Tuesday 31 March 2009

Quote of the day 31/3

'Average number of ads exposed to each day - 3000'

- Neil Boorman, Bonfire of the Brands

Monday 30 March 2009

Brain Rules: 12 Neuro Hacks to Get Things Done!

Check this out, 12 Neurological Hacks that have been proven to help you get things done. And the best part, you can implement them all in to your daily life with hardly any effort required!

Just click the 'watch' links and enjoy the short presentation!

Quote of the day 30/3

'Average number of Brand names memorised by a 10 year-old: 400 '

- Bonfire of the Brands, Neil Boorman

Friday 27 March 2009

Hazardous Pioneers : NEW DITLOAH EPISODE 4 !

NEW HP video!

1984 is here folks, part 2: Anti-Terror Poster Remixes

Some of my favourites;









More here.

1984 is HERE folks,






1984 is here people,(the following article below can be found here).

The London police have bested their own impressive record for insane and stupid anti-terrorism posters with a new range of signs advising Londoners to go through each others' trash-bins looking for "suspicious" chemical bottles, and to report on one another for "studying CCTV cameras."

It's hard to imagine a worse, more socially corrosive campaign. Telling people to rummage in one another's trash and report on anything they don't understand is a recipe for flooding the police with bad reports from ignorant people who end up bringing down anti-terror cops on their neighbors who keep tropical fish, paint in oils, are amateur chemists, or who just do something outside of the narrow experience of the least adventurous person on their street. Essentially, this redefines "suspicious" as anything outside of the direct experience of the most frightened, ignorant and foolish people in any neighborhood.

Even worse, though, is the idea that you should report your neighbors to the police for looking at the creepy surveillance technology around them. This is the first step in making it illegal to debate whether the surveillance state is a good or bad thing. It's the extension of the ridiculous airport rule that prohibits discussing the security measures ("Exactly how does 101 ml of liquid endanger a plane?"), conflating it with "making jokes about bombs."

The British authorities are bent on driving fear into the hearts of Britons: fear of terrorists, immigrants, pedophiles, children, knives... And once people are afraid enough, they'll write government a blank check to expand its authority without sense or limit.

What an embarrassment from the country whose level-headed response to the Blitz was "Keep Calm and Carry On" -- how has that sensible motto been replaced with "When in trouble or in doubt/Run in circles scream and shout"?


This should make you feel like vomiting.

Possibly the coolest house IN THE WORLD

Oh man, I want one of these in my stocking this year...



How DOPE is this!??



Come over for dinner, and bring your BOARD!

:D

Bad News is Good News is Bad News : Is good news?

A professional take on how not to 'feel sorry for your seeds as we spread the disease'

Wednesday 25 March 2009

Go and Watch 'Bronson'. As soon as you can.

Well, last night was Bronson night, and I can happily say it's my new favourite film. It's seriously well done, the acting is full on mental. The fights scenes are brutal and the unpredictability is the reason my finger nails have decreased substantially in length.
Go and see it!



And the interview with Tom Hardy, who plays Bronson;





One of the main tunes in the film, by glass candy;

Monday 23 March 2009

Beer Bottle creative re-use?

What to do with all those empty beer bottles lying around the house? (Original location here.)



Some suggestions -

Make a shelf or 5






Or a table...

Or drinking glasses...


Or even make a bottle sculpture...

New Hazardous Pioneers Episode now up on Youtube!

The new episode is here, check it below;

How to grow your own fresh air

How to grow your own fresh air. Watch the video at the top first. Fascinating!

Why we think it's OK to cheat and steal VIDEO

Great video I watched the other night, taken from the TED blog, on 'Why we think it's OK to cheat and steal'. Some really great points made, and it's only going to take 20 mins of your time. Bargain.

Has Britain got a problem with the Police?

Has Britain got a problem with the police?


There are numerous examples of their questionable conduct:
Damian Green
Jean Charles de Menezes
The abuse of Form 27 to disperse legitimate assembly – especially football supporters;
The building of the FIT database;
The un-scrutinised roll out of ANPR without debate in parliament;
Cash for peerages;
The routinely oppressive policing of demonstrations;
The routine mistreatment of suspects;
The lack of accountability of ACPO (it sets policy and pursues goals but is immune to scrutiny and FoI requests).

Who are the police working for – themselves or us?
Who are they answerable to?
Have they become politicised?

Speakers in the video below:
Chair: Hilary Wainwright (Co-Editor, Red Pepper)
Speakers: Malcolm Carroll (Spokesman, Plane Stupid)
Cilius Victor (Jean Charles de Menezes Campaign)
Steve Powell (Director of Policy, FSF)
Harriet Sergeant (author and research fellow, CPS)


NO2ID : Phil Booth speaking on the Convention of Modern Liberty

Nice video from NO2ID coordinator, Phil Booth.

Philip Pullman's dope speech at The Convention on Modern Liberty

This is what this country needs more of; people in a position of status, such as Philip Pullman, a worldwide-acclaimed author, who is now speaking up and letting out what's really happening. Good on him and I hope to see more of such things.

This video will take less than 13 minutes of your time (and is well worth it).

Wikileaks : Everything you should ever yearn to know

According to Wikipedia-
'Wikileaks is a website that publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive governmental, corporate, or religious documents, while attempting to preserve the anonymity and untraceability of its contributors. Within one year of its December 2006 launch, its database had grown to more than 1.2 million documents.'

The site goes back online tomorrow, so get on it, and see what you can find!
I will be posting the results of recent 'life-hacks' so make sure you get on there and read up on the mainstream's 'under-carpet' dust.

Click here tomorrow.

Sleep you vermin, Sleep you SCUM.

Are such things done on Albion's shore?

