting a doctor, who examines you and then prescribes a dozen of medicines. Not even a law that you are forced to obey, otherwise there will be consequences, have sex or I'll sue your ass, although I tend to believe that such a law should be interesting (this though reminds me a little bit of a comedy from Aristophanes the Ecclesiazusae. These kind of news reminds me of those advices you get from parents or friends to be more socialized and so on.
Back on the subject, in those arguments and scientific observations or experimental verifications, there is always one MAJOR factor that is absent. Two or more people should be active to have sex, one person alone leads to masturbation or to the "making love to the one you love most" situation. It will be a relief, if one could walk into a place, spot a person with whom would love to have sex, and vice versa, and accomplish it by mentioning those ten reasons. That would be beneficial cause part of the stress is caused by the fact that finding someone to be with is troublesome and usually at least one of the people involved hasn't the courage to move on.
Still "Top 10 Reasons To Have Sex Tonight " does not sound so much promising.

Police Officers and Protesters

I got that one from the digg and I just keep on wandering a great WHAT IF...
What If every Police Officer would treat every citizen in a same manner?

...enjoy your time protesting...

...I just don't want you running of the streets getting hit by a car...

I believe that one should be considered as the line of the month, so with every single word delivered from the officer.

Anonymous web posting may become illegal in Kentucky

So, the next one has to do once more with the freedom of speech in the internet era, under the safety of anonymity. This one from Kentucky, news taken from Betanews

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews March 11, 2008, 2:31 PM

Although it's not exactly clear how the law could be enforced, the lawmaker said outlawing anonymous posting could curb online bullying.

Kentucky Representative Tim Couch introduced the bill in the state's Legislature last week. Under the policy, anyone who contributes to a Web site will have to submit a name, e-mail address, and mailing address.
This essentially would ban anonymous posting, as the contributor's name would have to be listed with the post. If the site still decides to allow for anonymous posting, a $500 fine would apply for the first offense and $1,000 for each subsequent offense.
Couch seems to be directing his ire at sites like the increasingly popular JuicyCampus.com, which encourages students to post anonymous, and most times slanderous, comments about others. He says that the bullying problem is significant in his own district in eastern Kentucky. However, at the same time he says the bill could be difficult to enforce if signed into law.
A local news station said it polled residents of Couch's district and found mixed results. While some saw it as a method to combat online harassment, others saw it in violation of the First Amendment.

I find it a little bit ridicule and more importantly frightening.

So let me get this straight. In USA and particularly in Kentucky, a new law was voted (?) to protect people from being bullied. A law to divide citizens:

some saw it as a method to combat online harassment, others saw it in violation of the First Amendment

In Greece there was a big fuzz a few weeks ago when it was discovered that a blog site (in Greek) maintained by "bloggers" (I despise that word), tried to blackmail a few high ranked persons (as the article mentions this story is more than a year old), from journalists to politicians, with the threat of exposing their illegal actions to the public. The revelations were mostly false accusations with intention to hurl the reputation of the "victims".

I hope that that case will not set an example to the rest of the world to blackmail by abusing the freedom of speech and the anonymity of the internet, because the outcome will be terrible. Certainly, governments and companies will have a milestone to use in their efforts to control the internet and silencing the unwanted voices.

Darkness

For more than four days the workers from the public electric service (our friends call us ΔΕΗ-"dae") are on strike (if I'm not mistaken they still are and as of Wednesday it was announced that their efforts will keep up in greater magnitude). Everyday at noon, for a duration of three hours the area I live in was experiencing scheduled power outages (blackout). But, on Saturday the 8th, the ones that are in charge of the scheduled electricity losses, changed their minds. They rescheduled the whole schedule (!), for our amusement.

As it was scheduled, at that Saturday noon we experienced electricity loss, but not for long, in fact it lasted a whole minute, or so, nice. Say goodbye to my microwave, may it rest in peace in the micro-appliances heaven (I won't write about that). One of the major points is that in the official site there is a complete lack of information about Saturday. No scheduled blackouts, nothing. We had a good Sunday, but Monday, clean Monday, even if the news report reassured the clients, me for example, that there will be no blackout, it strike at two o' clock P.M. and lasted for about 2 hours (that's not the story I want to tell either, so, I won't get in any further details).

