(Almost) Nobody lives in Kadykchan
Kadykchan was a tin-mining community before the colapse of the Soviet Union and a mining accident that killed some people. A town of around 10,000 people now barely reaches 300.
More heebie-jeebies-giving pictures after the jump.
Put a Fence Around This
Okay. Let's get some things straight. This is going to be a rant about intellectual property, copyright, filesharing etc. If you like the first two and have "moral" or otherwise issues with the last, go on, get the fuck out of here.
Cool, now that we got rid of the dimwits. I hate the fact that all proponents of intellectual property base their otherwise idiotic and very easily countered arguments on their own cynicism. I read this expose of this dickhead on the website of an artist that I really like going on about how the reason we're downloading free music is because "people want as much free shit as possible". Go fuck yourself dude. This guy claims that the human desire for resonance with the natural world as expressed through music in combination with another deep seated desire, that of not being exploited - because if working to produce shit you can't afford isn't exploitation then I don't what is - is "really" just plain ole greed. Oh you great delver of the human soul, tell me more, tell me why I'm stealing shit I can't afford.
Tell me oh white male privileged one, tell me, why do I do the things I do? Why do I not get a jobby, work all day and then at the end of the month dish it all out for the records I like? Why?
It's true that if you can put a fence around something then you can sell it, and recording music has done just that. It's put a fence around something seemingly elusive, human inspiration. But the insult here isn't the fact that people want to get paid for something they've created, even though we can argue that they are most definitely asking to be paid much more than they deserve (you didn't create that music in a vacuum dickhead, you had influences, are you paying them royalties? no didn't think so). What gets me is the notion that they're special. That somehow, this "artistic and creative" caste of people deserve better than the rest of us "labourers" and clearly their precious gem of creation is worth a significant fraction of our sacrificed time, space and health.
This person then goes on to, in his mind at least, take the piss out of the Pirate Bay because they ask for donations at the end of their documentary after having dissed money and it's corrupting influence or whatever. Goes to show how the privileged middle-class mindset works. "If there's money in there somewhere you are no better than us, come wallow in the pigshit and don't speak out of turn."
Now, I'm not going to try and counter all the supposed arguments he uses in his attack of free sharing of content which is thinly veiled as "starting a dialogue", whatever dickhead, the ones I covered are enough for now, and they have all pretty much been countered by people nicer, smarter and bigger than this asshole. I will say this though, it has been PROVEN that free sharing of content doesn't harm the capitalist system, which is a shame if you ask me. At best it helps us get some of our lost lives back, it means now we can spend some of our shitty salaries on more creative things than DVDs and records that we will watch and listen at most once. It means that we can start making content ourselves and threaten this creative elite that trembles at the thought of its precious work exposed in the eyes and ears of someone that DIDN'T PAY.
Let me close with a call for people to continue sharing content and put their efforts, time and money into more creative outlets. Make your own film or record. It can be done. It is done. Everyday. Some of the best movies and records I've seen are results of dirt-cheap, no-budget creative efforts. Fuck the guy who said DIY is dead. He is dead and no-one's told him yet.
And to everyone who thinks that by throwing their two-cents about why "filesharing is bad, m'kay?" they can still change something: The content has been downloaded guy. We don't need justification to make ourselves feel better. I know you like to stroke yourself at night thinking we cry ourselves to sleep, tormented and guilt-ridden about stealing the fruits of your genius, but here's the newsflash. We like stealing from you. We are the happiest thieves alive. The content has been downloaded. It is down and there is nothing you can do about it. So either you can find a new way to be creative under the new circumstances, or you can stay the whiny fuck that you are, crying "my monies, my precious monies!" Either you help make a new world, or you are obsolete.
The clown is down.
Cool, now that we got rid of the dimwits. I hate the fact that all proponents of intellectual property base their otherwise idiotic and very easily countered arguments on their own cynicism. I read this expose of this dickhead on the website of an artist that I really like going on about how the reason we're downloading free music is because "people want as much free shit as possible". Go fuck yourself dude. This guy claims that the human desire for resonance with the natural world as expressed through music in combination with another deep seated desire, that of not being exploited - because if working to produce shit you can't afford isn't exploitation then I don't what is - is "really" just plain ole greed. Oh you great delver of the human soul, tell me more, tell me why I'm stealing shit I can't afford.
Tell me oh white male privileged one, tell me, why do I do the things I do? Why do I not get a jobby, work all day and then at the end of the month dish it all out for the records I like? Why?
It's true that if you can put a fence around something then you can sell it, and recording music has done just that. It's put a fence around something seemingly elusive, human inspiration. But the insult here isn't the fact that people want to get paid for something they've created, even though we can argue that they are most definitely asking to be paid much more than they deserve (you didn't create that music in a vacuum dickhead, you had influences, are you paying them royalties? no didn't think so). What gets me is the notion that they're special. That somehow, this "artistic and creative" caste of people deserve better than the rest of us "labourers" and clearly their precious gem of creation is worth a significant fraction of our sacrificed time, space and health.
This person then goes on to, in his mind at least, take the piss out of the Pirate Bay because they ask for donations at the end of their documentary after having dissed money and it's corrupting influence or whatever. Goes to show how the privileged middle-class mindset works. "If there's money in there somewhere you are no better than us, come wallow in the pigshit and don't speak out of turn."
Now, I'm not going to try and counter all the supposed arguments he uses in his attack of free sharing of content which is thinly veiled as "starting a dialogue", whatever dickhead, the ones I covered are enough for now, and they have all pretty much been countered by people nicer, smarter and bigger than this asshole. I will say this though, it has been PROVEN that free sharing of content doesn't harm the capitalist system, which is a shame if you ask me. At best it helps us get some of our lost lives back, it means now we can spend some of our shitty salaries on more creative things than DVDs and records that we will watch and listen at most once. It means that we can start making content ourselves and threaten this creative elite that trembles at the thought of its precious work exposed in the eyes and ears of someone that DIDN'T PAY.
Let me close with a call for people to continue sharing content and put their efforts, time and money into more creative outlets. Make your own film or record. It can be done. It is done. Everyday. Some of the best movies and records I've seen are results of dirt-cheap, no-budget creative efforts. Fuck the guy who said DIY is dead. He is dead and no-one's told him yet.
And to everyone who thinks that by throwing their two-cents about why "filesharing is bad, m'kay?" they can still change something: The content has been downloaded guy. We don't need justification to make ourselves feel better. I know you like to stroke yourself at night thinking we cry ourselves to sleep, tormented and guilt-ridden about stealing the fruits of your genius, but here's the newsflash. We like stealing from you. We are the happiest thieves alive. The content has been downloaded. It is down and there is nothing you can do about it. So either you can find a new way to be creative under the new circumstances, or you can stay the whiny fuck that you are, crying "my monies, my precious monies!" Either you help make a new world, or you are obsolete.
The clown is down.
Centralia, Pennsylvania (or Amputating Route 61)
Centralia is a ghost town. Isn't that a strange phrase? It surreptitiously makes the admition that it once was alive. A living, breathing organism functioning on a level of self-organisation different than ours. Centralia was built around, if not literally then certainly metaphoricaly, a coal mine.
Around a century after the town was born, a fire started which lit one of the coal veins on fire. Underground. I don't know about you but I think there's something primevally spooky about an underground fire.
The fire burned for twenty years before finally opening a gaping chasm right under a frollicking child which was only saved due to extremely fortuitous circumstances. That, as they say, was the final straw. It was decided that everyone should and would be relocated. All three thousand of the residents. It took forty-two million dollars to do that.
However, some of the residents decided to stay, now technically squatters in their own family houses.
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