The image of this nation that haunts me most powerfully is that of the sleeping giant Albion in William Blake's prophetic books. Sleep, profound and inveterate slumber: that is the condition of Britain today.

We do not know what is happening to us. In the world outside, great events take place, great figures move and act, great matters unfold, and this nation of Albion murmurs and stirs while malevolent voices whisper in the darkness - the voices of the new laws that are silently strangling the old freedoms the nation still dreams it enjoys.

We are so fast asleep that we don't know who we are any more. Are we English? Scottish? Welsh? British? More than one of them? One but not another? Are we a Christian nation - after all we have an Established Church - or are we something post-Christian? Are we a secular state? Are we a multifaith state? Are we anything we can all agree on and feel proud of?

The new laws whisper:

You don't know who you are

You're mistaken about yourself

We know better than you do what you consist of, what labels apply to you, which facts about you are important and which are worthless

We do not believe you can be trusted to know these things, so we shall know them for you.

And if we take against you, we shall remove from your possession the only proof we shall allow to be recognised.


The sleeping nation dreams it has the freedom to speak its mind. It fantasises about making tyrants cringe with the bluff bold vigour of its ancient right to express its opinions in the street. This is what the new laws say about that:

Expressing an opinion is a dangerous activity

Whatever your opinions are, we don't want to hear them

So if you threaten us or our friends with your opinions we shall treat you like the rabble you are

And we do not want to hear you arguing about it

So hold your tongue and forget about protesting

What we want from you is acquiescence


The nation dreams it is a democratic state where the laws were made by freely elected representatives who were answerable to the people. It used to be such a nation once, it dreams, so it must be that nation still. It is a sweet dream.

You are not to be trusted with laws

So we shall put ourselves out of your reach

We shall put ourselves beyond your amendment or abolition

You do not need to argue about any changes we make, or to debate them, or to send your representatives to vote against them

You do not need to hold us to account

You think you will get what you want from an inquiry?

Who do you think you are?

What sort of fools do you think we are?


The nation's dreams are troubled, sometimes; dim rumours reach our sleeping ears, rumours that all is not well in the administration of justice; but an ancient spell murmurs through our somnolence, and we remember that the courts are bound to seek the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and we turn over and sleep soundly again.

And the new laws whisper:

We do not want to hear you talking about truth

Truth is a friend of yours, not a friend of ours

We have a better friend called hearsay, who is a witness we can always rely on

We do not want to hear you talking about innocence

Innocent means guilty of things not yet done

We do not want to hear you talking about the right to silence

You need to be told what silence means: it means guilt

We do not want to hear you talking about justice

Justice is whatever we want to do to you

And nothing else


Are we conscious of being watched, as we sleep? Are we aware of an ever-open eye at the corner of every street, of a watching presence in the very keyboards we type our messages on? The new laws don't mind if we are. They don't think we care about it.

We want to watch you day and night

We think you are abject enough to feel safe when we watch you

We can see you have lost all sense of what is proper to a free people

We can see you have abandoned modesty

Some of our friends have seen to that

They have arranged for you to find modesty contemptible

In a thousand ways they have led you to think that whoever does not want to be watched must have something shameful to hide

We want you to feel that solitude is frightening and unnatural

We want you to feel that being watched is the natural state of things


One of the pleasant fantasies that consoles us in our sleep is that we are a sovereign nation, and safe within our borders. This is what the new laws say about that:

We know who our friends are

And when our friends want to have words with one of you

We shall make it easy for them to take you away to a country where you will learn that you have more fingernails than you need

It will be no use bleating that you know of no offence you have committed under British law

It is for us to know what your offence is

Angering our friends is an offence

It is inconceivable to me that a waking nation in the full consciousness of its freedom would have allowed its government to pass such laws as the Protection from Harassment Act (1997), the Crime and Disorder Act (1998), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000), the Terrorism Act (2000), the Criminal Justice and Police Act (2001), the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act (2001), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Extension Act (2002), the Criminal Justice Act (2003), the Extradition Act (2003), the Anti-Social Behaviour Act (2003), the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004), the Civil Contingencies Act (2004), the Prevention of Terrorism Act (2005), the Inquiries Act (2005), the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (2005), not to mention a host of pending legislation such as the Identity Cards Bill, the Coroners and Justice Bill, and the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.

Inconceivable.

And those laws say:

Sleep, you stinking cowards

Sweating as you dream of rights and freedoms

Freedom is too hard for you

We shall decide what freedom is

Sleep, you vermin

Sleep, you scum.

Philip Pullman will deliver a keynote speech at the Convention on Modern Liberty at the Institute of Education in London tomorrow.

Modern Liberty dot Net


Original Article Location


Water Wars; if you're buying these, you're being taken for a MUG

So look what I just came across here
Already from scanning through the article, I can see the pathological disease of 'Ethical Consumerism' about to spread even further, (with reference to the cartons of water).


Oh Dear.
Better for the earth it may be, but buying the fucking carton in the first place is the mistake...




$10 for this bottle, and you don't even get the complimentary arse cheeks. Might as well call it 'Milk'.

Big Brother is HERE; London imposes curfew on kids

London imposes de-facto 9PM curfew on under-16s

Posted by Cory Doctorow, March 21, 2009 12:48 AM (original link here)

London cops have been given the power to "disperse" anyone under 16, gathered in groups of two or more, from almost all of central London, after 9PM. The police don't have to see the kids doing anything wrong, they only have to believe "the presence or behaviour of a group of two or more persons in any public place in the relevant locality has resulted, or is likely to result, in any members of the public being intimidated, harassed, alarmed or distressed."




If you’re observant, in central London, you may have seen this notice casually cable-tied to a lamppost. From afar, it looks like a council planning application, or parking bay suspension. It’s actually notifying you that you’re now subject to an anti-social behaviour order, and the Police (and the not-really-Police Community Support Officers) have special powers to remove you from this area if they feel like it. These dispersal areas cover large swathes of London, and other cities in England. There are now over 1000 such areas.

