milovoo’s blog

3. Profit

nobody@vox.com(milovoo) — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:05:32 -0800

This is from wikipedia's "I WILL SUE YOU IN A COURT OF LAW IN TRENTON, NEW JERSEY -- and Other Bad Jokes and Deleted Nonsense" and it's quite clever

referring to the South Park Episode Underpants Gnomes

Beyond this simple explanation of a three-step business plan, the Underpants Gnomes symbolize the basic idea of the Marxist theory of exploitation as explained in Capital Volume I. In this book, Marx explains (and excuse me if this is over-simplified) that the capitalist starts only with a commodity (underpants). By the end of the day his commodity has doubled and thus turned into capital. Yet, no one can see what the steps in-between simple commodity and capital are. Marx's explanation is simple: the exploitation of labor. By only paying the laborer a set price for an unlimited amount of labor, the capitalist is then able to "suck" the extra capital out of the free amount of labor from the laborer. Thus, the capitalist now has two commodities that he can turn into capital: the original commodity that he started with (the underpants) the exploited labor of the laborer. Thus the capitalist has stolen the laborers commodity, his surplus labor, and sold it to make capital. The "???" that the underpants gnomes simply cannot see is the exploitation of labor. It is especially ironic that the rest of the episode has to do with the corporate takeover of a family owned business, and other, pro-capitalist ideas. As the people of Southpark finally realize though, the price paid for of a "fair" economy is that of a mediocre product...Tweek Coffee. Without allowing for competition, the people of Southpark never realize that there may be better Harbuck's coffee out there. In its own way the episode is making a case for the capitalist economic system.

awesome!

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Strange Cat

nobody@vox.com(milovoo) — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 15:36:27 -0700

Garfield-1

Strange cat - Heh!

Strange Cat - Detail 2

Strange Cat - Detail 1

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BBC Planet Earth Series

nobody@vox.com(milovoo) — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 13:17:25 -0700

So far I've watched 4 episodes of the Planet Earth Series (only missing deserts), and despite covering some of the same territory as Trials of Life, Life on Earth and Living Planet, they have a good deal of new and updated footage and will also look much better on hi-def sets than the older 80's series. (they also cover some of the same territiory as Undergrowth too, which didn't really need an update.)

Some of the new stuff includes amazing snow leopard footage, cave dwelling fish, isopods from lake Baikal, and some impressive macaques that can dive and hold their breath in the high tide mangrove forests. Repeats include a sardine bait-ball, which has been shown way too many times, and a few too many bears. I wouldn't mind some repeats, but there has never been any goblin shark coverage, and far too little giraffe footage, not to mention the whole microscopic world which has only barely been touched. Oh, well, it's still better that 98% of the stuff on TV, check it out if you get the chance.

Planet Earth (BBC TV Series) - 5 Disc Box Set [2005]

hey, xmas is coming up, and if you can't decide what to get me consider the Box of Life!

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Robert Anton Wilson

nobody@vox.com(milovoo) — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 14:41:49 -0700

I feel slightly guilty about Robert Anton Wilson, I have read his books many times over the years and I still have my original dog-eared copy. He deserves more than that, at least from me. So I ordered some stuff from his website

Maybe Logic - The Lives and Ideas of Robert Anton Wilson

and I'm going to pick up new copies of the Ill! trilogy

The Illuminatus! Trilogy: The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple, Leviathan

Robert Shea

on the way home. I might also send something directly to the fund, but I haven't decided yet. So many undeserving people are famous and yet this guy is having trouble paying the bills - this world truly is a inequitable place.

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Dead Famous People Retrospective

nobody@vox.com(milovoo) — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 13:05:36 -0700

Yeeaaa!

There is a now a Dead Famous People Compilation, they were on The List (this is a long list in my head of things that I keep meaning to find) and only very rarely does something get crossed off. The album is pretty much all the stuff I like, it might even be Everything, but I'm not sure.

DeadFamousPeople

In my brain they're in the same category as Confetti, the Marine Girls and Heavenly, but YMMV.

shinowa "Postcard From Paradise"(Dead Famous People cover)

There's no Dead Famous People videos on YouTube, but since I wanted a nice little visual, here is a cover of one of their songs by shinowa - not bad, it used to just make me miss the originals - but not any more.

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Lolita: Slave to Entertainment (trailer)

nobody@vox.com(milovoo) — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 12:49:08 -0700

I just got the DVD that I ordered from Rattle The Cage Productions, It's a great documentary.

Lolita-poster-splash-05-01

Here's the trailer on YouTube.

Lolita: Slave to Entretainment (trailer)

The title is a bit unfortunate, unless they were hoping to pick up some orders from the porn industry, but that's her (the Orca's) name and the subtitle is pretty accurate, so what's to be done.

It's much more accessible than a lot of other Animal Rights films, i.e. you could watch it with people who are not already "down with the cause" and they would most likely not complain or leave the room, and that's pretty impressive. If you are already are sympathetic to this sort of thing, it's still fascinating, just how ugly it can be behind the scenes.

There is also some beautiful video of orcas in the wild, set to music, as a bonus feature, which most likely be the part of the disc that I watch the most.

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