Alternative 3

There's a secret behind the brain drain of Britain in 1977. People are going missing, but where to? In this special Science Report, they take a look into this and uncover some secrets of the space race between America and the Soviet Union. And just where is humanity heading?


I do like the date of this, the date it was supposed to be broadcast if it wasn't delayed, April 1st, 1977. Says it all really. But I do have to wonder, although it is presented entirely seriously, did anyone fall for this?

According to the Wikipaedia entry, yes. People demanded more information, although it clearly had a cast list, was clearly rather unbelievable subject matter (okay, I am looking at this with 2013 eyes), and it was dated APRIL 1ST, 1977!!! Still, it's a conspiracy unveiling, and there are always people willing to believe in those...

I can see why this is listed as an influence for Ghostwatch.

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Conspiracy... or Conspiracy?

The other day, I was sent this link to 11 Conspiracy Theories That Just Won't Die. Well, no, not if you keep talking about them. Why do you want us to stop talking about them? Do you know something about them you don't want us to know? Are you implying some of them are real? Are you? Are you trying to sneak in real ones to make us think they are fake by listing them with stupid ones?

I'll agree with most of that list, that they are indeed conspiracies that won't go away. Although some of them I hadn't heard of. (The 2004 tsunami was due to an Indian nuclear experience by the Israeli and Americans?) On the other hand, I think they are missing some, such as Big Pharma (are they working for Big Pharma and trying to distract us from thinking about it?)

But there's something else to note. While I like being informed about the conspiracies out there, so I know what the government is trying to cover up, I see that this is on a site that let's you find out about online degrees. (No, not a site that sells them.) Really? Bring us in with reasonable sounding conspiracies, then try to onsell us education? Dammit, don't know you that conspiracies can't survive actually learning about things?

What are they really trying to do...?

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Osama Who?

You might have heard some news from America in the past few days about something they did. Let's see if anyone is still interested...

Stuff: let's see... one story... oh, wait, there's another. So two stories are about Osama. Huh. Well, we're just a small country. Let's check...

BBC: ...one story. And, to be fair, nothing about the royals either. If it isn't in the past two minutes, they aren't interested. So I guess no-one is. If I go to...

CNN: holy frak! half the page is about Osama! Which simply makes the point that America cares a lot more about this that anyone else. On the other hand, the whole Osama affair is largely a political game in America anyway, no-one else is trying to score points with it. America has been partying in the streets in a manner entirely unlike other places dancing the streets after certain other events. Well, at least there's no irony there...

CCN has a page on "World reacts". From this, I'm guessing the world reacts with "...and?"

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USA supports North Korea

I consume a lot of media, watched a fair few documentaries, and am cynical about how people and governments act in this world. And one common thread that comes up is that America (in this case, the government, or the shadowy people that control the government) has its fingers in many, many pies.

There are a lot of dictatorships and countries that only operate with American approval. And if America doesn't approve, then 'bye bye' to that ruler one way or another. The Zeitgeist movie says that the progression is "buy them, if can't do that then kill them, if can't do that then send in the troop", hence Iraq and other places.

But what no-one has done (that I could find) is take the next logical step. If there's some country out there, wherever, whatever, if it's behaving in a way that you or I might interpret as 'bad' in some way, and in which there might be a simple, albeit also 'bad', way to solve that problem, and yet... that country is still there...

Take as a random example, oh, let's pick out of a hat... North Korea. Pretty much all documentaries I've seen about it paint it as a scary place that's so far under the thumb of Their Glorious Leader that "extreme sanction" could be seen as an entirely forgivable act. And there's threats of bombs and other wackiness, now is as good a time as any...

But, he's still in charge. Indeed, without any signs of acts upon his person, there are three logical conclusions, if one presumes the conspiracy route of 'one can only act with American approval' as to why:

a) He is being bribed. Certainly hasn't been killed or invaded, so if America is acting over there, then bribery is working. And everything he does is with American approval. (See below for why it's good for him to act like that.)

b) He isn't being bribed, but is not threatening America in any serious way. While he is trying out bombs etc., he's not making a move pointing crosshairs at America, and so he is making himself an extremely useful pawn in America's aim to control everyone else by using him as an excuse to pass more laws giving them control etc.

c) He can't be touched by America. Which is pretty amazing considering that America apparently controls everyone else in the world. It also seems unlikely that, should they want to, there are plenty of opportunities for America to do him harm if they really wanted to.

So if America is controlling the world, then North Korea is an interesting case study.

Or the conspiracy theorists are wrong... but what are the odds of that?

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Zeitergeist

Zeitgeist is culture. It's also a set of movies that... well...