It’s ambiguously worded, but it institutes law that in other words may not seem so palatable. There’s a curfew for unsupervised under-16s, from 9pm to 6am. Any group of 2 or more people can be broken up and/or that the member of the group have to leave the designated area (if they do not live there). Crucially, police do not have to see actual anti-social behaviour, but a constable in uniform has reasonable grounds for believing that the presence or behaviour of a group of two or more persons in any public place in the relevant locality has resulted, or is likely to result, in any members of the public being intimidated, harassed, alarmed or distressed...


Originally from-
the kids are alright (via Wonderland)
Previously:

* Philip Pullman on the collapse of personal liberty in the UK ...

Friday 20 March 2009

Sacramento and its Tent City VIDEO



Housing the Homeless? | 6:22 p.m. Several readers have commented that the city of Sacramento seems to have a lot of vacant housing and wondered if it might be converted for use by the homeless people living in tent city. My colleague Vikas Bajaj, who has written extensively about foreclosures for The Times, checked the numbers:

I looked up how many homes and apartments are vacant in the Sacramento area and here are the numbers: 10.4 percent of rental housing units are vacant and 4.8 percent of owned units are vacant. The vacancy rates are higher than the rest of the country.

It seems that the city/county/state should at least be considering putting the homeless in the people-less homes and apartments that plague the area, rather than making permanent these squalid tent cities. They can probably acquire foreclosed homes for very little money and turn them into low-cost, affordable housing.

I checked with Mayor Kevin Johnson’s spokesman, Steve Maviglio, about this idea of moving the tent people into vacant housing, and here’s what he said:

It’s been talked about a little bit, but it’s private property and we don’t have the ability to secure it. But we are looking at housing owned by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. The problem with that is that it’s low-income housing and is maxed out, fully occupied. So that’s not an avenue.

Still, he said, the city is exploring all ideas, both temporary and long-term.

Original Post | 3:19 p.m. A tent city is burgeoning in Sacramento, Calif., prompting local officials to consider whether such an encampment should be made permanent, with plumbing and all.

The primitive settlement sits in the shadow of the state capitol and is home to about 300 people who have no toilets or running water, creating unsanitary conditions that advocacy groups worry could promote diseases like cholera. With the downturn in the economy and more working-class people losing their jobs and their homes, the tent city is expanding.

The mayor of Sacramento, Kevin Johnson, said in an interview that he wants to create a permanent tent city for the homeless, although he is not sure where it should be. He said he recognized that doing so would be difficult politically. But he said a permanent site could bring sanitation services and regulations like a ban on drugs and alcohol.

Mr. Johnson said that the rise in homelessness was a regional problem, and that surrounding localities should help pay for any solution, like establishing a permanent tent city. He will also have access to $2.3 million that President Obama’s stimulus package is giving Sacramento to deal with homeless issues.

“We’ve tried to sweep the homeless under the rug and it’s been our dirty little secret for far too long,” said the mayor, who took office three months ago and whose status as a former Phoenix Suns basketball star has helped attract media attention to the tent city. “We’ve been relying on good Samaritans and nonprofits, but they’re overwhelmed now.”

Tent cities — much like the “Hoovervilles” of the Depression — have sprung up elsewhere around the country. But Sacramento, with one of the highest foreclosure rates, has one of the biggest, with a population of “easily 300,” said Rob Fong, a Sacramento city councilman, and it is “definitely growing.”
“It’s an unfortunate sign of the times,” he said.

This tent city is in a place of great natural beauty, between two rivers, with birds and open sky and a relatively mild climate. Homeless people have lived there for years, largely unseen, but as more working class people move in, the tents are multiplying and becoming harder to ignore.

The official count of homeless people in Sacramento is 1,226 people, and they are spilling out to the tent city because the housing shelters are full; one of the shelters is turning away more than 200 women and children a day.

“With the recession, the numbers of people who need help has gone up dramatically,” said Joan Burke, director of advocacy for Loaves & Fishes, a nearby privately financed, non-profit organization that provides survival services for people who are homeless and tries to help them regain a home.

“The number of unsheltered people here went up 26 percent in one year,” she said. “We have lots of folks living in their cars. People are buying storage units and living in them. People are trying to do what they can to put a roof over their head. Sometimes people romanticize camping, that they are free spirits. In fact, it’s an act of desperation.”

While some residents are neat and tidy and build latrines, she said, many others are mentally ill, alcoholic or have other problems and do not use latrines. This has created what she calls “third world” conditions.

She said her group was trying to encourage the city to provide space at state campgrounds with toilets and running water. Mr. Fong, the councilman, is working on a plan that might convert the horse barns at a nearby state fairground, which is empty most of the year, into temporary housing. He is also encouraging a project in which local churches, synagogues and mosques would adopt a family from a local shelter and find housing for them, thereby creating more space in the now-full shelters for those living in the tent city.

Establishing a government-sanctioned tent city would require the approval of the city council and Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. Some property owners and developers have already raised questions about the idea, saying a permanent homeless encampment would reduce property values, put an extra burden on those nearby and block off a portion of the city to others.

“Today” on Sacramento’s tent city.

The current tent city, along the American River, has prompted concern by The American River Parkway Preservation Society, which has written on its blog: “If local government truly wishes to establish tent cities they need to be some place where the surrounding communities are not materially and criminogenically degraded — as the first call of public leadership is to protect the public.”

Nationally, almost half the people who are homeless live outside, not in shelters, according to a study released in 2007, said Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless.
“There have always been people living outside in huge numbers because no city provides shelter to all of its people,” he said. “But now there’s so many people and encampments have been getting larger.” Most of the tent cities began as shelters for the regular or chronic homeless, “but there’s new faces starting to pop up because there’s no room at the inn.”

