Global Nation Organization

This article is about electronic dating, but even more so about the meaning of identity. What has this got to do with Frankenstein, Stalin, the Internet and the search for the ideal partner?

Wikipedia. Org writes, quote: “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, is an 1818 novel written by Mary Shelley at the age of 19, first published anonymously in London, but more often known by the revised third edition of 1831 under her own name. It is a novel infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. The title refers to a scientist who learns how to reanimate flesh and creates a being in the likeness of man out of body parts taken from the dead. In modern popular culture, people have tended to refer to Frankenstein’s monster as “Frankenstein” (especially in films since 1930). It was also a warning against the “over-reaching” of modern man and the Industrial Revolution, alluded to in the novel’s subtitle, The Modern Prometheus. The story has had an influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories and films. Unquote”
Well stated. Human beings seem to have the inherent tendency to shape the world according to their wishes, and, more often, desires. And there remains the question, what identity is about, in the first place. As always, there is a field of different opinions.
One of the most radical ideas expressed about identity is the one by Russia’s dictator Stalin. He came, some eighty years ago, to the conclusion that the individuum is the spot, “where certain qualities and influences come together.” It meant that human beings could be generated and molded at will – to create the ideal communist cross-bread. Great stuff. Accordingly, he had military vehicles built for the standard, average soldiers. There was no button to shift the seat. One year, there was a shortage of food in the country. It motivated the dictator to kill the (excess) folks, who couldn’t be fed. Wikipedio. Org writes, quote:
“ Confiscations of grain and other food by the Soviet authorities under his orders contributed to a famine between 1932 and 1934, especially in the key agricultural regions of the Soviet Union, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and North Caucasus that resulted in millions of deaths. Many peasants resisted collectivization and grain confiscations, but were repressed, most notably well-off peasants deemed “kulaks“.” unquote.
The other extreme is the ideal of the loner, fully in control of him- or herself, a integrated cosmos of mind, wishes, beliefs, only resonsible to himself, and far away from the rest. Some kind of egomaniac Howard Hughes, I presume.
I believe there are at least three levels of identity:
1.     The so-called physical identity, documented by passport, identity card, fingerprint, driving license, eye color, body parameters;
2.     An emotional identity – the outer world one is connected to – families, clans, husbands, wives, pets, parishes, political parties, sokker clubs etc. It could be compared to a ring of mushrooms – sticking out off the ground alone, but connected by rootlets in the topsoil.
3.     A spiritual level. Affinities here are difficult to define, and may transcend our current notion of time and space.
Not surprisingly, human beings have come up with different concepts of happiness. On one hand lies the happiness of the loner, who’s in control of everything.  The other extreme exemplifies the happiness of giving up and becoming member of a larger entity, which saves precious mental brainpower, and lets emotions run wild.
Others again give up the physical realm and dwell in spiritual spheres.
Assuming we don’t get spiritually ballistic or indulge in perfect loneliness, one wishes to have a partner. But how to find the right one? Electronic dating suggests to tie up with a large database, and combine the elements of desire according to one’s past experiences of happiness. This means assembling elements and aspects of long-gone temporary happiness into something new and hopefully rewarding – kind of a Hollywood remake. It’s a looking-backwards approach, that blocks possibilities of a genuine new experience, and what life really has got to offer. It also means carving out “the ideal” partner personality from reality – by ignoring such vital elements as family, and emotional identity.
In brief, electronic dating is a mix of Stalin, Frankenstein, Howard Hughes and other approaches. Congratulations! Push the orange button and you’re going to meet your Ms. or Mr.  Frankenstein.
© 2007 by Franz L Kessler
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The World Health Organization reports that between 100 and 140 million women have suffered some degree of genital mutilation, with each year another 2 million girls fall into risk of being mutilated. That is an enormous number of girls and women. To put it in perspective: there are in total 150 million females in the United States. Personally, I would like to mutilate all the men that think it is okay to deprive a woman of her womanhood, unfortunately that isn’t possible (yet). So instead I will feel outraged, but maybe not entirely powerless.

I ask, what type of culture would allow millions of women to be denied their innate sexual pleasure? Mind you, this is a cultural phenomenon and not strictly guided by religious practice. How awful for the mothers who were forced to suffer life without pleasure only to then watch their own daughters undergo the same indignity. After all, regardless of how bad one’s life is, at the very least we can be assured the sublime pleasure of orgasm. Of course if you are a girl living in a patriarchal society where women are regarded as nothing more than inconvenient baggage, you may have been denied that inalienable right.

