Friday, October 31, 2008

When scientists start thinking...

Melting polar caps: Man is convictable

A study provides new evidence that only man can be responsible for the rising temperature.

Hey, that sounds good. So finally scientists can PROVE that it is caused by humans, and not only claim it as before?

"The rise of temperature in the arctic and antarctic in the last few decades COULD directly be linked with human activities..."

Oh, guess not. Just the 10000000000000000000000th attempt to draw our attention to the subject of climatic change, and the 10000000000000000000000000000000000000th scientist who claims to PROVE that it's true. There is one thing I don't get: Scientists always insist that something is not true until you can prove it. That's why many of them laugh at religion. But why is it that there is so much about "facts" and "proof" when it comes to global warming if there is yet no actual evidence that the USA would acknowledge?

I once learned at school that 25% of the world's energy is consumed by the USA, while they only have a very small percentage of the world's population. So I guess it would help a lot if they changed something. But to my astonishment, they are the ones who ignore it the most. And that not only goes for their presidents, it also goes for the public. While it is commonly accepted here that global warming is man-made, the American media still argue about this a lot and even do satire shows about paranoid scientists who think they know what global warming comes from. Then they use arguments like "in [place in America] it's the coldest winter since 1855, so you're telling me we have global warming?". So yeah, you can tell nobody there is impressed.

If only this whole "proof" thing would stop. You know, I never hear anything new. It never progresses. Everytime there is something about global warming, it's this "now we have proof" thing. It always deals with KNOWING that it's caused by man. But while we can accept that it probably IS caused by us, we are still waiting for people to deliver rock-solid proof. Proof. Not assumptions. Because we need this before it's too late. And even then these guys will doubt it over there.

The media are going to keep milking this cow until nobody cares. And eventually, when one scientist is able to prove that global warming is caused by humans, it's either so damn obvious that it doesn't matter any more, or nobody will care because until then there will be more dramatic news about "hey, we got proof. You know, it COULD be caused by humans, we have just concluded that in our endless wisdom".

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The worst rip-off I have ever seen

RTL is probably the one tv station that is unbearable at the moment. I have already mentioned to you RTLnow, the stupid internet service that allows you to watch the tv content for money in case you don't have the time to watch tv but enough money to watch anything anytime.

There was another commercial on tv about it now, and it is worse than ever. The new punchline goes like "click on it, choose it, watch it" and conveys the idea that it's just as easy as it sounds. It welcomes and invites you to take it literally. Just click yourself there, choose your show, watch it. The video will pop up.
I checked again in case I mistook it, but it's still the same. You need an account, you need to pay for it, you need to be registered. Does any of this spell "spontaneous" on it? I don't see that.

But there was something yesterday that was worse. While watching House M.D. (medical detective or whatever you English speakers need that for), there was a commercial for a tv episode of a show that has been on for 12 years. It's some kind of highway police, a German show. It's the most stereotype action show for German beer drinkers with no intellect. In every episode, cars explode in the most unrealistic way, and the only thing that changes is the angle in which the cars fly, the objects they fly over and some totally highway-unrelated topic like kindergarten kidnapping.
But this time, they showed a plot that gave me a dejavu feeling. It goes like this: There is a cop who wakes up in the dark, he lights up his sight with a lighter, then he realises he is in some kind of box or coffin. And then he screams and feels lost, and on top of all, his very own colleague can see him on a screen and wants to find him of course. Where have we seen ALL of this before? CSI.

I mean, it's not like this "woman gets kidnapped and guy has to rescue her" thing. Or this "scientist travels into a different world/time by accident" or "girl wakes up in the body of her mother/her 30 year old self". No... you can't just counterfeit everything. That's like me making a movie about a guy who travels from one country to the next, but while he is on the plane, there is a revolution in his country and he loses his nationality, therefore has to stay within the airport. Then he meets this woman and... oh well, I call this movie: "I wait". Great thing, huh?

Well, just now I went to RTL.de to complain about the RTLnow thing. That was something I have been wanting to do ever since I got fooled. But the funny thing is, it's totally hard to contact them. I tried going to "contact". It first promises you that you can give RTL your ideas and questions, but in the end they say "fuck you" by only connecting you to a FAQ (=fuck) section. After that, I have to click myself around the world only to send a message to some question service that's not even related to the sort of question I have. But then I don't care because if their internet service is so bad, then the people who answer questions about the weather service have to deal with my critisism. Then it's not my fault. Now I hope they got it because after I clicked "send" I only saw a white screen with the words "close window". Is that a good sign at all?