All your Facebook messages could be tracked..

The UK government is considering the mass surveillance and retention of all user communications on social-networking sites including Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo.

Home Office security minister Vernon Coaker said on Monday that the EU Data Retention Directive, under which ISPs must store communications data for 12 months, does not go far enough. Communications such as those on social networking sites and instant messaging could also be monitored, he said.

"Social-networking sites, such as MySpace or Bebo, are not covered by the directive," said Coaker, speaking at a meeting of the House of Commons Fourth Delegated Legislation Committee. "That is one reason why the government are looking at what we should do about the Intercept Modernization Program, because there are certain aspects of communications which are not covered by the directive."

Under the EU Data Retention Directive, from the March 15, 2009, all UK internet service providers (ISPs) are required to store customer traffic data for a year. The Intercept Modernization Program (IMP) is a government proposal, introduced last year, for legislation to use mass monitoring of traffic data as an anti-terrorism tool. The IMP has two strands: that the government use deep packet inspection to monitor the web communications of all UK citizens; and that all of the traffic data relating to those communications are stored in a centralized government database.

The UK government has previously said that communications interception was "vital", and has hinted that social-networking sites may be put under surveillance. However, responding to a question from Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake, Coaker said that all traffic data on social-networking sites and through instant messaging may be harvested and stored.

"The honorable member for Carshalton and Wallington will also know the controversy that currently surrounds the Intercept Modernization Program," said Coaker. "I look forward to his support when we present Intercept Modernization Program proposals, which may include requiring the retention of data on Facebook, Bebo, MySpace and all other similar sites."

Deep packet inspection, the second strand of the IMP, involves intercepting and examining the contents of all data packets that flow over a network. In Monday's meeting, Coaker said the government still intends to have a consultation on whether to inspect and then store all internet traffic data in a centralized government database.

"What is the point of having a consultation if, as the honourable gentleman implies, the government have already made up their mind to have a central database?" said Coaker. "We have not made up our mind. We have said we will consult on a variety of options."

Opposition to the government's IMP proposal has been fierce. Cambridge University computer security expert Richard Clayton told ZDNet UK on Wednesday that the government proposal to monitor social-networking traffic was "extremely intrusive".

"The question is whether it's necessary or proportionate, and the short answer is no, it doesn't look that way," said Clayton. "If the government wants to make us safer, having a few more police on the electronic beat would be a good idea."

Clayton said that the problem for the government is that the Data Retention Directive only applies to data held by internet service providers, but that a large number of people don't use ISPs' systems to communicate, instead using online services including webmail and social-networking sites. Servers may be located in different jurisdictions, said Clayton, and data-retention times may be short.

"The government wants to collect all of this data on everybody, just in case," said Clayton. "Suppose you use hotmail.pk, and you blow up the Houses of Parliament. The government would have to persuade the Pakistani authorities to turn over the logs, which may then turn out only to have been retained for three days."

However, Clayton believes that the cost of harvesting this information, which would involve all UK internet infrastructure providers and ISPs having 'black boxes' to monitor data, would be prohibitively expensive. Clayton said that taxpayers' money would be better spent on the police, who could target investigations to those they suspect of criminal activity, rather than on performing blanket surveillance of everybody.

"To deploy deep packet inspection equipment isn't cheap — the word 'billion' is appropriate," said Clayton. "It took the Home Office the best part of a year to find £3m for the Police e-Crime Unit. That's what is wrong with this picture."

Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee also opposes the use of deep packet inspection to inspect people's data. Berners-Lee told ZDNet UK last week that the internet should not be "snooped" upon.

"If [third parties] are using the data for political ends or commercial interest, there we have to draw the line," Berners-Lee said. "There's a gap between running a successful internet service and looking inside data packets."

This article was originally posted on ZDNet.co.uk.

(Article's location)

Thursday 19 March 2009

Sad Times; 1984's here folks.

1984 was a novel.
It's content however, is already here and occuring in real life, as you will see below.
The posters describe normal people. They provide attributes that we all have. The term terrorist is now as ambiguous as ever. And here's the posters to promote it.



Short post, here.

Peace and Rice,
HPs

Scenes from the Recession; Photos

Some photos from the recession, full page of them here:





Peace and Rice,
HPs

Buddha Booze: The practice of mindful drinking

Interesting article here on drinking whilst travelling.
Worth a read to help assess your mindset when on the booze up abroad!

Peace and Rice,
HPs

GET EXCITED AND MAKE THINGS!



Just read this article (posted below) that showcases the 'Keep calm and carry on' posters that you may have seen across the country. The above image is a pisstake on that slogan, and quite fucking right too.
Don't keep calm and carry on.
Get excited and make things.
Get mad and smash shit.

The article;

Second world war propaganda poster in Woodbridge. Photograph: Graham Turner


Nowadays, of course, it would be farmed out to an expensive communications agency. Back in the spring of 1939, it was an anonymous civil servant who was entrusted with finding the slogan for a propaganda poster intended to comfort and inspire the populace should, heaven forbid, the massed armies of Nazi Germany ever cross the Channel.

This was the third in a series. The first, designed to stiffen public resolve ahead of likely gas attacks and bombing raids, was printed in a run of more than a million and read: Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory. The second, identically styled, stated: Freedom Is In Peril.

From August 1939, both posters began appearing all over the country, on billboards, in shops, on railway platforms. The third, though, was held back. This one was for the real crisis: invasion. A few may have made their way on to select officials' walls, but the vast majority of the British public never got to see it. This poster enjoined: Keep Calm And Carry On.

