How China Got Religion
Slavoj Zizek writing for The New York Times on China’s new law regarding the reincarnation of living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism:
In short, the media image of brutal Chinese soldiers terrorizing Buddhist monks conceals a much more effective American-style socioeconomic transformation: in a decade or two, Tibetans will be reduced to the status of the Native Americans in the United States. Beijing finally learned the lesson: what is the oppressive power of secret police forces, camps and Red Guards destroying ancient monuments compared to the power of unbridled capitalism to undermine all traditional social relations?
…Perhaps we find China’s reincarnation laws so outrageous not because they are alien to our sensibility, but because they spill the secret of what we have done for so long: respectfully tolerating what we don’t take quite seriously, and trying to contain its political consequences through the law.
(Thanks to Dylan.)
$2,500,000 In My Inbox!
Posted at 5:26 PMLooks like my blogging days are over, all thanks to the machine looking up my e-mail as one that consistently uses the Information Superhighway (internet).
From: internationalprizeawarddept2007@yahoo.de
Subject: CALL FOR YOUR WINNING CONFIRMATION.
Date: October 12, 2007 4:20:17 AM EDT
To: mark@ivystreet.net
Reply-To: internationalprizeawarddept2007@yahoo.deFROM THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR INTERNATIONAL WORLDWIDE INTERNET USER LOTTERY PRIZE AWARD DEPT.
Attn:Lucky Winner,
YOUR WINNING NOTIFICATION FOR USING THE INTERNET.
We are pleased to inform you that one of the best things that can happen to any Internet user is to be rewarded for spending money and time on the Internet. You may not have known that over one hundred billion people daily surf the Internet on regular basis for one reason or other.
These Internet users including yourself, pay access fees to various Internet Service Providers (ISP) all over the word who in turn remit surplus funds to the numerous World Wide Internet Technology Companies (WWITC) for the development and advancement of Global Information Technology.
So much money is generated from people like you all over the World for using the Information Superhighway (the Internet) without your being aware the enormous sum that go to the stake holders (WWWITC).
Without your patronage, this would not have been possible. After we conducted a research on the issue, we concluded that Internet users should be compensated.
As a result, we embarked on a worldwide lottery promotion with a sophisticated automated database to randomly select E-mail accounts that frequently surf the Internet. Consequent upon this, your E-mail address was picked for Category A Winners.
After the automated computer ballot, your E-mail address emerged as a winner in the category “A” with the following numbers attached
Ref Number: PW EH 950 OG 0612,
Batch Number: PA 5681545-NL/2007You and other category A winners are therefore to receive a cash prize of $2,500,000.00 (Two Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) from the total payout of One Billion US Dollars earmarked in the lottery for category A winners.
Your prize award has been insured with your E-mail address, which qualified you for the lottery and will be transferred to you upon meeting our requirements, statutory obligations, verifications, validations and satisfactory proof of E-mail address ownership.
To file in for the processing of your winning cash prize, you are advised to contact our certified and accreditted claims agent for category “A” winners with the information below:
CLAIMS AGENT.
Name :Lawrence Finz
Email:lawrencefinz_claimsagent@yahoo.de
Tel:+31 616 705 360
Fax:+31 847 260 814You are advised to provide him with the following information:
First name:
Last Name:
Telephone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Age:
Occupation:
Ref Number:
Batch Number:
NOTE: All winnings must be claimed not later than 14 days, thereafter unclaimed funds would be forfeited after a trio repeated forwarding of this message to you without your response. Remember to quote your reference information in all correspondence.You are to keep all lotto information confidential, especially your reference numbers and the password of your E-mail address. Since we do not know you, if an impostor hacks your E-mail account ID and claims your money without our knowledge, we shall not be liable. Double claims will not be entertained so be careful. Furthermore, should there be any change of address do inform our agent as soon as possible.
Congratulations!!! And thank you for being a user of the World Wide Web.
Yours Faithfully, Marry Jones Lottery Coordinator.
Trailer for the Karl Pilkington special on the BBC:
It looks amazing.
In this song Joan Jett attempts to channel Sly Stone. Though I can’t say I really prefer anyone’s version better than his, this is still a great cover. In the video for this song Joan Jett attempts to channel Chevy Chase or has some war against technology and oranges or something.
“God is with those who persevere.” -Chapter VIII, The Koran
U.S. Is Top Arms Seller to Developing World
The New York Times:
The United States maintained its role as the leading supplier of weapons to the developing world in 2006, followed by Russia and Britain, according to a Congressional study to be released Monday. Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia were the top buyers.
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