Fascinating.
"Investigators found he had been in internet contact with more than 200 people who shared his fantasies."
Truly, the greatest power of the Internet is for like minded people to find each other and discover they're not alone. But if it's between two consenting and mentally fit adults maybe it's ok? It's just very much on the outer edge of society. A market place for killer and victim. Now there's a thought.
I was musing over this thought the other day. This is just a ramble....
We live in an age of massive mobility. Railroads and bicycles were the beginning and their impact was huge. Tourism was born. Motor vehicles came next and eventually became affordable. In the last few decades, mass tourism and global trade really took off with the advent of cheap air travel. This massive mobility has forged the way world works today.
What if energy sources were taxed to reflect their true cost? What if fuel became expensive? What if air travel was no longer affordable?
Some speculation...
Obviously it would quickly wipe out mass tourism. That could be quite a good thing as tourism places a huge stress on many popular destinations. Of course, it would also cause a huge economic shifts for these locations as they found new sources of income. In some cases, this might be better; while others, maybe not.
Holidays would occur closer to home. Less foreign tourists; more local tourists. Less mobility would probably strengthen the use of local languages.
It would dampen globalisation. To be cost effective, goods would need to be shipped by sea or rail and that takes longer. Fresh fruit from exotic locations would disappear. Cut flowers would be expensive. There would be a stronger market for locally grown products.
Distant places would become more exotic - again. There would be less mixing of cultures and a strengthening of local culture. It would be odd because cheap communication technologies would still enable distant interactions. So you can stay informed and collaborate all around the world but you wouldn't visit much of it. Maybe this would undermine sympathies for other cultures. Maybe this is dangerous because media companies would have more influence over how the world is perceived. Or maybe the Internet and video conferencing would reverse that. Hhhmmmm.
World-wide professional conferences would probably have to happen online, if at all.
The nature of business would change with business travel getting too expensive. Person-to-person in-the-flesh interactions are critical for developing trust. Trust is critical before any relationship, businesss or otherwise, is established. All our communication technologies are still a poor substitute for that. It would probably mean more regional business groups and less global times. That's probably true for any social group.
Politically this would put the emphasis on stronger regional economic zones as global mobility became more difficult.
It would be a very different world. Maybe a better world.
You can either pay for it at Rent My Chest or have it free at Read My Boobs. Can you rent space anywhere else? I can feel a business plan coming on...
Unfortunately my P4 1.6a is choking quite badly and I've had to configure the game for a very low-end computer to get a smoothish response. The game isn't known for its graphics and at this setting it's quite mediocre. It's getting close to machine upgrade time!
Nevertheless, Battlefield 1942 is pretty good. Very easy to learn. What's makes the game fun is that it's very open-ended with lots of weapons and vehicles to use. You can steer an aircraft carrier, place explosives and lay mines, drive tanks, fly bombers or fighters, etc. Very cool. I can see this being pretty fun in a multiplayer setting. There is a huge community behind the game putting out different mods. If I can get a bit better, I might try out a public game server to see what it's like.
Addendum (28/1/2004) : Installed patch 1.5 and performance is much much better.
Well after our terrible CNY restaurant dinner last Wednesday, Jenny was very unhappy. To feel better, she's been cooking up a storm of great Chinese dishes. On Saturday, we met up with Joe, Kayoko and friends in London and had a truly proper CNY dinner. Much, much better. Even had a lion dance right at our table which the kids will surely remember well (K* got "eaten" by it). All the noise made it hard to talk much though!
CNY brings a flurry of angpows for the kids so we've finally decided it was time to open up a bank account for each of them. It's at a very local bank - Mom & Dad's Jam Jar Bank Of England and I'm the Branch Manager. Our IT system consists of one account book. To encourage, R* to save money (and not immediately withdraw everything to buy a Gameboy), I'm offering a generous monthly interest rate. This seems to have got her quite excited and might keep the Gameboy at bay for a little while.
The author of “Compassionate Capitalism: How Corporations Can Make Doing Good an Integral Part of Doing Well” proposes corporations donate one percent of its revenues, stock and employees' time to improve the lives of those around them.
I couldn't agree more. It would be almost a miracle if corporations truly served their communities. Honestly, I think the whole concept of corporations as a legal entity and the primary method of organising capital and labour should be debated. Historically speaking, it's a pretty recent concept.
The first chapter examines the lesson of the Creel Commission of 1916 concluding that "state propaganda, when supported by the educated classes and when no deviation is permitted from it, can have a big effect."
The next chapter entitled "Spectator Democracy" traces how the current use of propoganda became rationalised and instituitionalised as an essential element of our modern version of democracy. This is a false democracy where an elite group decides what is the common interest and guides the "bewildered herd" of the population.
Next he covers the rise of the Public Relations industry and its effectiveness in blunting the labour movement using the Mohawk Valley formula. This has led to a business-run society and concludes "the people who are able to engineer consent are the ones who have the resources and the power to do it - the business community - and that's who you work for."
Subsequent chapters build on how opinion is engineered providing many provoking examples. The last chapter entitled "The Journalist From Mars" is a transcript of a talk given to the Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting 15th anniversary celebration (2002) on the media coverage of America's "war on terrorism". Taking the point of view of a truly foreign journalist, he expertly dissects just how blind and tightly controlled the US is.
It's a good read and should change the way you listen to the news. It's also very depressing as the unjustness of it all is unfolded.
Purchase Amazon US or Amazon UK or follow the above links to read most of it.
R* created these lyrics to the tune of "Food Glorious Food". Spelling and punctuation all original but you should know that deard is "dared" and beast is "best".
Oh DAD gloriyos DAD.
Sometimes you get a bit mad.
and you are very glad to add.
and allways you get BAD when
thing get a mess. and I have
deard you too wher a dress and look
your beast to look your beast ........
in a dress!
I should also mention that we have been talking about dares recently and one of the big dares at the moment is if I wear a dress then so shall she (it's a very BIG deal to get R* into a dress). We're still negotiating the parameters of this dare. I think I'd look nice in a floral pattern...
"After her release from hospital following treatment for self-harming Lee Holloway gets a job as a secretary to a lawyer, Mr Grey. It's not too long before she begins an affair with him but he suddenly loses interest. She now has to fight to regain the relationship which had been based on masochistic submission... "
Yep, not your regular plot. It's actually quite a slow film as it all concentrates on their evolving relationship. The acting was excellent and the masochistic scenes are not gratuitous. It's tricky tackling a topic involving a woman who likes abuse but it's handled delicately and in the end, it's just a love story.
