Lest We Forget

I'm usually big on Remembrance Day (Veterans' Day for my American friends), a day in which I tip my hat to those who have sacrificed so much for the general ''us'' (and myself in particular), our freedom, our present. It's like a more honest Thanksgiving, without the turkey, and celebrated privately rather than with relatives.

But I'm not feeling it as much. Not that I don't respect it, just... the world we live in isn't all that great, for starters, especially towards those who have served their country:

But also in light of natural disasters such as today's Typhoon in the Phillippines, there are countless people who give or lose everything they have, every single day, with no one to benefit from their actions and losses.

Then comes the thought of all the unjust wars, both ones in Iraq starring in that role, but also Vietnam, and on a lesser scale, the Korean war - in which my grandfather served as a sniper - which, lest we not forget, pitted a communist government (North Korea) against a right-wing government (South Korea), and despite being less than a decade removed from WWII, the United Nations supported the right-wing, starting a spiral for North Korea that, with the help of blockades and embargoes, left them bitter, poor, starving, technologically impaired even to this day, and pissed off at the Western world - for good reason.

It takes a special person to be willing to sacrifice their life for their country, for their beliefs; it takes an even better soldier to go through with it despite disagreeing with orders, as many U.S. troops have since 2003. It takes a righteous person to serve as a means of defense rather than invasion or regime change, though.

More than all of that, though, I really despise profiteers pinning poppies to their suits when they use other humans - mostly kids and young adults yet to reach their prime - to unjustly invade another country for profit or territory after everything we know now. And to, at times, even poison their own troops while doing so.

Then there's the ''after'': those who come back perfectly healthy still struggle to find decent work; those who come back mentally scarred receive no help whatsoever; those who come back maimed and missing limbs being refused any type of disability claim, financial help, often having their insurances cut soon after their (first) hospital release.

The problem is those in charge see it as a mathematical equation: what will it cost, versus how much do we/some of us get back? I've heard time and time again, if senators, politicians and big company executives were to send their own children to war, would they hesitate at least a little more before pulling the trigger?

That's the wrong question, though. When a soldier's life is equated with his $30K salary and negatively evaluated as a three-year investment, how many can you spare in order to help Halliburton make billions? Where is the cut-off line where they would have to think twice about putting kids in danger? What if they made $100K a year, $250K? With a life insurance worth 5 to 10 times their yearly salary, would insurance companies warn not to risk losing them uselessly?

Unfortunately, that is the world we are left with today. Corrupt leaders doing a small group's bidding, sacrificing everyone they have to in order to keep going at it. I used to love the picture at the top of this post, the sacrifices of the past supporting our care-free way of life. Except more and more, it seems like their sacrifice was for nil, that the hell they're in transposed to the upper level, that the grass is no longer green, the future is bleak, the people are poor, starving, bitter and rightly pissed off, but it doesn't even matter, because the powers that be have us all in check anyway, throwing fake laws and militarily-equipped cops at us, restraining our education, our means of purchase, access to decent jobs, clean air, fresh water, natural fucking food...

I'll tell you what: I'm pretty sure that's not what my uncle Jean-Marc (late 1970s), stepdad Daniel (late 1970s), grandfather Raymond (Korea, later Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau's personal bodyguard), great-uncle Gérard (WWII) and the others I'd rather not get into at the moment had in mind when they joined the Canadian Forces, nor what Joseph, Jack, Kevin, James and John had in mind when they joined the U.S. Forces.

Word Of The Day: Cliteracy

New York artist Sophia Wallace has a chip on her shoulder about society and mankind's illiteracy about the clitoris, and she decided to do something about it, just not he way Annie Sprinkle - whom I saw live at (the old) Club Soda in the mid-1990s - would have done it...

Instead of baring it all and equipping spectators with flashlights to facilitate exploration, Wallace ditched the facile/obvious/exploitation way of doing it (through performance) and instead built elaborate pieces, such as the street art panels 100 Laws of Cliteracy, sampled below:

"It is a curious dilemma to observe the paradox that on the one hand the female body is the primary metaphor for sexuality, its use saturates advertising, art and the mainstream erotic imaginary. Yet, the clitoris, the true female sexual organ, is virtually invisible," Wallace told Creem magazine earlier this year.