Saturday is the day that "dae", instead of providing us an enjoyable quiet noon (you have no idea how much noise is being produced from electric appliances, constantly working 24 hours a day, inside your own house, I won't mention the noise from outside), spending it in my back yard, staring at my garden (no exotic women next door to spy on), drinking a chilled frappe, reading one of my books (and that's life, since my current state could be described as unemployed, I can relax a little bit longer, well not to long cause I have a thesis to finish), we had one of those ordinary noisy beautiful shiny days.
That was one disappointment, but still I could place my vinyls on the turnable and rock the neighborhoud. Not too loud, do not want to disturb them, only to entertain them, and "who's afraid of the big bad Monk" is an excellent choice, and "Blue Train" lines up.
But, "dae" never meant to hurt my feelings, so to my surprise, we experienced a late afternoon blackout. Unexpectedly, the room filled with shadows, colors disappeared and neutral grey filled everything. By the time I finished unplugging the electric appliances, darkness surrounded me. Not absolute though, since in a city as Athens light is everywhere.
I opened the lid of my laptop and shiny bluish light blinded me. I found a couple of candles light them up and silence filled the room. Static was the only sound I could hear, the hissing from the candles and the bells responding to the wind. Blackouts during the noon when the sun is illuminating this side of the earth might be OK, but after sunset blackouts are almost horrible. My first thought after the realization of the situation was "now what?" what is for me to do without light, without electricity during the night? In an empty house, but for the candles. I sat back and stared the malformed shadows on the wall, dancing to the rhythm of the candles. Stand up, open the dark refrigerator (now this is an odd image, since we are used to the light of the refrigerator as the sole light source in a dark kitchen), find a bottle of wine open it up, pure some in a short glass of wine, resumed my previous state and continued to stare at the dancing shadows.
I tried to think of the time before electricity, what normal people did, every night. Only one thing came to my mind, sleeping. Finishing their dinner under the candle's light, a few hours after the sunset, after the end of their day-jobs, chattering a little bit about the events of the day, cleaning up the left overs from the dinner, taking care of children, if any, and after that straight for theirs beds.
The day will start once more as soon as the first sun-ray break-through the vastness of darkness.
Electricity was restored and I got up, opened my Desktop PC and did what I did.
For the modern human blackouts are nothing more than waiting time, waiting till electricity will be restored so that we continue to do what people were doing hundreds of years ago without the existence of electricity. Trying to spend their free time. Others will sit back in the sofa, changing the channels of TV programs with the remote, others will listen to music, surf the internet, read the newspaper or read a book, talk to their friends and be occupied with other wonderful activities of our everyday life.

P.S. If any mistake, failure to comprehend or misspellings is caused by another blackout, an hour ago, again without notice and by all means out of schedule, actually I'm starting to believe that there is no schedule.
P.S. Lord praise the UPS!!!

FACEBOOK.COM

What is facebook? Answer: one of the most famous social networking sites IN THE WORLD (pffff).
I have also signed in and I'm active. Not under my nickname, "trotos", but, rather, under my real life name (hehe it will not be revealed, although all my friends and maybe more people know my real-life personality). This revealing of identity is not common when browsing the net, registering to sites, or talking to chat groups. Everyone wants to move in the vastness of the internet under the safety of anonymity, to speak up one's mind or even to be what he ever wanted to be, without "the real life" to criticize him or make fun out of him (in person anyway).
For once this "revelation" goes with some happy surprises.
For me one of this welcomed surprises, came from an ex-neighbour, with whom we were good friends almost 20 years ago, back in the days of innocence and soccer-playing in the alleys (yes those mythical places existed once). She was just looking around faces in the "search for people" option and my lovable face, popped up, like a politician's fart, waking up memories of the past. "Where have I seen this toad!!!" she would probably thought, but she didn't hesitate, she just grub the keyboard and send me a message, despite my toadish appearance. "this person wants to add you as a friend", appeared in my screen, and I was amazed that a woman would like to add me as her friend. But, as I was reading her name and watching her photo it occurred to me that I know her from somewhere, so I confirmed the add friend invitation. In a few days we were talking over the phone about the good OLD days.
Some thing happened recently when I received another invitation from a colleague of mine from the academic era,
the traitor now lives in a different town, so it is not soooo easy for me to give him a visit, but I will work things out. Although till now I haven't wrote anything of importance to him, cause I I'm bored to death (and that is unacceptable).
But beware, and be advised, facebook once probably was a fresh air to the social networking community, but I think that lately it stinks of money (maybe this one sounds a little bit harsh, but If you read the various reports on how much the facebook worths, and how managers from various big companies whining about the money companies are loosing cause the employs are preoccupied with the facebook. and rumor has it that from sometime in the future it will ask for a subscription -that one could be a hoax-. Also a lot of people, and companies residue in the facebook hopping to attract more clients.
The article "The Facebook economy" is describing in more details the road to success for facebook.com but also ways to get money out of it. I believe this one is worth reading.