And suddenly these days, it's everywhere, from homes to pubs to government offices. The Lord Chamberlain's Office at Buckingham Palace, the prime minister's strategy unit at No 10, the Serious Fraud Office, the US embassy in Belgium, the vice chancellor of Cambridge University, the Emergency Planning Office at Nottingham council and the officers' mess in Basra have all ordered posters. Even David Beckham has the T-shirt, we are told.

For 60 years, the poster had been forgotten. Then, one day in 2000, Stuart Manley, co-owner with his wife Mary of Barter Books in Alnwick, Northumberland, was sifting through a box of hardbacks he had bought at auction when he saw "A big piece of paper folded up at the bottom. I opened it out, and I thought, wow. That's quite something. I showed it to Mary, and she agreed. So we framed it and put it up on the bookshop wall. And that's where it all started."

Today, you can buy Keep Calm and Carry On mugs, doormats, T-shirts, hoodies, cufflinks, baby clothes and flight bags from any number of retailers. You can use the design as a screensaver for your computer or mobile phone. There are even spoofs. Facsimiles of the poster itself, which Barter Books initially reproduced after a rash of customers asked to buy its copy (one offered £1,000), have sold in their tens of thousands.

Manley has sold some 41,000 posters. He is not the only one. Mike Coop of keepcalmandcarryon.com reckons he is shifting 300-500 products a week (and admits to having tried to trademark the phrase); the Keep Calm Gallery's Lucas Lepola is selling "probably around 500 a month". Keep Calm and Carry On may not yet be in the same league as Athena's all-time poster hits, Tennis Girl (2m sales) and Man and Baby (5m), but it is clearly striking a chord. The reasons, experts reckon, are manifold.

Alain Samson, a social psychologist at the London School of Economics, says that in times of difficulty, "people are brought together by looking for common values or purposes, symbolised by the crown and the message of resilience. The words are also particularly positive, reassuring, in a period of uncertainty, anxiety, even perhaps of cynicism."

Dr Lesley Prince, who lectures in social psychology at Birmingham University, is blunter still. "It is a quiet, calm, authoritative, no-bullshit voice of reason," he says. "It's not about British stiff upper lip, really. The point is that people have been sold a lie since the 1970s. They were promised the earth and now they're worried about everything - their jobs, their homes, their bank, their money, their pension. This is saying, look, somebody out there knows what's going on, and it'll be all right".

Written by Jon Henley, for the Guardian.


So hopefully after reading that you will notice that the people in question have completely missed the point.
So don't just keep calm and carry on, for fuck's sake. Get mad and do something about it.

Peace and Rice,
HPs

Wednesday 18 March 2009

Storm The Banks April 1st London

Update: Hazardous Pioneers Hit GAP

Hi guys,
Hope you're well,

A little update as the Hazardous Pioneers are back on track, now in the UK.
Yesterday they got up to some direct action and wiped their arses at an un-named GAP store in the UK.
Some amazing stains were left of the sweatshop-manufactured clothes from Indo-China.

Have a go yourselves, you'll be surprised how nice cashmere is on the buttocks.

Peace and Rice,

HPs

Tuesday 17 March 2009

Thoughts on Twitter; 'Narcissistic Exhibitionism' VIDEO

A dope video showcasing the underlying principle of Twitter and social-networking, in a nutshell ... what you might call 'Narcissistic Exhibitionism'.


As a result, Hazardous Davis is undergoing an experiment which involves him closing down his Facebook account for at least 3 months, if not for ever.
1st April is close-down day!

Peace and Rice,

Sunday 15 March 2009

Pissed off with Sky Tv? Might be a little difficult to deliver your complaint in person ...

Sky's new building, capable of withstanding terrorist attacks and designed to be able to handle a plan-attack and keep broadcasting their bullshit. Article here.
Oh the times we live in ey?
Peace and Rice,

This is what happens when you publically claim to be a Nazi

Spotted this this morning, a guy from the Nazi BNP party got attacked with a hammer.
What goes around comes around I suppose.
Peace and Rice,

Saturday 14 March 2009

For all of you that listen to music; 'The most creative use of Youtube...'

So look what little gem I came across just now...
If you listen to music, play music, want to play music, buy it or download it, produce it, want to produce it, or hate music, then this article and video is for you.

After being stoked on that, then give the other efforts a look in too;-
Number 1


Number 2


Number 4


There's some more if you look in the 'related videos' section on Youtube.

Peace and Rice,

Friday 13 March 2009

VIDEO- Hazardous Pioneers EPISODE 2 (At last!!)

Sorry it has taken so long, but I can ASSURE you now that every week, for the next 5 weeks, you will have a new episode of 'Days in the life of a hazard' to watch on our youtube channel.

Here it is, enjoy;-



Peace and Rice

Thursday 12 March 2009

Airport security and a whole lotta' balls

As I am sat here in Beijing airport, freezing my arse off, the ever-present theme of airport security and how much of a joke it is, it at it's peak of relevance.

What better way to summarise my thoughts than to post this article about a guy who sees what he can smuggle through customs ... do I detect a presence of 'role-model material' here ... ?

The article; The things he carried



For the record, I'm about 15 hours away from getting back to London...

Peace and Rice,
HD

Tuesday 10 March 2009

Scripts of wisdom ...

Some inspirational thoughts and writings;

Be courageous in your efforts and fight for the things you believe in.

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.


Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.


And my personal favourite, which so accurately relates to my mindset right now;

Do things for the greater good of humanity, rather than just focusing on your own mind-made constraints.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.


The above were taken from a selection from this article.