Anyway, it's interesting how they don't seem to care. Maybe they know it's just for fooling people. It's like some of the governments in this world. Pretend to be good, act like you encourage people to lead a luxorious life, but just keep lying and also don't offer any platform to discuss it.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

We have heard it before

Two headlines that I have read or heard of before in almost the same way:

1. Dog saves family from fire
2. Financial expert (or anyone else) compares bank managers (or anyone else) with Jews (other minorities; Hitler, other dictators)

The first one was what I saw on the news. Actually, what was presented as yet another heroic story of a dog barking a family awake that was almost getting too warm in the fire at night turned out to be quite lame. The family had two dogs. One dog ran out of the house with the family that woke up by themselves (probably because of something that went like "honey, isn't it totally warm in here?") while the other dog refused to leave the house because some little kitten were still in there and the dog didn't want to leave them alone. All were rescued in the end. But I don't see what's so heroic about them. Sure, it's unusual, but it's still natural because also a mother would rather die with her baby in the flames than save herself for her husband, even if the situation is hopeless.

Well, I have nothing against the dog's fame, it's just that this story isn't new. The better version of the story is that the dog wakes up the family (and just let me ask you, why is it that family always need a dog to save them? Are they too drunk to wake up? Okay, I know, the smoke). It is this specific story that has taken place in several countries, and the news never fail to let us know about each of them.

The second story... ugh... don't get me started. It's always the same, especially in my country with its history. There are things you just CAN'T say. The most dangerous thing to say in front of a CAMERA is to say:"Haven't we had that before, about 60 years ago?". That's a reference to our Nazi time and usually means that someone shows the same behaviour as Hitler. Most famously, someone once compared George W. Bush and Hitler that way. Even though you might agree with this, the person who said this had to give up her position in our government.
It goes like this all the time, and I wonder how people can become politicians, financial experts or other types of "never have to work again after this" and still make the same stupid mistakes. You might as well erase "Jews" or "Hitler" from your vocabulary because as soon as you make comparisons, someone feels terribly pissed. It also goes internationally, someone makes a stupid drawing of a religious leader, and suddenly all the followers go crazy, even if they usually only look down ashamed and don't say a word when someone blows himself up on their behalf.

What do we learn: Just don't do it. No... don't. No... not even for fun. Just don't do it.

I could now compare the dog to Hitler, because they have things in common, or I could compare Hitler to Franklin D. Roosevelt, saying they have in common the exact same years of being in power and the same year of death, but that is the kind of stuff that doesn't come across the right way in public. See, you have to be careful.

I want to rant about some other things. Why do some things only get worse when they were so good? For example, the search function to youtube. When it was still the old way, you could type exactly what you were looking for, and whatever keywords in whichever order you used, you only got what you were looking for. Now they show everything, even things that are unrelated. If I look for some band starting with "the", I get all the thes. Uh... yeah.
On wikipedia, one of my favourite sites, it is the opposite. It is bad and stays bad. You misspell a name, you try right again because it gives you no correction clue. So if you don't know how to spell a name, and you misspell it without knowing better, it never helps you out, it's like you searched for something that exists by no means. What if I can't spell a name but I know how the name sounds? Can't there be some "did you mean this..." as in youtube?

Another thing got worse at t-online and it has to do with opening different windows. The old way it went like this: I see a headline, I right click on it and open a new window or tab. If I find another interesting thing I want to read, I directly click on it because I still have the first window (the one that I have been looking at from the beginning). So I had two windows with different articles. But now, when I left click the second article, it changes the OTHER window and skips the article I actually wanted to read first. So that one gets lost and I have to click "back" on that window, and I have to open yet another window for another article. Why? Why do you have to change what was good?
And just now I found another flaw. My cursor was strangely disappearing, kind of flashing. I thought it was a virus. But it's only one of these flash games (hence the name "flash", I guess) that pop up at the side of a page. Irritating and annoying.

I wonder what else I can talk about. But I think there will be more in the next days and weeks, because I have a new job and it deals with a lot of bureaucracy... I can tell you, working for a business that's run by the state means pure bureaucracy. Oh how I hate that stuff. I hope my tasks are at least okay.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Lawsuit against God - Again?

Booooring. Another American idiot went to court against God. I've heard this story before. Last time the reason why the claim was rejected was because "God is not a natural person". This time it's the fact that God has no address. But the person who went to court said that God, who is omnipresent, will have noticed what happened.