For example, download iLike, an app that lets you sample and purchase music, and the developer gets a 5 percent kickback if you end up buying songs from iTunes or Amazon.com (Charts, Fortune 500).

Last but no least, facebook, is not as safe as we think it is (previous post for details). And most of the so called applications for me look like the evolution of the chain-mails and the spam-mails, so please take no offense if I immediately ignore or delete any invitation-message that applies to the previous categories. Also, there is the case of exploiting our personal data for economic interests without asking us first, personal data as sex, likes, occupation, education and so on are delivered to companies so that will feed us with more personalized advertisement. A lot of articles exist over the net about the mining of personal data and a few of them are:

Do internet companies protect personal data well enough?
Facebook Sharing Too Much Personal Data With Application Developers
MySpace and Facebook Plan to Use Personal Data for "Targeted Advertising"
Facebook questioned over data protection

BUT, I will continue to use it since I find it useful and sometimes even funny and relaxing, but I do not know for how long. Also I'm thinking of removing every application, except maybe a few, and use it as a tool to communicate with people, usually with the ones that are hard to find.

P.S.: Is my English terrible, or it's just me?

Update 06-02-08: As a friend wrote at the comment session, my English IS terrible, but it's OK for facebook. And I expect it to be OK for any social networking site, for any instant messaging application.
Yep, it's a fact my English is terrible, so are my Greek...so, no harm done. But, I also forgot to finish a sentence...

Update 07-02-08: This articles will again be revised, since everytime I read it I find it incomplete and horrible.

Update 08-02-08: This should be the final

Radiohead, a new album, but not a review

I believe that most of you know that Radiohead (Ραδιοκέφαλος) have finished recording their latest album, In Rainbows, the forthcoming cd/vinyl release should be available after the 3rd of December. I am also aware that a great deal of you also have visited the corresponding site and downloaded the album either free or by paying a fee (those not informed of this, will now be considered as such!!!). No big deal right?
Not quite...
...Radiohead are not just a group, since they considered to be one of the greatest bands in the world. So when Radiohead decide to "sell" their new album, directly from their site, by giving us the chance to pay as much as we want, to download the album, (or to preorder a great edition of it, double cd, vinyl and a hardcover illustration book, I'm drooling here, without the labels) it will be an opportunity for various sources to do their hypothesis and conclusions about the outcome.
From Bittorrent search engines to market analysts. even slashdot.com, all making their comments on this movement, as do I, while others, go even farther, considering it to be a hard kick in the balls for the music industry.
Even TIME magazine has an article on this, including a piece from an interview of Thom York, describing the music industry as a decaying business model. A statement, that is backed up by:

an A&R executive at a major European label:
"This feels like yet another death knell, If the best band in the world doesn't want a part of us, I'm not sure what's left for this business."

As of 12th of October Radiohead Made $6-$10 Million on Initial Album Sales (depending on the average amount payed for downloading the album) as I was informed from WIRED

I'm thinking...will they got a lawsuit from RIAA, from music corporations, for "freely" distributing an album via the internet, even if Radiohead has finished with EMI from 2004, and by doing so, encouraging the "leeching/seeding" community to burn up some more the copper telephone wires?

A few more artists seem to follow this business plan, one of the Trent Raznor, the Nine Inch Nails man, as well as Prince(?couldn't find that one). Even a record label as magnatune and artists as Saul Williams.

And this lovable guy (Trent Raznor) has said:

A few months ago, Trent Reznor (frontman of the band Nine Inch Nails), was in Australia doing an interview when he commented on the outrageous prices of CDs there. Apparently now his label, Universal Media Group is angry at him for having said that. During a concert last night, he told fans, '...Has anyone seen the price come down? Okay, well, you know what that means — STEAL IT. Steal away. Steal and steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealin'. Because one way or another these mother****ers will get it through their head that they're ripping people off and that's not right.