Thankfully there is some hope. In this weeks The Economist magazine, there is an article on a surgical procedure that helps restore some sensation to the millions of women who have been denied the pleasure within their bodies. The following is a reprint of that article:

Female genital mutilation

A cut less cruel
Sep 13th 2007 | OUAGADOUGOU
From The Economist print edition

An attempt to restore sexual sensation to women whose genitals have been cut

A QUARTER of a century after the start of campaigns to stop communities from maiming their young women, the practice still goes on. Female genital mutilation, to give it its proper name, ranges from a straightforward nick to the complete excision of the clitoris and labia with the remaining genitals sewn up, leaving only a small opening. It is done for cultural reasons in many African countries but also in Asia and the Middle East. The World Health Organisation estimates that some 3m girls are subjected to the procedure each year and that, in total, between 100m and 140m women have undergone it. But now surgeons are working to repair some of the damage.

Surgery to reopen the vagina and mitigate the medical complications of genital cutting has long been available. But in Burkina Faso, where as many as 75% of women are thought to have had their clitorises cut, a relatively new procedure is being offered. Clitoris-reconstruction surgery aims to restore sexual sensation to women who have been mutilated. A year after it was introduced, more than 100 women have elected to have it performed, according to Michel Akotionga of the Yalgado Ouedraogo University Hospital in Ouagadougou. Unlike surgery to reopen the vagina, which is free in Burkina Faso, clitoris reconstruction costs about $150 in a public hospital and up to $400 in a private clinic.

The technique is possible because most of the clitoris resides inside the female body. In cases where the entire external part has been severed, some 2cm is removed but a further 8-10cm remains embedded internally. Surgeons pull it out and stitch it to the skin. Nerve endings in the new protrusion help to create the secretion and engorgement in the genitals that prepare a woman for sex. Unfortunately the technique used by the Burkinabe doctors does not restore sexual sensation completely, because the pressure-sensitive tip of the clitoris is lost.

Pierre Foldes, who started pioneering the reconstruction method some 25 years ago, has now trained 15 surgeons to use the technique in France. Although he supports efforts to restore sexual sensation, he worries that improperly trained surgeons may cause more damage in attempting to repair mutilated women.

Other health workers fear that families unsure of whether to subject their young women to genital mutilation might go ahead on the grounds that a wrong decision can always be corrected later. While a partial cure is better than nothing, prevention would be best of all.

Of course, I also give you a relevant video which is not on women’s rights, but the right to be a free woman.

To all the people who have advised me I am getting overwrought –sorry, but I am not backing down. I will not apologize for being emotional right now. I will not apologize for reliving the pain of 9/11 again. I am not sorry for feeling – I am not sorry for being enraged.

Yes, every year thousands of people are murdered around the world, without the horrors of religious fanaticism. But, every time I really focus on 9/11 it fills me with so much hate that I must express it. I think anyone who does not acknowledge the impact of having 19 Muslim men fly four jets into the WTC, the Pentagon and an empty field with pure rage - is hiding behind their fear of not God, but of what greater evil can man bring. As if they are saying to themselves, don’t look back, lest evil walks your way. I tell you, if you don’t look, time and time again – evil will visit you again – and in an even bigger way than you ever imagined.

For what it’s worth, in my opinion all TV and all media should be focused on one topic only right now; the events that unfolded on September 11, 2001. For some reason, that is not happening. I did mange to find a couple of shows that serve to remind us what the people who flew in the planes, and worked in and around the crashed buildings lived through.

The Discovery Times channel is airing tonight two programs that should be watched.

Flight 175: As the World Watched
It was the plane that made us understand our world had changed forever. As millions watched in horror, Flight 175 became the second plane to hit the World Trade Center- and Americans suddenly knew that they were at war.

Falling Man
The story of the most unforgettable image from 9/11 - the photograph of a falling man, frozen in midair, perfectly parallel with the lines of the two towers of the World Trade Center.

To all the families who lost a loved one on that day, know there are so many of us who will never forget and most of all — will never forgive.

Someone asked me today why I check my log files. The reason is: every day people come to this blog looking for gruesome war pictures. WELL HERE YOU GO — If you are not crying and shaking in your seat after watching this then you are seriously a sociopath.

This is what Islam does to its own children! This is what Islam wants to do to you! In Osama bin Laden’s recent video release he offered to suspend his wave of violence if everyone on the planet would just convert to Islam. That was a preemptive warning. Convert or be killed. Don’t convert, then according to Islam, he has the right to kill us all.

AND this is what death will look like. It isn’t terrorism; it is Muslim’s carrying out their sick desire for Islamic tyranny — IT IS ISLAM: THE DEATH MACHINE!

Nice remix on Pink Floyd’s “Proper Education”. Hope my good friend in Zurich enjoys it.

Anyway, even though the music has a great beat, the sentiments expressed in Pink Floyd’s lyrics are all wrong: A future paved in ignorance, by dropping out, is a future born into slavery. One can only be free by attaining knowledge.