Why do we even have to hear about this? It's a lame joke. The only interesting thing is why such a mindless lawsuit gets rejected. Maybe next time the court will claim that you cannot go against someone who does not necessarily exist.

The reasons are also rather stupid: Accusations for bad things that happened, personal problems with God, or the fact that he threatened people with terror and admittedly killed people. What is the use of going to court against Him then? That's like ants going to ant court against the human baby that sat down on their formicary.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Some people have worse lives, even if they are richer

The MSN page today had one headline that said:

Radcliffe is mourning
"Harry Potter" has lost a beloved person

So who is it? Ugh... it's his grandmother. So if the German word for grandma is "Oma" and that is also what they use in the article, wouldn't it have been convenient just to say WHO he lost in the headline? Why are the news becoming a quiz game? ->because nobody would have read the article otherwise.

Another piece of news I read yesterday was that a millionaire in the USA, don't know where exactly, killed his whole family of 5 people, and himself, all because of the financial drama at the moment. He was said to have lost all his money on the stock market.
I don't get this. He is/was a millionaire, so how does he lose all his money in a short time? If he is a millionaire, I assume he must have been a very clever, smart, intelligent guy. Perhaps more intelligent than me, because I'm not a millionaire and probably never will be one. But then I ask: If someone is so clever, why does he not just put aside one million? You can live a good life with one million dollars, right? The word "millionaire" already implies that the person has at least one million. If he has one million, can't he just put it on his bank account and leave it there? He probably had several millions, so he could have used them after all. Why do people always need more, more, more? Such an idiot. Sorry, this is just so stupid. I know it's a process over time, you need to re-invest money you earned, but you can also draw the line. Then you can be sure never to have to worry about money, or working again.

It's amazing how people who have better lives than I do can still become so miserable in the end. You know, I told my brother that what this guy did would be the same as me saving 10 000 euros, then going to the casino and saying: I will play roulette now, I will put all my money on "zero", and if it's anything but that, I will kill myself.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Paranoia

I have a strange kind of paranoia that I don't take seriously, it's more like a joke, but I tend to accept it as a part of me to the point where I start to doubt I am making this up.

Many of you know the Truman Show, a Jim Carrey movie. It's basically the same thing that's going on with me. Even when I was a small child, I once had this idea that there were invisible cameras around me watching me. Yes, it actually happened to me before this movie was made.

The reason why I often thought everything is made up was because my life was always different from the lives of others. Other people always had standard lives. I know there is no "normal" life, but there are ordinary lives and extraordinary lives. Mine is most extraordinary.

It's like everything around me consists of actors who imitate a normal world. When they pass me, it looks like everything is normal. It's supposed to look normal. But sometimes people stare at me as if they are thinking:"Look at me! I want you to see my face! It's my once in a lifetime chance to be part of this show! OMG! He has seen me!"

The way everyday life is unusual is also how I run into people when I deliberately try not to. The staircase is always silent, but as soon as I open the door ONCE, someone else has to open their door. I step out of the house, suddenly everyone has the same idea. I walk into the most forsaken forest, and suddenly everyone is out to walk past me. Whether it's morning, evening, night. But after all I still know: If I ever break my leg in the middle of the forest, I'm going to crawl all the way back to my house before anyone calls the ambulance.

Then there is how my life develops. It's very unusual, just like you would imagine the life of someone who is followed by cameras but doesn't know. Imagine you are on tv and everyone is watching you, but you have no clue. What would the producers want? I guess an extraordinary life. So while other people get born, graduate from school without ever repeating more than one year, and getting a boring job and a boring family, my life is totally different. And like I said, it is very different.

Who would guess that all these things would happen to one person: Troubled childhood, goes through 9th grade three times (!), suffers from depression to the degree where he gets locked up like in prison, records his own music in a music studio, meets his idol in a cafe after talking to her online (which, at that point, she is infamous for not doing at all), falling in love with someone from the internet who is strangely connected to the whole story about the idol, unexplicable incidents happen that can not be explained with logic, and then the same person also fails and fails at finding the right job training year after year.

Okay, at first it sounds like a bunch of strange coincidences. I mean, I might have had a plane accident too, right? Yeah, I know what you mean. But I can't go so much into detail about everything, just trust me that some things just can't be coincidence.

So I decided to just write down all the things that are going to happen to me. You can see it as a humerous thing, or you can see it as me trying to spoil the producers' plans. At least I would then know that I was right and the whole pathetic theatre could stop:

Age 26: Fails again to be accepted in a job training OR gives up on another job training.

Age 27: Tries to get married but the authorities make it impossible after the laws have JUST been changed to the subject's disadvantage (what a coincidence).