And to finish this read that one:

The Impact of Music Downloads and P2P File-Sharing on the Purchase of Music: A Study for Industry Canada

Description: Industry Canada undertook a music file sharing study during 2006-07 to measure the extent to which music downloads over peer-to-peer file sharing networks, for which the sound recording industry receives no remuneration, affect music purchasing activity in Canada. The data used for this analysis are from a Decima Research survey conducted between April and June, 2006, on behalf of Industry Canada. The report, prepared by University of London researchers, Birgitte Andersen and Marion Frenz, found that music downloads have a positive effect on music purchases among Canadian downloaders but that there is no effect taken over the entire population aged 15 and over.

that's all for now...keep on sharing...

200 years ago, history lesson

It was the 4th quartet of 1824 that the Sultan with the help of the Egyptian forces, trained under the western military forces, sets to annihilate the successful Greek revolution. Two forces, different in the way of training compared to the chaotic past organization of Ottoman troops, set to deliver mayhem, to eliminate any resisting Greeks. Ibrahim Pasha, son of Muhammad Ali, With an army of almost 15.000 (not 100% sure about this one) sets to Methoni in 1825, without any force to oppose him, with a single purpose:

To Burn down or chop every tree, to kill everyone who will oppose him, and will not yield. And he succeeded. For 2 years, and even under the resistance of the released Kolokotronis and his guerrilla warfare, Ibrahim managed to take over Peloponnese.
The disaster was so great that Kolokotronis send a mail to Ibrahim telling him that:

Not the branches of tress to cut from us, not the trees, not our homes you burned down,even if stone under stone to be left, we'll never yield. Even if, the trees to cut them down, the soil that doesn't want to be lifted up, the same soil that raised them, this soil will be ours for ever and it will reborn everything.

free translation...the original as follows:

Όχι τα κλαριά να μας κόψεις, όχι τα δέντρα, όχι τα σπίτια που μας έκαψες, μόνο πέτρα πάνω στην πέτρα να μείνει, εμείς δε προσκυνούμε. Τι, τα δέντρα μας αν κόψεις, τη γη δε θέλει να την σηκώσεις και η ίδια γη που τα έθρεψε, αυτή η ίδια γη μένει δική μασ και τα ματακάνει.

The reasons for the complete defeat were: the best strategic minds of Greece where in prison or pursued as criminals, the Greece was under the bad influence of foreign forces, the government under the presidency of Georgios Kountouriotis not able to handle the crisis, and the people not having faith to the government.

Peloponnese was turned into a dry land, was deserted, people were fleeing either to Sicily or to the coast line of Ottoman Empire, to get away from the disaster inflicted by Ibrahim. The land recovered after 100 years.

It seems that History repeats itself. But this time we do not needed any Ibrahim, or any Ottoman troops. We managed to bring total annihilation by ourselves. Cause, don't get fooled by political declarations of salvation to all Greeks by blaming the others, pointing the finger to everyone else but ourselves, we all have part in this.

I that throw the cigarette out of the speeding car into the dry land, my need for more money, for a "better place" to raise my children into the "forest", any action that is believed to put the blame on the other political party, of burning the weeds. Of the Greek way, as a nation, of the government (of every government) THAT consists of local Representatives that are responsible for theirs specific area of jurisdiction, of the ministers, the authorities, the leaders, all elected by the people...and goes on and on. Because I believe that in this case its not only the head of the fish that stinks it the whole fish.

And a final though is:
will this disaster be enough to awaken us, the dormant fellow Greeks;
It sounds as rhetorical as ever. Anyway I hope that I made a point and not been misunderstood.

Talk to you when I feel like it, or when the Navy permits it...

P.S.: minor spelling corrections. 19/09/2007

The Day After Tomorrow

...will it ever come?
PHOTO IS FROM NASA's "VISIBLE EARTH" obtained ON 2000 (not recent OK? but to the point)

Once more the world has noticed this small country called Greece, but again not for something we are proud of. Almost the 2/3 of Peloponnese is turned to ashes, over 52 persons dead, and respiratory problems for thousands of people as most part of Peloponnese is covered with thick smoke. It seems that there is no end to this horror that is spreading through Greece, mostly at Peloponnese.
Fire raging on, from numerous locations to devour anything or everyone that stands in its way. As if it will rage on even through the sea.
People have died, people will probably die during the night of Saturday 25th of August and the death toll will probably rise, at the morning of Sunday the 26th. Hopefully, I will be mistaken, and wish I am.


