1984

the night of saturday, 31 december, 1983 to sunday, 1 january, 1984 was one in which i had the late night shift at the college radio station, KUGS-FM 89.3. the show was called “The Radio Program That Doesn’t Exist” and, as “The Voice In The Night”, i played a mixture of offbeat album rock and extremely bizarre stuff like the shaggs and the passion and transfiguration of a post apocalyptic eunuch.

but this particular night i had something special in mind: the David Bowie classic, Diamond Dogs. and i timed it precisely so that the song 1984 started the moment the new year happened.

i don’t know if anybody else remembers this, but i was just listening to 1984 and i remembered this…

Someday they won’t let you, so now you must agree
The times they are a-telling, and the changing isn’t free
You’ve read it in the tea leaves, and the tracks are on TV
Beware the savage jaw
Of 1984

They’ll split your pretty cranium, and fill it full of air
And tell that you’re eighty, but brother, you won’t care
You’ll be shooting up on anything, tomorrow’s never there
Beware the savage jaw
Of 1984

Come see, come see, remember me

We played out an all night movie role
You said it would last, but I guess we enrolled
In 1984 (who could ask for more)
1984 (who could ask for mor-or-or-or-ore)
(Mor-or-or-or-ore)

I’m looking for a vehicle, I’m looking for a ride
I’m looking for a party, I’m looking for a side
I’m looking for the treason that I knew in ’65
Beware the savage jaw
Of 1984

Come see, come see, remember me

We played out an all night movie role
You said it would last, but I guess we enrolled
In 1984 (who could ask for more)
1984 (who could ask for mor-or-or-or-ore)
(Mor-or-or-or-ore)

1984, 1984, 1984, 1984, etc.

genealogy

Half of European men share King Tut’s DNA – half of all european men, presumably, includes men of european descent, which includes me. the article says that tutankhamun belonged to paternal haplogroup R1b1a2, which, according to my (admittely very limited) research, doesn’t existhowever, paternal haplogroup R1b1b2a does exist, and i can see some anonymous reporter (it was actually alice baghdjian at reuters) making the switch without realising it…

AND since my paternal haplogroup is R1b1b2a1a2c, i am part of R1b1b2a that split off approximately 17,000 years ago.

tutankhamun lived between 1341 – 1323 BCE, or approximately 3300 years ago… what they’re trying to say is not that half of european men are related to tutankhamun, but that they share DNA with tutankhamun – a distinction that is actually in the title of the article.

in order to be related to tutankamun, he would have to be a common ancestor (i.e. the progenitor) of half of all european men… which, i get the very strong impression, is what most people reading the article will probably think, but is actually not the case… if it was, not-so-old king tut (he died when he was 18) must have been a randy and prolific little bugger.

the fact is that tutankhamun and half of all european men – and myself – have a common ancestor 17,000 years ago – approximately 13,500 years before tutankhamun’s birth.

it’s not the same thing as when they announced the discovery that all non-african people are part neanderthal. for that matter, i, half of all european men, and tutankamun, also share DNA with president john adams (paternal haplogroup R1b), approximately 30,000 years ago. at some point in the distant, prehistoric past, i share a common ancestor with john adams…

knowledge – it makes life boring.

another week closer to the eschaton…

before anything else, Oceans on brink of catastrophe – “marine life facing mass extinction ‘within one human generation'” it’s getting to the point where we might, actually, be better off encouraging mass extinction of every living thing on the planet and starting over, anyway…

word is that a deal to raise the debt-ceiling has been reached, so all of this may be for nothing, but i’m going to leave it in anyway, because i still blame the politicians for raising such a big stink about it… and despite the fact that a deal to raise the debt-ceiling has been reached, for the most part, the other stuff is still true anyway.

and besides, i’m too lazy to dig up new, non-related-to-the-debt-crisis links at 8:00 on a sunday evening… screw that.