Age 28: Suddenly seems to have found a great job training. But subsequently, the company dies and the job training cannot be finished. It would have been the perfect company, he already felt so unbelievably satisfied in this job.

Age 29: Starts studying since he is too old to be accepted for any further job training.

Age 35: Finally is able to get married and does so. Dreams seem to come true. Finally there is mercy in this world. The celebrations are private but joy is everywhere. After that, it's still a struggle with lots of work in a demanding job that doesn't make him happy.

Age 36: The economy is going down, which is a good excuse for getting fired from a good job he just had for a month. A hard time begins. At the same time, a baby is on the way, so the pressure is immense.

Age 37: Subject decides to send demo CDs of his own music to record companies. And oh, what a miracle, he gets accepted and becomes famous, although not so rich. The baby is born, it's a daughter.

Age 38: The wife dies in a tragic way, no idea how, but it has to happen, right?

Age 39: After having lost so much (and he also lost money and fame because of the economy collapse and private problems), he fights back, becoming a sportsman who eventually wins prizes. He releases a book on how to overcome so many struggles in life while being a single father.

Age 40: As an experienced musician, he fulfills his dream of taking part in the amazing process of creating a new music instrument, a synthesizer that doesn't have ordinary keys and is very revolutionary. He wants to use this to put his crazy feelings into music, but is too busy taking care of his daughter and trying to raise money with his bad qualification.

Age 41-45: Leads a normal life again, not being able to be very happy. Lots of stupid things happen. In this period of time, he suffers from lung cancer due to passive smoking (yeah, you bastards!), and has to fight back yet again. It just goes up and down, but he eventually defeats cancer.

Age 46-50: He is back to writing music again, and some people are even interested in his new, mature music, but in a bad car accident, he loses his memory and has to start over. Only after many months he is able to recall all the good and bad moments, which causes heavy emotions in him.

Age 51: He overcomes his fear of cars and drives again. At least, he thinks, he was lucky enough to only lose his memory and not to be severely injured. He tells everyone that THIS is what gives him a good feeling.

Age 52-53: Another bad accident, but this time he also suffers complicated bone fractures. He recovers quickly, but it takes a long time until the pain in under control. He feels very paranoid, but not paranoid enough to hide from everyone that he feels lucky not to have killed anyone in the accident.

Age 54: Having decided not to drive a car anytime soon, he gets involved in yet another car accident, this time as a passenger. As the driver falls asleep, he tries to steer the car to prevent a collision with another car, but tragically steers the car into a pedestrian who dies. He is totally nerve-wrecked after this and feels absolutely paranoid. After this, he has to admit himself to a mental institution for several months.

Age 55: His daughter runs away and becomes a drug addict. She blames him for causing all of her problems, also claiming that it's not possible to have an undepressed child if the father was already so depressed. She is also angry that he had a new girlfriend in between. What she does not know is that he eventually gave up the relationship because he realised he could never get married again happily. There is only one wife for him.

Age 56: A war breaks out, and the subject has to go to war against a far away country. While he is away, his home land gets attacked by another country and his daughter is abducted (she wants to leave the series).

Age 59: He returns after several years of prison. He accepts a crappy job and decides not to try hard on anything any more since everything is so useless.

Age 60: Since he does not get influenced by all the ups and downs around him, the producers decide to reveal the big secret to him that his whole life was just a show. While breaking down in tears, he has a heart attack and dies. What a dramatic ending! Fantastic!

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Almost beheaded, but at least killed

On T-online.de there was a headline that said "teenager almost decapitates woman". At first you think of an accident that no one was injured in.

The article itself then starts off with the headline "16 year old kills woman for 6 dollars". Shouldn't that have been the headline? Or what about "teenager kills for a fistful of dollars", that would have been a nice movie reference, right? At least that's a very sensational headline that may at least get a lot of views.

Instead they chose the headline I mentioned at the beginning. Why is it not enough to say right from the beginning that a teenager killed a woman? Why do they have to mention the goriest fact first before they bring up her death? Because it's not enough that a teenager killed a woman for money. That is something nobody cares to read any more. It's better to say how badly she was injured before you even say what exactly the result was - that it was fatal.

Headlines have to be short. And in the future, it will probably have to sound worse and worse. They will not talk about the number of deaths in a massacre, because that will wear off. Since September 11th it can't be topped anyway. So you just mention the number of limbs flying through the air, the amount of blood that's everywhere, and the immense torture that people go through. Only later you reveal what actually happened.