Zeitgeist: The Movie (2006) is a set of three mini-films, really. The first is about how Christianity is a rip-off of other religions (shock!), and how it's bunk. And also connected with astrology. Umm... some connections, I'd agree with. All of them...? It's always possible to cherry pick the bible to support any view, as is done here. And the second part is not even thinking enough to cherry pick: the US knew about 9/11 and let it happen. I'll go with that the US government took advantage of the crisis (and other wars) to run through laws that benefited themselves and powerful companies, but that 9/11 was planned, the building was detonated, several attacks were staged... fuck off. And the third part is how money is a system used to screw over everyone but the bankers who control how money flows.

Which is then the focus of Zeitgeist: Addendum (2008). Just outdoing the previous film's length (over two hours!), this is a rant about how "monetism" is what we have, and everything is controlled by the top bankers and everyone should reboot society and go with The Venus Project. I will grant that it's a slick movie and there are some valid points about how people are doing things to benefit themselves, you aren't going to change the world (that radically) by changing the world, you need to change the people, and that isn't happening.

And so we come to Zeitgeist: Moving Forward (2011). People are molded by genetics and the environment. Market economics is against making society better. Indeed, the market place is creating a bad environment and making people worse. What we need is a Resource-Based Economy. But since that's not going to happen, the global system is going to crash, taking everyone with it... In many ways, this is a politer, and better structured, version of Addendum, although even longer at 2 hours 40 minutes. However, I look forward to seeing the crash and what we do next, 'cos I don't see us changing before then.

This is a set of movies (I'm not going to say 'trilogy' 'cos there could be more) that is trying to change the way we interact with the world. Nice idea, but vision is out-stretching ability to make that change. If you have seven hours... well, I doubt you'd watch these... and, in fact, you're better off sticking to the last movie... but they are, if I may say, a slice of culture...

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Look out! UFOs!

They've been released! No, not the aliens at Area 52 (which is more secret than Area 51), but the reports thereof. Yes, at long last, we can read the reports that the Defense Department has been hiding away because they conclusively prove the existence of extra-terrestrials beyond a shadow of a doubt. Government conspiracies, alien abductions, the truth about lights in the skies...

Read for yourself!

Hmm... okay, I've only taken a brief look, but... I'm seeing newspaper articles (of stuff like chemtrails, yeah)... and reports of people who made reports... so, yes, I agree that people reported they saw UFOs. And there were newspaper articles about objects in the skies that were clipped and noted (as one would expect any agency interested in airspace might do)...

...but damning evidence that is over absolute credibility and certainly... can someone point those pages out to me please? I'm not seeing them...

But never fear, the truth is out there! There are aliens! There is a government coverup! The truth is out the- in there... somewhere... maybe... or maybe not?

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Putting the 'con' in Conflicker

So, apparently the world didn't end the other day due to Conflicker.C. Huh, how about that? A lot of people did think it had been patched and disinfected and stuff, and yet there was still a lot of concern when April 1 hit.

The response to this threat? Big corporations, like Microsoft and Symantec, brought up domain names so Conflicker couldn't access them. And at least one anti-virus vendor was kind enough to put out an anti-Conflicker tool.

Although I note that when I ran that tool, after telling me I didn't have it, it wanted to access some problems, including Firefox (most likely to say "hey, look at our website") but also something else. Um. Why? What are you trying to run? And I already know about your website as that's where I got the program from. So, just what were you trying to access then?

Not to mention that there are many domain names that I would now need to negotiate with the big boys around if I wanted to use them.

So... not only has Conflicker not done anything, several corporations are now in a position that weren't in before...

I'm not saying Conflicker is not a threat, nor am I saying the big corporations are involved in it, but they aren't suffering that badly...

EDIT: This was written before I read this article. "The fears of an attack, however, may have been a windfall for anti-virus software makers, who warned consumers about the worm, industry analysts say." Ha!

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This things I believe

In the latest Sunday Star Times there were the results of a survey into conspiracy theories and the paranormal and stuff.

Interesting reading, and they spit the Paranormal block into female and males to see who believed in things more. Only in three items did men believe more than females: Evolution (82.4% vs 77.2%), Big Bang Theory (77.1% vs 66.2%), Life on Other Planets (72.4% vs 59.6%)... Um... Paranormal??? Er, they might have just lumped things together for easier printing, but those things are not paranormal items!!! Evolution was the highest item "believed" in, although there is still around 20% of the populace who don't buy it. It's just the biggest scientific theory ever that underpins everything biological...

Otherwise woman believed more than men. Soul existence came in at 65.3% vs 39.7%. God rated 44.5% vs 34.6% (less than half the populace, ha!). Taniwha exist rated lowest at 12% vs 5.7%.