CNN,photos
EL PAIS
ABC NEWS
HERALD TRIBUNE
THE GUARDIAN
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MSN NEWS
AL JAZEERA
RADIO CANADA
LE FIGARO

I believe that there are numerous hypothesis on this profound disaster. I know that we all have listen, read, talk about the why who or where and how, but in the end as history dictates and to quote Einstein:

...Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.

I will come back to this subject and edit a few things, as I usually do with every article.

Music A personal Afair

OuR DearesT FrienD Has ReturneD FroM The LanD Of "if-you-pay-a good-lawyer-you-can-almost-do-anything" and many other , BUT RidiculouS NewS Are FlooDing IN. AnD My FavoritE Ones Are RelateD To MusiC RoyaltieS and THE ExtremitY OF RIAA ActionS. SO...
I've TolD YOU AbouT The BIG HAND of Darkne$$ ThaT AfteR The "SuccesfuL" ProsecutioN OF InterneT UserS ThaT ARE SHARING MUSIC, actually "stealing" under theirs terms, AND InterneT RadiO StationS...the Fullne$$ OF TimE is HerE and TheiRs ProtectivE Wings HAD SpreaD to OtheR areas ThaT NeedeD TheiRs ImmediatE DivinE IntervantioN.
ONE of ThosE ARE YouR LocaL CoffeE ShoPs (the American Term for CAFE, avec accent)...

So In the future,
AuthoritY WilL CrosS ChecK if your MP3 PlayeR IncludE LegaL CopieS of OweneD MusiC
.............. WilL ArresT You if The MusiC is TOO LOUD and CAN be HearD FroM OtheR PeoplE
.............. OfficerS WitH A WarreN EscordinG LwayerS WilL BreaK UP a PartY and ArresT PeoplE NOT FOR BEING TO LOUD, BuT FoR BroadcastiC MusiC, without PayinG a PennY for ThiS Action.
.............. No MoRE BeacH PartieS WitH a GuiTaR UndeR a StarfuLL SKY
.............. No MorE WhisperinG of SongS to The EAR oF YOUR LOVER, SinginG LullabieS to YOUR ChilD.
It COulD EveN go to the extreme case of:
BeinG aBle To SinG a FamiliaR TunE WhilE BathinG ONLY if those bloody ROYALTIES were PAID.

CASE CLOSED

Fear Of The Black Blog

Frankly I would like to talk about the 10th planet of our solar system Xena or later called Eris (if Pluto is still considers to be a planet) or even proufs for the existence of dark matter (another one) and dark energy, but more earthly matters dictates me to post something else


(image from libertarian)
All of us who are writing down a few thoughts, that includes any kind of criticism, are constantly under the sleepless eye of Greek authorities and subsequently to be arrested for criticism. The triggering for this post is the trial of Antonis Tsipropoulos tommorow. If this sounds a bit confusing then let me tell you the story as it is...or as I have understand it.

Once there was a blog that its purpose, as we read, was to collect via RSS feeds information from Greek blogs and hospitalize them under one roof so that visitors could find what they want, sounds nice isn't it? From the blogme (in Greek):

Το Blogme directory ήταν κατάλογος που ταξινομούσε τα blogs, ανάλογα με το περιεχόμενο τους, πχ, αθλητισμός, τέχνες, κλπ,(όπως πχ το in.gr), έτσι ώστε να διευκολύνει τον επισκέπτη να περιηγηθεί εύκολα μέσα στις κατηγορίες που τον ενδιαφέρουν.

But one link referred to a site that satirised Dimostenis Liakopoulos (nope I will not place a link to his site, will not give him the pleasure), was enough for D.L. to sue him, that led to his arrest for "criminal actions".. He didn't even made a comment about D.L., but was pointed as collaborator. I will not link to the controversial site, but at blogme you can find it, cause I am also afraid of being persecuted.