Monday 9 March 2009

Hanoi (ROCKS) Snapshots of time in space







Tomorrow is my last day in Hanoi before I begin my epic journey back to London.
Hanoi's old quarter is probably my favourite location I have visited in the past 159 days. So what better way to try and articulate how so, with these little snapshots in time... there could be some more tomorrow too,
Enjoy
Peace and Rice,

Fantastic (short) article - The Travel Wisdom of Bruce Lee

Bruce

Well, catching up on my online bits and pieces, I came across this very relevant article about traveling, and one of my heroes, Master Bruce Lee himself.
Check it out, see if it relates to you; there's some awesome, yet very simple points in here,

Peace and Rice,

Hazardous Davis wades through the shit

And you can read it all on days 157 and 158 here -

Peace and Rice,

Saturday 7 March 2009

Brainshift - Change of plan as Hazardous Davis plans to return to the UK next week

Hazardous Davis has had an awakening moment or two since being in Vietnam, the result being that he's planning on coming back to the UK next week.
As to why, you can read the full story here -
He plans to spend his last days up north in Hanoi.
There will be more photos and updates to come before he goes home, so stay tuned.
He's safe, in one piece and still has Irene at his side.

Peace and Rice,

Thursday 5 March 2009

I love the smell of N**A*M in the morning ...

Some photos from Hazardous Davis' 'Nam trip so far...


So, this photo above me has a little story to it...
You see the position of the cigarette, wedged into the stack of books at the top?
Well, apparently, that ciggy was burning in a position for the 'gods' so that someone would come by, and purchase a book.
Cue - Hazardous Davis.
Along he comes, and buys the book.
Nice.



This one above is my nice-looking but rat-infested dorm. Still, at $4 a night, I'll sleeptalk with the little buggers any day.


The two French sweethearts I met at the airport...


A Vietnamese guide to how I will be sleeping for the next three months...



The Hótel de Ville...Saigon


A good slogan to live by ...


A couple of classic slogans...


And finally, say hello to Irene Martin, my transport from Saigon to Hanoi.
And at £24, she's looking pretty hot ...


So that was Saigon, in a nutshell.
Check H Azardous Davis on Facebook for more photos of the 'Nam...
Peace and Rice,

Hazardous Davis hits up the Narm, and gets hit back.

Update: Hazardous Davis has arrived in the Narm. To read his in-depth day-to-day online journals, hit up his facebook group 'Harry Moosh does East', here. (The link should work!)

There will be some photos coming shortly, and no doubt, a hazardous tale or two about just how he was 'hit back' by the Narrrrrrm.

Peace and rice,
HD

Tuesday 3 March 2009

News of the day ... ARTWORK

Had to have a little go on photoshop after seeing that the UK's Prime-minister sinister was in Washington today, meeting Barack 'HYPE' Obama the lama.

Artwork by Hazardous Davis -




Artwork taken from 'Sticks and Stones #1' -

How to travel like a Hazardous Pioneer Part 4; Thoughts before Departure

Here is a rough guide to what has gone through my head – or there abouts – over the past few months before I have set off traveling somewhere.

This post is contains the most important information regarding how to travel like a Hazardous Pioneer, if that's your goal.
But it is also a template on how to calculate your mindset (and adjust accordingly) if you want to get things DONE in life.


A lot of people live with the idea that Biography = Destiny.
And it is, if you choose to live that way.
If you are someone that thinks that your background will determine your future, then it will.
But it doesn’t have to.

A lot of you that contact me, ask me mostly ‘How do you afford it?.
Although budgeting is an important subject, it is somewhat missing the point.
These are the blames that most of the people that ask me, are using. Guaranteed.
These are the most popular ones with regards to travel, ESPECIALLY MONEY and TIME.

Resources (Blames)
Time, Contacts, Money, Experience, Technology, Management etc

But these blames, like your background, will only shape you and your future, if you let them.
Instead of focusing on the blames, focus on what you can do to smash through them.
The verb of ‘smashing through the blames’ could be termed ‘Resourcefulness’.

Resourcefulness

Creativity, Determination, Curiosity, Passion, Resolving etc

The deciding factor is never resources (blames) unless you say they are.
Resourcefulness is the deciding factor.

With regards to the above and travel, are you DETERMINED enough to smash out of your shitty job, to seek something better and more exhilarating in life?
How PASSIONATE are you about getting off your arse to travel?
How CURIOUS are you to see what is really out there, regardless of what is or what isn’t in your wallet?

Emotion
is the underlying factor in ‘Resourcefulness’. If you can get the right emotion, you can get through anything. Likewise, if you get the wrong one, it can pin you down.

Essentially, when you look at it, ‘Decisions shape destiny’.
There are 3 decisions we are making every moment of our lives:


1. What am I going to focus on? The past, the present, the future?
Focusing on different things / areas of your life, will produce different emotions.
Focus on the fact you have no money, you’re probably not going to travel anywhere but to your sofa to sit on your arse.
But focus on the fact you are DETERMINED to make you future a million times better than your past and present situations, all starting with traveling, and you will.
‘Focus = Feeling’.
Also, are you focusing on yourself or others? For traveling, I expect it is going to be yourself. However, this template does fit most things in life, not just traveling.

2. The second decision is spawned by this question; ‘What does it mean? Is this the end or the beginning? Are you being punished or rewarded?

3. The third decision; ‘What are you going to do? Are you going to give up or move forward?’
Hopefully, with your travels, you are going to move forward. You’re not going to give in to being a wage slave. You are going to decide to be disciplined enough to save enough money. You are then going to use that little cash wisely, and move forward with it.

The minute you decide to focus on something, you have got to give it a meaning. Whatever that meaning is, will produce the relevant emotion. And then the emotion creates what we’re going to do, or the relevant action.

Think back in your own life, from the last year to ten years ago, and think about all the decisions that shaped your destiny, whether they were for better or worse. Think to those decisions, that if you had chosen differently, you would be somewhere differently today.
We should all have many of these memories.