"Even in porn, the clitoris is treated as this optional, kind of freaky, 'wow he's doing her this huge favor' thing," she told HuffPost, adding that women often feel "embarrassed" to ask their partners to pleasure them. "It's insane to me that this is still happening in 2013."

Last year, during her tenure in the Art & Law Residency, Wallace started work on a multi-media project that she hoped would serve to challenge these misconceptions and to lift the veil on this enduring ignorance about the female body.

From the Huffington Post:

According to a 2011 post by Museum of Sex blogger Ms. M, the internal clitoris (highlighted in yellow in the images above) is a complex erectile structure consisting of two corpora cavernosa (that are said to wrap around the vagina when erect), two crura (erectile bodies that branch out from the clitoral body), clitoral vestibules or bulbs, and the clitoral glans (the part that you can see).

"This work has never meant to be behind the white walls of a gallery. It's really about cliteracy becoming a meme and creating new language for bodies and sexuality," Wallace said, adding that she wants to soon take her street art project global.

I also hope it becomes a meme, and chances are this installation, made with sculptor Kenneth Thomas, will help achieve that. I give you, Clit Rodeo:

She also goes one step further and ups the ante with a political stance:

Not only is the project for everyone ("I love seeing men standing up for the clit," Wallace says, adding that this is a conversation that liberates people of all genders), but she says that the clitoris can be seen as a "metaphor for freedom, body sovereignty and citizenship."

"Cliteracy is about not having one's body controlled or legislated," she said. "Not having access to the pleasure that is your birthright is a deeply political act."

Amen.

Now buy the shirt, join the cause, and by all means respect the clit enough to educate yourself on it.

Spanish Dragon

There are more than dogs in Andalousia... (yes, I referenced the best short film of all time)

More than four meters in length, it bears resemblance to both fish and reptiles. Folks are calling it a ''dragon''.

Translated, the original article says this:

The truth comes from Cuevas Civil Protection in Promar: "In summer we monitor the beaches. A lady found part of it, then we got the rest. We have no idea of ​​what can be, but it smelled bad. Promar experts are trying to see what could be ", said Civil Protection Coordinator Maria Sanchez.

Not The Best Time For Toronto To Imitate Calgary

It's not enough that once-Liberal Toronto has taken a turn for the right politically with federal politics and a (crackhead) mayor worthy of Texas, it now has to deal with floods strangely reminiscent of the ones in Calgary a couple of weeks ago:

Calgary clean-up

The inside of the Calgary Saddledome is shown in this photo provided by the NHL’s Calgary Flames last week. The team said flood waters reached as high as the eighth row of seating in the stadium.

Toronto highway

Some Torontonians have been stuck inside the downtown subway system since Monday night.

A GO train is also partially submerged on the Richmond Hill line that left Union around rush hour. The murky brown water, which spilled through the bottom floor of the train has left passengers stuck for (...) hours.(...) All flights at Billy Bishop Airport have now been suspended due to the storm, according to Pamela McDonald, spokeswoman for the Toronto Port Authority.(...) Toronto EMS are recommending people do not travel if they can as cars are creating obstacles for paramedics. They also said they have received a large number of people stuck in elevators. (...) The Toronto Region Conservation Authority also warned that the banks of the Don River were at risk of collapse in the area of Hoggs Hollow in the area of Yonge St. and York Mills.

Shit, it's like a cross between a natural disaster in a third-world country in the 1960s with the information age and a million levels of bureaucracy/government agencies. At least Canada's version of FEMA won't stall for days with their rescue mission.

Good luck to all concerned.

Thousands Of Dead Bees

Being allergic to wasp, mosquito and bee bites/stings, as a kid, I couldn't have cared less if all the bees in the world became extinct.

Now that I know how important they are to an ecosystem and how pollination works, they are dying by the thousands in North America thanks to our over-use of pesticides - many despite clear label warnings not to be used near areas where bees are present.

Now think of the price of honey and natural sugar, which will grow exponentially, as will the price of corn and canola. And remember how they can be useful in controlling diseases? Yep.

There is always a price to be paid for not thinking of the consequences of our actions, and the bigger your operation, the likelier even your smallest action can result in a bigger catastrophe.

Of course, that just may be too logical for some. I wonder how long it'll take before we all die.