WHAT THE FUCK

Constitution of Greece, article 14 (yeah right)

...stated at his site (yes he is the owner of about the freedom of speech...but in this country (God and whatever divine creature makes it one) only the powerful ones are entitled of freedom of any kind. As Antonis Tsipropoulosblogme), although numerous sites (including in.gr, and foreign ones as youtube) does "physically" store videos of D.L. (also the ones that satirise him) or shows on TV he was the one to be arrested.

and once more we are known world wide for the ridiculousness of the authorities

BBC about the Internet Governance Forum held on Athens from Monday 29 October 2006 to Thursday.
1030 ATHENS (0830 GMT)

The Internet Governance Forum has only just started but already there is controversy surrounding freedom of speech online.

There are several reports on the blogosphere that the Greek authorities arrested a man last week for linking to blog posts hosted in America that satirise a Greek businessman.

Antonis Tsipropoulos was arrested, say reports, for linking to a website which satires Dimostenis Liakopoulos, a Greek tele-evangelist.

Mr Tsipropoulos is the administrator for a Greek blog search engine, called blogme.gr.

Bloggers are describing this as a "spectacular own goal" by the Greek authorities, especially given the fact the country's prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis and minister of transport and communication, Michalis Liapis, are attending the IGF's opening ceremony.

The Guardian "Blogging In The Free Speech World" an article worth reading

...The Greek hosts have scored a spectacular own goal with the reported arrest of Antonis Tsipropoulos, whose alleged "crime" was linking to blog posts hosted in the US that satirise a Greek businessman. Tsipropoulos is the administrator for a Greek blog search engine, blogme.gr.

The incident highlights again concerns raised by Irrepressible.info, a joint Amnesty International and Observer campaign promoting freedom of speech online.

In today's session on "openness", Theodoros Roussopoulos, the Greek minister of state, denied knowledge of the case but said: "We have a problem with bloggers who spread lies through television ... we have bloggers who create false news ... So yes, perhaps a code of behaviour is an idea."...

And many more, from newspapers to other blogs. Just Google it I found 882 posts.
I think that I will leave the rest to your judgment since there is a possibility to be arrested for my thoughts, and never to finish my thesis or going to Barcelona.

I THINK THUS I BEING ACCUSED

I forgot to mention that this is a case of making illegal every Blog in our Country, if Antonis Tsipropoulos found guilty

Also I found a few interesting sites that about bloggers rights (maybe there should be a Bloggers DAY)
Electronic Frontier Foundation


greekliberals.net

FAKELLAKI

Ok people this is SERIOUS.


How many of you know about http://fakellaki.blogspot.com ?

Well, you should and I have to say that I was referred to it just yesterday. It is/was created by amalia kalyvinou and I found this blog important for reasons of ethics, of humanity of not going with the easy way. As far as I know, she had cancer (malignant tumor) at her leg. And I'm referring to her in past tense cause from 25/05/2007 she is no longer a stranger among us.

The short story is that from the age of 8 till the age of 26 she complained about pain in her leg. All the doctors mentioned at her blog failed in miraculous ways to diagnose the growing tumor. Until it was to late. But her suffering was never-ending. And even when the size of tumor was too great, some doctors (names and situations in the blog) refused to see the obvious. As she refused to bribe doctors for drags, chemicals, for even to diagnose the problem so that the treatment Will commence.

The tumor spread to her body...

Read her blog...

the story is not new but it is my first time reading them from a person how suffered from the medical/pharmaceutical system in Greece.

FOR THE NON GREEK READERS SORRY...but find someone to translate this one to you.

[EDIT] : no comments will be allowed for this post. Read her blog and write there, if you feel like it. No credits for me. She will never read your replies or your condolences, sad but true.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Miserable

Well today is the day that every optimism in me is gone. I had a 2-3 hours sleep, cause i got worry that i had forgotten an oven operational in Demokritos (foes list), and I was so anxious that I could not sleep. Actually to return to a normal state, I got the first bus at 5:15 in the morning and rushed to Ag. Paraskevi. Everything was OK. A lesson to learn for me that I should never worry about routine. It goes by itself. Although I was tired and sleepy, I noticed that public transportation at the early hours is like being in a completely different world. METRO and buses are filled with every kind of immigrants, going at the northern area of Attica to find a work. Everyone of them was carrying a bag with food for lunch, I suppose. Although they formed companies, none of them spoken to each other. Everyone looked so tired. And I was thinking, are those the bad guys? They desperately go to places that will offer them a minimum salary, like almost every one of us. Anyway, the trip back home was completely different, as if the sun erased the existence of those that travelled at the twilight zone. Sun was glorious, promising an excellent day. My spirit raised with the rising sun and i could think of nothing bad. I return home and started finishing some jobs in the garden (the ones I've promised to my parents) fixed a few loose ends in my apartment, prepared breakfast and a cup of coffee, and chat with my mother. As I went to my apartment Morpheus offered his arms and I couldn't resist him. So I slept for 2-3 hours. At around 2 o' clock I took a bath and joined my parents for lunch.