Wall Street braces for US default – if this isn’t an indication that this country is ripe for a revolution, i don’t know what is… but in spite of everything, i think we’re not going to get a revolution, and we are going to default, and become a 3rd world has been within 50 years. Obama to Banks: We’re Not Defaulting – we’re already 99.75% of the way there. all that remains is for our “leaders” to pull the switch and send us all into oblivion. 😡

White House Now Conceals Plan to Cut Social Security – if there are cuts to medicare and SSI, people are gonna be pissed… but, i suppose the logic is that it’ll be the old, infirm and disabled people (in other words, the people who need it most) who will be pissed, and they’re not a threat to anyone. problem is, they’re also the people who have the least to lose by doing something the politicians might not like… 😐

True or False? Over 50% Do Not Pay Income Taxes – almost true… but people like me (infirm, disabled, senior citizens, etc.) make up a significant portion of those people…

Emergency Team Of 8th-Grade Civics Teachers Dispatched To Washington DC and Bachmann Says Unexplained Blackouts From Which She Wakes Up Covered In Blood Won’t Affect Ability To Lead – i’ll just put these here to see if anybody else notices…

The Political Theater and the Debt Ceiling Crisis: Are We Being Had? – “Whatever emerges from the debt ceiling impasse, it will not be in the interest of the American people.” 😮

The Cult That Is Destroying America and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) admits that he is an extortionist

Americans’ debt rage boils over – We’re not a bunch of knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing Neanderthals

Construction projects halt and nearly 4,000 workers furloughed in partial FAA shutdown – are we having fun yet? you know it’s only going to get worse when the government defaults, right?

TSA Reminds Us All Who The Real Terrorists Are – “the TSA now believes it has the authority to prevent people in public places from talking to each other.”

Angelina County jury finds man guilty of evading arrest after being mistaken for burglar in his own home – the nazis cops couldn’t persecute prosecute this guy for being a burglar, so they had to settle for something else… and, apparently, they didn’t take into account the fact that the guy has “the mind of a child”… 😐

California Marijuana Legalization Initiative Approved for Petitioning and, at EXACTLY the same time, Marijuana eradication raids under way in the Mendocino National Forest – this has got to be costing taxpayer money that could easily be spent on more worthwhile endeavours… 😐

and this is the reason things aren’t going to change any time soon, whatever they decide: Obama Says Drug Users Must Be Treated as Criminals, Obama says he’s not willing to end the drug war and Denied: DEA refuses to reclassify marijuana, claims it’s as dangerous as heroin – “there are no studies to prove the medicinal value of marijuana, and that the plant is basically as unsafe as heroin.” 😡

Wal-Mart Goes Nuclear Over Chicken Necks; Newlyweds Lose House; Husband Deported – former wal-mart employee is now suing wal-mart for loss of income, loss of personal property, lost profits, lost time and imprisonment, libel and slander, mental anguish, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false arrest, malicious prosecution, slander, negligence and conversion… and, although wal-mart is undoubtedly guilty of all those things, and probably a host of other things that aren’t mentioned, they will probably not be made to pay for any of it, because the former wal-mart employee’s husband isn’t (yet) a legal citizen of the united states. 😐

Opposing Free Contraceptives? Does the Christian Right Want to Lower the Abortion Rate or Not? – no, the “christianists” want everybody to convert to their brand of “christianity” and then everybody will magically be able to resist the pleasures of sin… isn’t it obvious?

Paypal will stop purchases from sites music industry identifies as infringing copyright – there are distinct advantages to being assumed innocent until proven guilty, but they don’t matter, because somebody, somewhere is losing money.

School Teacher Could Take HADOPI to Court Over False Disconnection – there are distinct advantages to being assumed innocent until proven guilty, and this guy is learning all about them…

Man Photographing Grandson In Park Deemed Suspicious By Police And Media – “the man also said that he did not run away, but simply walked away from a woman who had gotten very close to him and was yelling at him.”

Amazon cloud hosts nasty banking trojan – yet another in a host of reasons why it might be a good idea to resist cloud computing…

Part Human/Part Animal Hybrid Monsters Are Being Created By Scientists All Over The Planet – 😮

It’s official: IE users are dumb as a bag of hammers – 100,000 test subjects can’t be wrong…

Stop Hoping! Start Changing! – We can smash Pandora’s box and the hope that lives there in a day. But save the wood, as we are going to need to build something new.