Lance Armstrong for example:
Diagnosed with testicular cancer.
He decided to focus on something (achieving sporting greatness). In this example his primary focus was himself.
It was the beginning of something great for him (indirectly affected millions of people that were inspired because of him.)
He decided to move forward.

What shapes us as people?
2 invisible forces

1. State (physical / emotional)

2. Long term – View of the world, world views will shape; your meaning, emotion and action!
Your view of the world / model of the world, is what shapes you long term. It’s what influences your decision making.
Your current view of the world will shape eventually, what action you choose to get traveling.

3 things that make up the influences of decision making:

1. Your target / your goals (NOT desires). It is your needs (your musts vs shoulds) of which there are 6 needs;

i. Certainty – Everyone needs certainty that they can avoid pain or at least be comfortable. How do you get certainty? Many ways. Smoking the cigarette, going to work, having a family, getting married, etc You could say that these certainties, are things that make you feel stable.

ii. Uncertainty – Because if you were certain about things all the time, you would be bored out of your mind. We need variety. We need surprises.
Do you like surprises? Lies. You like the surprises you want! The surprises you don’t want you call problems, but you need those too!
You should be looking at your up and coming travels as UNCERTAINTIES.
IT SHOULD EXCITE YOU.

iii. Significance.
We all need to feel special, important or unique. You can do it by making more money, by becoming more spiritual, by transforming your physical body into something rare (tattoos and piercings).
The fastest way to achieve significance, if you have no background, no cultural upbringing and no resourcefulness, is what we call ‘violence’.
If I live in the ghetto and put a gun to your head, INSTANTLY I have gone from 0-10 on the range of significance, and I am sitting at the highest level, 10.
How certain am I that you are going to respond? 10.
And what is the level of uncertainty? Probably about 8-9, so you are fulfilling 3 of the needs in one, by being violent.
This poses a good reason as to why we will always have violence in our world unless there is a mass consciousness change.

iv. Connection / Love.
Most people settle for connection, because love’s too scary. Myself included.
You can find connection through intimacy, friendship, walking in nature, prayer etc
Hopefully you will find your connection with traveling. And your significance in life too.

Every human being finds a way to get the first four needs. Everyone that is alive today has these four needs in their life. Not all of them are genuine results to their needs, (a lot of it is pretending to one’s self that they are fulfilling their needs and it is only a matter of time before they have the ‘sledgehammer to face’ moment of realization,) but for the present time, they think they have the first four needs covered.

You could say, the first four needs, are the needs of the ‘Personality’.
Traveling can actually cover all 4 of these needs, that’s why it is such a great ‘liberator’ for people that go about it properly, not the flashpacker types.

These last two needs, you can call the needs of the ‘spirit’.
And it is from these last two needs, that you will achieve ‘fulfillment’.
You won’t achieve genuine fulfillment from the first four alone. You will find a way (trick yourself) to get it, you’ll drink, smoke, drugs, sex, eat, violence etc the list goes on.
You may genuinely fulfill the first four with traveling. But you will need to include the last 2 to truly fulfill yourself as a person.

v. Grow.

It is the underlying law of nature. Anything that does not grow, does not survive. If your spirit does not grow (to a certain point), it does not survive. It doesn’t matter how popular you are, how many people love you, how successful you are, how much money you have, how much money you don’t have, if you don’t grow as a person (spiritually), you feel like shit (eventually).

And the reason we all grow? Because we all have something to contribute. There is no natural organism that does not contribute or act in a mutual relationship with something else, indirectly or directly. Everything interacts with everything. As humans, we grow, because we have something to give.
Traveling allows your spirit to grow like you wouldn’t believe. Especially traveling on your own.
If you don’t look to grow spiritually though, you won’t. Flashpackers fit this mold perfectly.

vi. To contribute beyond ourselves.
We all know the key life isn’t me, it’s we. Giving is the way forward, even though the cliché ‘Giving is greater than receiving’ sounds cheesy, it’s very true.
Human beings get excited to contribute, once they EXPERIENCE and FEEL what contribution does for you own spirit. Those of who have already taken the step to serving others more than yourself, can honestly say it’s buzz. It’s a step I have taken and it is what gets me out of bed in the morning.

This can be your goal later on in traveling. For me, it comes in the form of a genuine want to do voluntary work for the helping and bettering of others, in turn allowing my spirit to grow as a result.

So choosing your target is what shapes you.
I.e. what is your list of priorities for the above 4-6 needs? Are you a certainty freak? Or an uncertainty freak? Do you love knowing what’s coming next, or do you live for the adventure? What ever your order is of these needs, whichever ones you value most, will shape your emotions. You emotions lead to your direction and your direction leads to your destiny.
Think carefully what shapes your emotions and your actions (or lack of) at present.
Now re-list them if you were to succeed in your dream of going traveling. What priority order would you place them in now, if you were leaving next week?


2. What’s your map / belief system, which is guiding you/telling you how to get those needs?


There are 7 different beliefs.
1 of these is time. People’s perception of time is different, and this will affect your destiny.

3. Your Fuel / your emotion.

There are 6000 different emotions that we have words for in the English language. There are however, only 12 dominant emotions that the average person experiences in one week. Of those 12, 6 of them make you feel shit.

When do people really start to LIVE (on average)? When they face death (of the soul or the physical body.)

Explore your web, that block that sits on top of your shoulders. Explore your beliefs, your values and your emotions.

For 2 reasons:

1. So you can give more.
2. So you can appreciate (not understand, understanding is merely intellectual) what is driving other people.

And if you’re blown away by the above, or just thinking ‘I am bloody confused’, watch this video below.
This is where I got the above text from.
The video will hopefully help clarify a lot of the above. It will take 20 mins of your time. Watch it, then go through the above whilst, or after you have watched it.