Then I started to organise my work, but before I started a friend, Fotis, told me that in 15 minutes I should be ready, cause they would pick me up. I went for another cup of coffee with a couple of friends in Argyroupoli. We talked about our favorite asian movies, anime and manga, and also watched half of the match between Larisa and Panathinaikos (no relevance to our story). So as soon as I returned to home I started to prepared for the meeting, with the other guys, at Plaka to wish Elias for his days at the army. I took the bus and it was almost empty, but the metro was another story. Filled with people, filled with vanity, with overconfidence to our looks, filled with people searching but never finding cause their criteria are based on material needs, or i seemed that way to me at the time being. As I was got off at Monastiraki, I watched all those people at the square, doing nothing, smoking the good stuff, drinking beer, and thinking how cool they are. They got the right to ruin everything they come across even if it doesn't belong to them, or even helped to be built. Anarchism in the U.K.??? You should visit Greece, even better live you myth in Greece. They bother me but I try to do everything in my power not to disturbed them. Do they do the same? Anyway, shit happens, but they have flooded the place.

And I met my friends. It was fun. It is always nice to be with friends. With people you can just chatting or analysing the meaning-of-it-all. It is even better to be with the ones you love and they love you back.

But, as soon as I returned back home a calming emptiness filled me, the void became me and choices of the past flashed before me. As I was closer and closer to home I could only think that it is mine but it is empty. And now I'm sitting in frond of the monitor writing down a cluster of my thoughts, believing that it will make me feel better. It does. But, it is not good enough. How my mood changed, from an excellent morning to an miserable night, I think it is not that hard to understand. For me anyways.

So without any further delay, even if it is half finished, even if a small fraction of my mood and thoughts is stated in those paragraphs I publish it, in case I change my mind. scripta manent

Tomorrow, as I will feel fresh and so does my mood will lighten up. For all I care, I will do my best to ameliorate my life.

That's all, goodnight and good luck

One shallow doesn't bring back spring

Or "ένα χελιδόνι δε φέρνει την άνοιξη".
The question is about which swallow am I talking about, cause theoretically speaking spring kicked in from March, actually, spring was the succession of autumn, no winter ever involved in the procedure. Since then every good or bad symptom of Spring and the forthcoming summer is here and inspire us or trouble us. So, allergies has taken the best out of me. My skin feels itchy, my eyes are swollen, and painful, lest not talk about the nose called waterfall. Pills do nothing anymore.
The other one is the Sun-that-burns-through-your-skin-and-boils-your-blood. The day-before (as in Greek προχθές, meaning a unspecified period in past-time) while working on the sewerage I got sunburned (sewage???). My grand-mother always told me that May's sun is the worst, but it was still April.
And the inspiring things, the drunken aroma from the lemon flowers, all kind of night flowers and jasmine (lemon flowers are long before gone). The promise of a great summer, with wine, in my yard, listening the silence of summer nights. A trip to Barcelona, and visiting our favorite Island, Syfnos. Summer love, summer wine, summer journey, summer beach...and of course HEAT.
But, where are the swallows??? Have you come across one? Do they still exist? I'm searching high and low for a sign, something, but nothing is there. I'm really disappointed. I only hear the morning chattering of sparrows, but no shallows. I'm missing them, building their nests at the corners of balconies, feeding their nestlings. Not good, not good at all.

P.S. Everything was different this year, birds where preparing for their migrating trips not in September but in January. Deciduous never lose their leaves. Draught is at the gates.
Recent news state that Italy entered in emergency state as Pados, Italy's largest river, started to shrink.

