Life in jail horrible: Aussie activist

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/19564823/life-in-jail-horrible-aussie-activist/

Shouldn't have decided that it would be a good idea to protest against a Russian oil rig then, stupid woman. I do dearly hope that you get the 7 years, and that Russia goes ahead with drilling anyway. A nice hard smack of reality would do you, and those like you, some good.

I mean, the logic here is pretty much, "I break the law, and I expect to get away with it". If someone scaled the Greenpeace Sydney headquarters and unfurled a banner with "No Greenpeace" on it, I'm pretty sure the Greenpeace folk there would call the police and complain about it. And yet they expect to get away with similar actions elsewhere. Double standards, double standards everywhere.

We're all just square pegs in round holes.

It's amazing how you can think you know exactly what a person is like, can interact with them on a regular basis for years on end, only for one single event to cascade into the beautiful realisation that there's so much more to them than you originally thought.

Maybe sometimes it's just because you aren't ready for it. Maybe some things are meant to be hidden until their due time. Still, I've known Wen for something like three and a half years, or at least known of her existence, but the past month has made me realise that I really didn't know her very well at all. And there's times where I regret not noticing or realising or doing something sooner, at least just talking to her. But she's right when she says that I wasn't ready for all this before. Certainly before this year, at the very least.

She's absolutely amazing. I honestly don't know why me, of all people. But I'm very glad, and very thankful, and extremely happy that it is actually me. I'm constantly fascinated by what she does and her interests and her life. And at the same time, I'm learning things about myself that I never even knew before.

One month tomorrow. I guess it's still early days yet but...I'm really happy with how my life is right now.

Even if I haven't finished all my assessments yet.

Even if I didn't make it in to the ADF.

Actually, not getting in to the ADF means I'll be taking an Honours year next year in Politics. I'm actually pretty excited at the thought of writing 15,000-18,000 words on a topic of my choice. Still need to find a Politics staff member willing to supervise me and I need to flesh out my thesis topic with them.

PAX Australia date for next year has been announced. Keen to attend.

I am blessed with the very best of friends.

I play way too much Dota 2 for my own good.

I don't see my Melbourne Uni friends as often as I should.

Exams are coming, and that means I need to start thinking of songs to parody.

Who even reads this thing any more?

Life is a rush that passes us by

I literally do not have enough time for all my homework and assignments to be posting on here. But I'm here anyway. Fuck logic.

Was browsing Reddit the other day reading a thread about what guys should and shouldn't do on a first date, and a comment about how all guys have a little bit of ADD so we should avoid facing distractions or activity when picking a seat really stuck with me. The more I thought about it, the more I found that I could apply it to a whole range of things. So bear with me while I ramble.

All guys are a little ADD. Our eyes, and attention, are drawn by movement. It's why we find it difficult to be passive in peaceful environments. It's why we, as a gender, tend to enjoy chaotic visual stimulation, like watching sports, or playing video games. It's why we can sit in a crowded area and feel like we're involved and taking part even if we're not doing anything. Motion satisfies us, and if there's no motion then we'll make our own.

An unfinished thought. But I should really start work on that essay...

A higher calling

"You bring them in, and you say, "ladies and gentlemen, you belong to the single greatest profession on the face of the Earth. This is the profession which makes all others possible. You are the ones who will man the ramparts, you are the ones who will make possible music, opera, all the things we associate with our civilised society. You make possible the footy that takes place on the Saturdays, and the cricket, and the parties which take place. You are the sentinels of democracy.""

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRYjNnVyNHg

Why climate change activism is humanocentric

A few weeks ago, I posted a question asking why it was important that humans continue to survive. A few days ago, I was talking to a few friends on public transport and a thought arose that made itself into the title of this post; namely, that climate change activism is a humanocentric activity.

Think about it: who benefits the most if we manage to successfully mitigate the effects of climate change? Humans do. We retain our primacy as the supreme species on the planet. If we aren't successful, then billions die and, in a worst case scenario, we get thrown back to some sort of pre-Industrial level of civilisation. Certainly, we would lose our ability to influence the environment as much as we do currently.

Climate change activists may argue that they are attempting to save the environment, to save Life in its entirety. But Earth has experienced temperatures far higher than anything being predicted, and Life has still survived. In the last 540 million years, five major extinction events have occurred, one of which, the Permian-Triassic extinction event 251 million years ago, wiped out 90-96% of all species then present. And yet the sheer diversity of Life present today still persisted through it all. And Life will persist through any catastrophic climate change event as well. Humans, probably not as likely. But we're just one species, of one family. In the greater scheme of things, we aren't the most numerous nor the most widespread of species on this planet, so does it really matter if we make it or not?

I mean, if humans are so bad for the environment and all that, wouldn't it actually be better if we all died, thereby saving the planet from our evil artificial corrupting influence?

Of course, climate change activists wouldn't agree with what I've said. They can't admit that they're just as afraid of dying as the rest of us. At least the rest of us don't have to put up a façade about the environment to justify it.