Today’s technological revolution of fast and open communications over the Internet, gives anyone with access, the ability to study any subject they wish. However, not all websites are created equally. A lot of content is pure junk. Listed below are some worthwhile websites that provide excellent scholarly information — FOR FREE!

MIT Open Courseware:
Sharing “free lecture notes, exams and other resources from more than 1700 courses spanning MIT’s entire curriculum.”

Connexions: “is a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Anyone may view or contribute.”

Project Gutenberg:
“Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks.”

eScholarship Editions: “The eScholarship Editions collection includes almost 2000 books from academic presses on a range of topics, including art, science, history, music, religion, and fiction.

Access to the electronic books is open to all University of California faculty, staff, and students, while select books are available to the public. Print versions of many of the electronic books can be purchased directly from the publishers.”

Online Economics Textbooks: Self explanatory.

Online Science and Math Textbooks: Self explanatory.

Six Sigma:
I hope people will spend a little time on this site. While Six Sigma is generally considered a business management tool, I think it can be equally applied to the management of any government operation. So please when reading through this site, try to think outside the box. Look for ways to apply learning into other areas of your life.

English as a Second Language Online Textbooks: I realize, if you are reading this, you already understand English, but still this is a good link to share with others.

As we approach the sixth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attack on the United States of America, I want to write very briefly about all the 9/11 conspiracy websites, blogs and protesters, that claim Muslim terrorists did not plan and execute the plane hijackings into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. What the conspiracy theorists want people to believe instead is that 9/11 was an inside job, created and carried out by the US government and even our president. I want to especially call attention to how groups like the various ‘truth’ movements claim 9/11 was created by our president as a pretext to war in Iraq. I am going to show you in one simple step how wrong you all are.

I won’t waste time debunking all the 9/11 myths, Popular Mechanics has done a terrific job proving none of you are engineers, but are fairly good disseminating propaganda. Anyway, I am digressing so let me get to it.

The US government, especially George Bush and Dick Cheney, did not conspire to fly two commercial airliners into the World Trade Center, a third into the Pentagon and fourth one that failed to crash at its intended target, flying instead into an empty field in Pennsylvania. The reason I can say this so conclusively, even without reading a single debunk article (even though I have read them) is this: How can the US so perfectly pull off a job like 9/11 yet fail to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

If 9/11 were a pretext to a war in Iraq, then surely George Bush and company could have figured out a way to plant nuclear weapons around Iraq.

‘Nuff said!

Madonna — Get Together

What have loans, obesity, and cheap clothing have to do with each other? What could unite such different categories? Nothing, on a first glance. But wait. Wasn’t there the story in the IHT about the mortgage loan crisis, published on 8/28/2007? Quote:

” Other documents from the sub prime unit also show that Countrywide was willing to underwrite loans that left little disposable income for borrowers’ food, clothing and other living expenses.”
 
When I came to Malaysia in 2004, there weren’t many fat people. People were driving mainly old cars, and renting simple houses. Now they are driving big cars, there’s a building boom, and people are getting obese. But salaries didn’t rise that much, neither in middle-class Malaysia, nor in middle-class America. 
 
Where does this apparent wealth come from? It all has to do with loans. Recently, banks started to hand out loans for cars, houses, fridges etc., and down payments are often waved. It triggered an enormous boom in building. There are now many proud home and car owners, but there is a darker side. Like stated in the IHT quote above, credit taking became very easy, and people simply pushed their limits too far. There isn’t enough money and time left for a decent home-cooked good meal, decent clothing, good shoes and a visit to the movie theatre – mortgage and other loans have led to a financial monthly hemorrhage.
 
Instead, as a colleague told me, “people now work a lot harder; there is little time left, such as for home-cooking, what means that one quickly buys some frozen food, which is quickly fried and served.”
 
Or, as described in a recent article of the German newspaper “Der Spiegel,” poor people turn to cheap and fried food, as it provides a lot of calories for little money. Not surprisingly, diabetes II and cancer are on the rise everywhere.
 
If unchecked, whereto will this trend lead? We’ll see many people getting broke, there will be blood on the street, and health maintenance cost and mortality will go up.
 
It’s the bitter price for an unsustainable show-off life style.
 
As a kid, Grandma told me an important lesson. “If you want to buy something, you wait until you can pay for it. Otherwise, it means that you have to work harder all the time, and you’re going to loose your freedom.”
 
Right she was.
 
 
Picture: Statistics showing the fattening of America. It compares the America of 1991 with the America of 2006(from: Der Spiegel). Blue means: less than 20 % obesity in the population. Orange means: above 20 % obese people. Mississipi is the most obese state, with obesity beyond 30 %
 
© 2007 by Franz L. Kessler
 
 
 

The abstract below is a reprint of the above titled article by Mark Avrum Gubrud of the Center for Superconductivity Research. The full article can be read at the Foresight Nanotech Institute website.