Sea, money, and fire

Well those three words always were describing, and will be, Greece, from ancient Greece till now days. And I mean it. Lets look over at today's and yesterday's news. TOP leading articles all over the press: (something is wrong with syntax but i had to let go of my proof-reader)

first there was fire

1. Assault on Precinct 13...hmmm wrong, but not quite, OK the real stuff. Assault yesterday and today to police stations by the Usual Suspects. What I've heard from the news, imagine like 30-50 people crossing a distance of 2-4 kilometers, and then as easy as taking a crap, unload a few molotovs, to the police stations. The surrounding area, bursts in flames (I'm really sorry for those poor bustards that watched their cars burned to ashes). And all of that shit because the demand the release of a convict, who was not imprisoned because of his believes, but of robbery (i found out, by the news reporters that he has confessed his participation in one of the robberies he is accused with (I'm hating writing down in English, but since i started it...).
...sooooooo where else anyone can prepare a few homemade molotov and burn to ashes a police station (well it wasn't burned but you get the picture). how did this joyful party arrived or left from the area in daylight, without any police officer even start a pursuit, even notice anyone to track them down. What the hell do those cameras ever exist? and so on, and so on. I will try to keep this post informed.
links, most in native language:
in.gr
flash.gr

...then water

2. TITANIC strikes back...i think it's been like two weeks...
the story is simple (but be aware nothing in Greece is as simple as it looks like). A ship was sunk while being at the "port" of Santorini. The "" on port is cause of the lack of a decent port in this particular island, peculiar geographic reasons make this almost impossible, for Greek standards anyway. Now even on CNN
CNN1
CNN2
CNN3
CNN4
soooo i heard today that after 14 days post-sinking and recovery of ships black box, it hasn't been sent for analysis...(??????????? probably they just trying telepathy on that black thing, who needs hi-tech??????).
Anyway, one thing left to say...CONSPIRACY THEORIES RUUUUULE. Who's gonna admit that all bad things happening are caused by aliens that are bombarding our planet, especially Greece, with strange radiation that causes a series of unfortunate events?

and then human greed create money

3. take the money and run...a few millions of euros via bond where misplaced, and now are missing??? Truly I'm not the best person, not a clue with economics, to talk about those things. So, money (actually public money, money to pay pensions etc) are in a company's or a person's pocket. Or this is the way i understood things. An then they say that those bonds should bought back from J.P. Morgan ( i seem to recall this company from somewhere...)
latest articles:
in.gr1
in.gr2

it's out of control so they called up the reporters to solve the case.

...live your myth in greece

P.S. how awfull is my writting????

Violence, games and reality

Well, I should say that after the latest survey from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), computer games will not force you to MURDER DEATH KILL (MDK, do you remember this game? Apart from the name it was almost hilarious). I'm soooo disappointed, all those years of "melting" my brain will lead me to no misbehaviour? Except if you are already a little bit crazy and you already have killed most of the cats you run along in the street, then violent games could do some "good" to you and advance to people killing. This is like the heavy metal will lead you to Satan, to much violent movies will lead you to kill innocent schoolmates (like the recent Virginia Incident)and so on.
Anyway the subject is still open for debate for both sides. I will enjoy playing computer games, listening to metal (καφρίλα για πάντα) and watching violent movies (το ξύλο βγήκε από τον παράδεισο, beating arrived from heaven -free interpretation of classic Greek movie- the ultimate ass kicking movie, where dozen of schoolgirls are beaten up by their teachers, those were the good old days, a real hard-core, Avant-garde movie, from Greek independent movie productions)

from CNN.com

TGV new speed record

Traveling with train is one of my favorable meanings of transportation, the other one is the bicycle. So when i read the news that at Tuesday 3 April 2007, the famous TGC (Train de Grand Vitesse) brakes another speed record. I really got depressed.
How come, you'll ask me. Well, it takes about 1 hr 10 min by train to go from Athens to Corinth (85km), or even 4 hr 30 min for 500km (Athens to Thessaloniki), so how should i feel like? The same distance in France is no more than an hour trip.
Ok you'll argue, the geography of the countries is completely different and standards as those can not be achieved in Greece. But train "exists" only for particular destinations. For other cities/villages either there is no train, or the one that exists at full speed and without any load will reach the astounding speed of 40-50 km/h. So traveling around Greece will take you days. So you are condemned to buy a car (the root of all problems).
Why am I always hearing promises about meliorate the means of transportation but always being at the shadow of other countries? pfffffff