Another group was conspiracy theory. Rating higest (79% likely) was "Iraq was is about oil not democracy". However, the rest were less than 50% likely. Some I've never heard of: All Blacks were poisoned at World Cup (40%) and Political conspiracy to suppress rights of minorities in NZ (9%) [remember: don't ascribe to conspiracy what can be explained by incompetence].

For Urban Myths, they also say if it's true. Highest belief was 64% in "seasons caused by elliptical orbit" (no - axial tilt). That annoying 10% of brain canard rates 58% (not even slightly true). Lowest rated (10%) was "germs won't affect dropped food if you pick it up in 5 seconds" (myth - busted!).

And there's a whole lot more. Worth taking a look at and considering further.

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Con Job!

I was at Conjunction yesterday (only day I went). Went to a few panels, took pictures at a couple (got a lot of learn about using my camera), but rather than clutter my main page, I'm going to tuck them behind the fold... Short version: all right, but one day was sufficient.


First up was Torchwood, part of the Kate and Jon show.

And what a show it was! Apparently Torchwood is all about sex, death and ratings, and there were pictures to prove it. Oh, and women watch it because of all the boy-kissing. I'm sure I might be able to offer a defence of it being a bit more than that, but can't think of an argument right this minute. And I found out about something truly mind shocking.

Next I was at the Cartoons of the 80s retrospective. I knew most of what Jess was talking about, but there are still things that one does not want to know about. (A comparison could be made with GI Joe and Cobra with Nick Fury, Shield and Hydra.)

Jon talked about making fan films. He's still working on a clean version of Time Rift, but nearly done.

Elizabeth Moon (the one in the middle) made a guest appearance at Age Appropriate Science Fiction.

There was some discussion about how children fantasy is dumbed down for adults (so adults feel happier that their children aren't threatened with difficult ideas and words like "different"). Not much was successfully achieved, except have books around and see what people are interested in.

We discussed "Is it science fiction?" in which we asked if various movies really are science fiction, but since we never really defined science fiction, it also didn't really go anywhere.

Then was Kate and Jon's guest speech, in which they called their past selves of ten years ago and gushed about all the exciting changes in technology, tv, and science fiction that have been. (This might later appear on their blogs.)

I did get my copy of Fallen Gods signed (really should read that some day), and picked up Jon's Prisoner book (which he co-wrote with Rupert Booth) The Prisoner's Dilemma (which is also signed!).

If I was going tomorrow, it would be tempted to go to the auction and get one of the knitted Daleks. They're so cute!

But the draw isn't quite powerful enough.

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One last conspiracy overturned...

There is another Conspiracy picture that awaits posting... it's one that completely cracked up the ConCom, brilliantly funny on so many levels... and yet, they wouldn't let it be in the conbook... So, here it is, in all it's glory! (And the fact that this was an idea I came up with didn't at all make me bitter...




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Pictures: the Penultimate!

Yep, coming up to the end. These are from pages 11, 17 and 30.





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More of them pictures

Yep, another set of Conspiracy pictures. From pages 11, 17 and 30.





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Pictures aplenty!

Yet more pictures (and yes, I am nearing the end). From pages 17, 28 and 31.





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Pictures galore!

Still got a few pictures left, so here are some more! From pages 18, 25 and 34.




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Once again: pretty pictures

These two are from pages 16 and 23.





And this one was never used!



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I got pictures, and so do you

Yep, still got more pictures yet. From pages 3, 18 and 26.



This one was captioned in the book. And the caption was...?
"Bermuda Triangle" of course!

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A Conspiracy of Pictures!

Another set of pictures. This lot is from page 31, page 20 and page 22.



The last one doesn't have a caption, but was captioned (after Peter resent us the picture) in the ConBook. Any guesses as to what that caption was?
The KGBeeGees, of course!

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More of those purty pictures...

As ever, click for larger image. First is from page five, second from page nineteen, the third from page twenty.

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What they said...

It finally occurred to me to look around the web for what our two overseas fan guests said about the convention. Man, the web made them damn hard to find (well, more Angela than David).

Anyways, here are the links to David Cake (comments start May 30th), the FFANZ delegate from Australia, and Angela Rosin (blog dedicated to the trip), the GUFF delegate from England.

And just to pad out this entry, more pictures! (Click for larger versions.) The first is from page 15, the second has never been seen before!

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Picture this!

Just when you thought there could be no more said about the convention, allow me to present a special feature. Peter Adamson, known for his activities on Zeus Blog, accepted the challenge to provide illustrations for the Conspiracy II conbook. This piece was meant for the cover, but due to that spot already being taken, it was used as an internal piece instead (p32).

(Note that I'll be posting more than one pic at a time, but this one deserves a spot on its own.)

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