Cogs can think.

Got at b3co.com!

I believe. May have forgotton some. Here.

I guess I’m in some sort of controversial mood as of late. But anyway.

There is no such thing as the ’soul’. Man is not special. We are just animals. A type of animal that has such a large brain mass that we can afford luxuries such as consienceness. What we call our ’self’, is nothing more than the unique set of connections between our neurons, as well as our specific set of glial cells, as defined by environment and genes. Pop, there you have ’self’.

People say each individual is unique. They lie. We are not unique. We are anything but unique. We all act the same, do the same. Our behaviour is predictable and documented. As an example: basically all monotheistic faiths are the same, as well as are most polytheistic faiths. We respond the same when we fall in love. We all need food and water. We are built in the exact same way, and we die in the same way.

Millions and millions of people spend their insignificant lives in exactly the same way. Minor variations may occur, but our goals are all the same: to procreate. Everything we do, from earning money to eating bread, all is done to assure the survival of our species. And exactly the fear of this realisation is what makes us want to believe we’re all unique and special.

Humanity needs to get off its high horse, and start to realise we are not seperated from nature, but part of it. The day we realise that, is the day we will finally unite for the common good. But that is the funny thing. We are not capable of realising that. Our brains are too small, and our biological urges too strong.

It’s like a sick joke of nature. Make us smart enough to realise ’self’, but too stupid to realise we are just animals.

+ = Lots of fun.

The former image taken from Google Image search (read: they ain’t my dishes, actually).

Proposed legislation will outlaw possession of images such as “material featuring violence that is, or appears to be, life-threatening or is likely to result in serious and disabling injury”.

And just like that, the UK got a whole lot less free.

There are a few things I’ll be sure to do if I ever ruled this country.

That’s a start.

Don McLean’s “Vincent” (commonly known as “Starry, Starry Night”). It’s about Vincent van Gogh.

Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer’s day,
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills,
Sketch the trees and the daffodils,
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
In colors on the snowy linen land.

Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they’ll listen now.

Starry, starry night.
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze,
Swirling clouds in violet haze,
Reflect in Vincent’s eyes of china blue.
Colors changing hue, morning field of amber grain,
Weathered faces lined in pain,
Are soothed beneath the artist’s loving hand.

Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they’ll listen now.

For they could not love you,
But still your love was true.
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night,
You took your life, as lovers often do.
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you.

Starry, starry night.
Portraits hung in empty halls,
Frameless head on nameless walls,
With eyes that watch the world and can’t forget.
Like the strangers that you’ve met,
The ragged men in the ragged clothes,
The silver thorn of bloody rose,
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.

Now I think I know what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they’re not listening still.
Perhaps they never will…

I’m a little worried about the terrorist attacks in Turkey today… One in Istanbul, and one in Marmaris. Istanbul is irrelevant for this post, but Marmaris ain’t. A good friend of mine is in Turkey at the moment, somewhere in that area– I believe. I tried digging through my IM archives, but somehow they don’t go back enough to document the day she said where exactly she was going :(.

Luckily no Dutch were wounded, so I assume she is not involved. Also luckily she’s a no-nonsense girl, and I don’t think she’d be at all worried or affected by it :). All in all, I’m not alarmed enough to send out a txt msg.

Exclusive Dutch car brand Spyker has announced it wants to buy the Midland Formula 1 team, which currently houses Dutch driver Christian Albers.

How awesome would it be to have an all-Dutch Formula 1 team, sponsored by big, Dutch multinationals?

Yesterday “Bowling For Columbine” was aired again on television. Now, I’m not a fan of Michael Moore (the guy’s a hypocrite, exploting his new-found leftness for personal wealth), but his films (no, they are not documentaries, they are films) are quite enjoyable. Even though some ‘facts’ presented are debatable, overall, it’s still pretty interesting.

But, I want to talk about guns, weapons, rifles, pistols, you name it. I seriously cannot understand how you’d want to have guns. Guns for ordinary civilians serve absolutely no purpose at all. The only purpose is to kill and murder other human beings. To me, allowing your citizens to bear arms at such a massive scale is a sure sign of barbarism.

But of course the most unbelievable fact is that the right to bear arms is part of the… Constitution. A constitution that says it’s ok to murder and kill people (since that is the only purpose of firearms in today’s world), that it is ok for untrained civilians, who could be mentally disturbed, lovesick, or whatever, to have weapons, just is not a constitution to me.

The best argument against firearms, however, is of course: if guns make America safer… Than why is America not safe? America has 5.5 murders per 100000 people, while for instance the UK only has 1.6 murders per 100000 people (and my country only 1.2). Consistently, European countries with strict gun control laws show much, much, much lower homocide rates than the US. Of course, one cannot conclude a causal relationship by just looking at the numbers, butinteresting it is, nonetheless. And as Moore rightfully (I’ll give him that) notes, America does not have a very violent past when compared to what the 5 big historic/colonial powers of Europe have (Britain, The Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, and Spain), so that argument completely falls apart.

This whole gun thing is one of my primary concerns about going to America ever again. Before I went to Texas, roughly 5 years ago, I made the vow to never touch a firearm in my life, nor do I wish to participate in the firearms economy by buying stuff at stores that sell weapons, or by going to a shooting range.

That might become a problem if I go to the States. Were I to know that i.e. the people where I’m staying have a gun– I would not come.