The Art Neuro Weblog

Baseball And The Politics Of Despondency
Longtime reader Pleiades sent in this article today as a bit of a reference. There are references to a conspiracy by the government to fake the attck on the WTC and all that which I still find a little far-fetched.
There's also a swing at the music biz too:

What I want to say is this? (sic)

WHERE'S THE FUCKING SONG, ASSHOLE?!

And I'd like to address that question to every musicianin America, in the world. I'd especially like to ask it of so-called legendary icons like Bruce Springsteen and Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan (you nihilistic twit!) and Eric Clapton (you simpering wimp!), Eminem (don't fall for that Democratic crap) and Doctor Dre (abandon your mansion and step up now!).

The whole music scene, and all the retards who think they're cool by following it, are nothing but robotic moral cowards who have abdicated their responsibility to the world. Who will have the courage to step forward, like all these brave folks in the 9/11 skeptics movement have done?

I'm not an 9/11 sceptic so this strikes me as a bit paranoid.
If I took that line, the next thing you know, I might hole up in the mountain with too much booze and guns and shoot my brains out like the good Doctor Hunter S. Thompson. However, the right hook across some of those musical sacred cows is pretty funny. Eric Clapton has now been reduced to a Simpering Wimp from Blues Guitar God. O how the mighty have fallen. :)
And you know what? The question's got to be asked, what kind of populace makes Brittney Spears a star?

Here's the interesting bit:

And when you try to escape into the pleasing triviality of sports, and confront the reality that baseball's two greatest sluggers have both cheated to achieve their accomplishments, you should get some depressing inkling that the whole enterprise is a lie meant to distract you from the even more unpleasant fact that your government, through its controlled media apparatus, has stolen your life, fed you with falsehoods, and deliberately murdered your children with poisoned food, toxic drugs, and phony wars.

So, I think it's time you checked the scoreboard, and find out what the score really is. America is dead, and the international bankers are getting ready to pick its carcass. Anybody still walking around is now a willing zombie waving that flag of mass murder and injustice, the Stars and Stripes.

But hey, it's the perfect cloth to drape over your coffin, although no photographs will be allowed. And hey, what's that sound, everybody look what's going round ... due to the condition of both the corpse and the culture, why, that sound is the out-of-control ticking of a Geiger counter, which may be the real song about Fallujah that nobody apparently has the guts to write.

It's too hard to write a song about Fallujah; what does it rhyme with? :)

Space Shuttle Discovery Update
The seemingly never ending gruelling task of putting together another shuttle mission goes on.
It's hardly the stuff of dreams.

Discovery's STS-114 spaceflight is expected to be NASA's first shuttle mission since the loss of seven astronauts aboard the Columbia orbiter on Feb. 1, 2003. That shuttle broke apart during reentry after sustaining critical damage to its left wing during launch. The STS-114 flight is aimed at demonstrating new safety tools and methods developed over the last two years, as well as delivering fresh cargo to the International Space Station.

Part of the work remaining for Discovery's flight includes the installation of a new digital camera to the orbiter's underside. Wiring for the camera, which replaces an older film-based system, is already in place though the actual imager will be installed once the orbiter is inside the VAB, NASA officials said.

Like its film-based predecessor, the digital camera will snap images of Discovery's external tank as it separates from the shuttle in orbit. It is expected to yield high resolution images that will be transmitted directly to mission control from space. During previous flights, mission managers had to wait until a shuttle landed to obtain the film negatives and observe the separation event.

Stilson said that, while rolling Discovery over to the 52-story VAB for integration is a major step toward returning the shuttle fleet to flight status, the orbiter is also coming out of a maintenance period that included some 267 modifications, of which about 20 were return-to-flight related. It's one thing to be excited for return-to-flight, she added. In the OPF, we have different milestones, including the first time we powered the orbiter up after having powered down for a year.

That last line sounds incredibly ominous.
Also, it's nice to know NASA is at least moving away from film into the realm of digital video. They'll prbably get a Apple Mac G5 with Final Cut Pro HD anytime soon now. :)

- Art Neuro