Abstract

Recent U.S. planning and policy documents foretell “how wars will be fought in the future,” and warn of new or re-emergent “global peer competitors” in the 2005-2025 time frame. It is generally appreciated that this period will be characterized by rapid progress in many areas of technology. However, assembler-based nanotechnology and artificial general intelligence have implications far beyond the Pentagon’s current vision of a “revolution in military affairs.”

Whereas the perfection of nuclear explosives established a strategic stalemate, advanced molecular manufacturing based on self-replicating systems, or any military production system fully automated by advanced artificial intelligence, would lead to instability in a confrontation between rough equals. Rivals would feel pressured to preempt, if possible, in initiating a full-scale military buildup, and certainly not to be caught behind. As the rearmament reached high levels, close contact between forces at sea and in space would give an advantage to the first to strike.

The greatest danger coincides with the emergence of these powerful technologies: A quickening succession of “revolutions” may spark a new arms race involving a number of potential competitors. Older systems, including nuclear weapons, would become vulnerable to novel forms of attack or neutralization. Rapidly evolving, untested, secret, and even “virtual” arsenals would undermine confidence in the ability to retaliate or resist aggression. Warning and decision times would shrink. Covert infiltration of intelligence and sabotage devices would blur the distinction between confrontation and war. Overt deployment of ultramodern weapons, perhaps on a massive scale, would alarm technological laggards. Actual and perceived power balances would shift dramatically and abruptly. Accompanied by economic upheaval, general uncertainty and disputes over the future of major resources and of humanity itself, such a runaway crisis would likely erupt into large-scale rearmament and warfare well before another technological plateau was reached.

International regimes combining arms control, verification and transparency, collective security and limited military capabilities, can be proposed in order to maintain stability. However, these would require unprecedented levels of cooperation and restraint, and would be prone to collapse if nations persist in challenging each other with threats of force.

If we believe that assemblers are feasible, perhaps the most important implication is this: Ultimately, we will need an integrated international security system. For the present, failure to consider alternatives to unilateral “peace through strength” puts us on a course toward the next world war.

http://www.foresight.org/conference/MNT05/Papers/Gubrud/

I just want to let everyone know in advance, we will be moving this website to a new server this week. During the move the site will go down. Don’t panic, we will be back up ASAP.

Thank you….

Please watch the above video. The Fountainhead - Howard Roark Speech (Ayn Rand)

There are three kinds of people in the world; doers, pretenders and nothing’s. Doers and pretenders are both learners, anxious to possess knowledge. But pretenders use their knowledge to make it easier for them to pretend at doing. The third type of persons are the nothing’s; people who do not contribute anything to society, parasites. They might be rich, they might be poor, but they do absolutely nothing. They live on the dole, either from the government, a charitable organization or their family.

Doers and pretenders can be either leaders or followers. They can be successful or failures. At the surface you might be asking yourself, “What difference does it make if one is a doer or a pretender if the end game is the same?” Well, I’ll tell you. I believe doers get more satisfaction out of life. A doer, even in their failure, enjoys a certain sense of achievement, the knowledge they DID something. They worked their mojo to the max, they reached higher with their own effort. If they were to fall down while doing, they accept it as an opportunity to do more next time; or to do better. They do no ride others coattails. They are the coattail. They achieve, so that others may copy.

Now, a pretender could be in a position of leadership. But, because they are a pretender, we can be assured, their creations will not be original; or their perhaps, not even their own. And quite often, the product of their work has little value. To imitate a pretender is dangerous too. Whenever you make a copy of a copy, you lose some clarity on each generation away from the original. Quite interestingly, a pretender is more like a nothing, than a doer. Both the pretender and the nothing are essentially both parasites of varying degrees.

However, a pretender might be more interesting to know. They are after all, actors. Not the kind you see in film and media, but everyday people, sucking up to their friends, neighbors, and bosses; stealing ideas and latching onto others.

For a pretender and a nothing to survive, they need conflict. They need a messy world so they can hide in that whirlwind of activity. Pretenders and nothing’s are the consummate manipulator’s, convincing doers to give up their worth, for the others furtive happiness.

If there are too many pretenders and even more nothing’s, the world will find itself on a precipice of dying. Pretenders and nothing’s, are both like an algal bloom, choking off all the oxygen in an ecosystem. So, choose for yourself, do you have the courage to be a doer, or will you just coast through life, leaving behind nothing of value as a pretender or worse, a nothing? Choose your path; don’t let others choose it for you. It is your life.