Weird Animals

Here is a webpage displaying, explaining and describing various species of animals you may not have known exist. Most look like a cross betwixt two completely foreign species (check out the Raccoon Dog, particularly) and stand as proof that evolution is inspired by habitat, yet follows a very specific pattern.

Here are three examples, the site has way more:

Conspiracy Theory: The Gulf Of Aden Vortex

What did you do this past Saturday? I spent it reading about the Vortex in the Gulf of Aden, subject of one of the most popular conspiracy theories out there today.

First things first: the Gulf of Aden is situated in the Arabian sea, (now part of the Suez canal sea route), between Yemen and Somalia - where once upon a time the Arabian peninsula was locked into the African continent. When they separated, a body of water was created, enabling a passage connecting Europe, Asia and Africa via sea. That was millions of years ago.

In the past decade, an unknown magnetic force has created a vortex in the Gulf of Aden, which has increased dramatically in size in the past 3 years.

Of late, we have also been hearing of Somalian pirates taking over merchant ships, despite being (relatively) poorly armed and manning what can only be described as weak motor boats and bona fide life rafts. The U.S. has sent part of their Navy to escort ships, and many NATO countries have since followed suit, dealing a hard blow to the Somalian pirates.

Last year, Wikileaks released a ton of diplomatic cables, including some from Russian Admiral Maksimov about the U.S.' Combined Joint Task Force - Horn Of Africa base, where many nations have assembled to monitor the vortex: the United States, Russia, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Bulgaria, Australia, Belgium, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Japan, Iran, Italy, South Korea, Malaysia, The Netherlands, Pakistan, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, and Turkey. It is the largest naval force ever assembled in human history.

And that's where it gets interesting. There is no way in fucking hell it gathered just to fight off a few armed skinny guys with AK-47s while so many of the countries above are involved in so many actual wars elsewhere (Afghanistan, Iraq and Congo, to name just three...), and to have the U.S. there alongside Iran, China and Russia, given all their diplomatic disputes and tensions about other war fronts opening eventually just adds to the mystery.

But wait, there's more!

On December 9th, 2009, a giant spiral briefly appeared in the skies of Norway, as can be seen in this NBC Nightly News video. Some say that roughly a month after this event, the vortex also sported a spiral-like shape for some time, which led many observers - both casual and professional - to associate both events.

Stranger still, when the spiral appeared in the Norwegian skies, American authorities rushed President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates in a secret military bunker called 2012 Alice. That's right, 2012 - as in ''the end of the world''. Adds to the mystery, doesn't it?

One piece I was not able to sit through was the documentary/interview with one Aaron McCollum,  a 90-minute video shot with a single camera featuring a tattooed-and-pierced alleged former U.S. soldier who claims to have witnessed secret American bases in the Gulf of Aden first-hand; he seems as credible as an opossum on crack, but he seems to have convinced himself, at least.

And if you can withstand a few spelling and grammatical errors, the conspiracy theory-infused blog Attainable Mind has an interesting take on these events.

The Tortoise And The Sandal

Once upon a time, there was a silly rabbit - a magician of sorts - whose tricks weren't always for kids. He had cards up his sleeve, doves in his hats, and won every race he took part in. Kind of like Usain Bolt.

One day came a turtle whose grandfather had been famous - he had been immortalized on a Magic: The Gathering card. The tortoise challenged the rabbit to a fight, but the hare instead redirected the challenge into a race. Recollecting an old tale (a story by Aesop and a poem from Jean De La Fontaine, because adapted screenplays weren't invented in 1994), the turtle accepted, knowing the primary thing to do in a race is not to be quick but to pace yourself to be able to finish.

Unfortunately, the rabbit was a cheating jerk-off, and being far ahead by the second block, he put an obstacle in the turtle's way: an unbelievably attractive Croc sandal that the turtle just had to make love to, and the rabbit won the race.


Here's a short clip of the interruption:




The agreed-upon bet was for a million dollars. The turtle had a hard time explaining to his wife why they had to sell the house, the car, and take the kids out of private school, but she found out soon enough, when she opened an envelope that came in the mail labeled to the 'Lady Of The House'.

They are scheduled to appear on Divorce Court later this month. Don't miss it!

Nature's Destructive Beauty

Once again, the best pictures from the volcano in Iceland is from Boston.com's The Big Picture, including this one, where lightning mixes with lava and ash:

Nature's destructive beauty, right there.