WARNING: (Anthony Robbins is trained in NLP. He knows what he is doing, and is very good at it. He is an addictive speaker, and speaks truth with regards to spiritual development etc.
BUT, his political motives are FUCKED. He’s mates with Clinton for god’s sake, and he’s high fiving Al-Gore on the front row in this video. He has many mansions and limo’s. I question his personal spirituality entirely, and I don’t trust the fucker as far as I could throw his hench frame. However, he speaks sense when figuring out the spirit on paper. So that’s all you should take this for, a formula of figuring out what you want. I have tried to adapt his words towards traveling, as what he is talking about makes sense. But don’t get too wrapped up in him. He doesn’t need your attention or money anyway, he made $400 million in one day, he don’t need no more!)




Hope this helps to clarify your traveling goals,
And if you ask me how I did my trips, I will guide you to this post first and foremost,
YOU have to be the one to put the work in, on paper if necessary, to working out your current mindset, and how you are going to CHANGE it to achieve your goal of traveling.

Peace and Rice,

How to remember everything you'll ever learn ...

Want to remember everything you'll ever learn?
Or more realistically, do you want to retain 95% + of what you set out to learn?
No I’m talking about cramming. Cramming is what we do when we have to regurgitate knowledge onto a paper exam, usually with subjects that take up our valuable time that we could be spending doing the things we actually love.

I’m talking about learning 95% + of the material that you REALLY want to know and retain. The subjects that you are passionate about, your rights as a human, your favourite quotes, whatever it may be, there is an answer.
Supermemo.
Some of you may have heard of it. It is based on years of research and maths. That was a good enough selling point for me, and whether it is or not for yourself, read this article first.

I downloaded the software, for free, the other day, in about ten minutes off of a torrent website.
It is true, the user interface is ugly as fuck, but the program IS usable, if you’re willing to put in the effort.

The other day, I wrote about studying on my own VS studying at Uni, and said that I would smash the records of what I would achieve in a Uni setting.
Well, multiply those records by about a 1000 more, now that you have Supermemo at your fingertips.
By using incremental reading, and physical interaction using question and answer techniques, Supermemo is well on form for getting you on the path to retention. I figured out the interface’s basics in less than an hour. Youtube and Google both have info on using Supermemo, laid out in Layman’s terms. I say go for it and try it out, if you’re not on the road. If you have a desk with your laptop, and can make time, use it. The software will remind you when it is time to read something again, etc, so it helps if you use a computer regularly.

For me in these next three months, I don’t know when I will be coming across electricity, so it’s not worth me using Supermemo just yet. However, when I get back to the UK, if South America is still on the cards, then you can bet I will be using Supermemo to learn about South America in 3 months or less.

Check it out, see what you think,
(The video narrator is boring as FUCK, AND he’s demonstrating with Obama, however, the video DOES show just how easy it is to start using Supermemo in conjunction with shit like Wikipedia etc. So ignore the monotony and political fuck up, and see if it makes sense)



95% + retention seems pretty dope to me,
Peace and Rice,

How to travel like a Hazardous Pioneer Part 3 : PACKING

The P word, and the hardest part for me. For years and years I have tried to pack light, and it’s never been successful. Until now. If I pack too much shit, it might actually kill me, so being easy on the weight side of things is a must.
These are the things that I am taking with me:

Big Sports Bag (I don’t have a flashpack-backpack, so the rugby bag will have to do)
7 tshirts, 1 rashguard
5 pairs of shorts (don’t need a belt with any of them, they are all board or basketball shorts)
2 pairs of thin long trousers
2 pairs of shoes
One aeroplane blanket (5 finger discount)
One small towel
One Buddha drape, wrapped inside it is a back up mosquito net.
5 pairs of boxers
4 pairs of socks
One survival guide
One inflatable neck cushion
4 wife beaters
Washbag
One belt (might come in useful for lynching some unsuspecting rabbit, who knows)
One ultra-thin and small sleeping bag in it’s own carry bag

Handluggage/rucksack
One Laptop
One skype phone
Digital camera and charging equipment
One ipod and one Ipod nano
One hat (dear god, that’s a miracle)
One penknife (packed in check-in luggage for flights)
One pair of sunglasses
One bog roll, wrapped in plastic (nothing like soggy shite paper)
Small pot of Guarana 5X strength (gonna need it if I’m cycling the length of SE Asia.)

Tied to my Rucksack is a hammock, and wrapped inside that is another mosquito net. My hammock will be my bed for the most part.






That’s about as light as I get.
Then I also had to dump a SHIT load of stuff, of which is going to the local orphanage here in Pattaya, with which the Dive Center has connections with apparently. Pain in the arse, as I had bought a lot of the shit I’m chucking, upon arrival out east. Well, it just shows, this is the time to start getting over everything materialistic.

So, all in all, you need to list your musts vs wants. Load all of your musts. If you still have room, add a couple of wants for comfort. And then you should be good to go.
If this is all horribly miscalculated, you’ll find out soon enough, as you’ll witness cyber-complaints from my keyboard, cursing at how my back cannot stand gravity and my bags having a relationship together.

Although I am packing considerably less than a flashpacker, if it’s adventure you’re after, packing as light as possible is a good habit to get into.

This cheeky little video might help you to save time too, what a brilliant bit of knowledge to share;
HOW TO FOLD A TSHIRT IN TWO SECONDS;

And fellas, incase you meet that lucky lady(boy) on your travels, and as a matter of chance, you’re dressed like this fella below, then pay attention towards; HOW TO UNDRESS IN 2 SECONDS


Hope this helps,
Peace and Rice and less than 24 hours to go.

How to travel like a Hazardous Pioneer Part 2 : BUDGETING

The b word. Yes the infamous BUDGET.
Well, hath no fear, it’s pretty straight forward. Seeing as I myself am preparing for three months travel on quite short notice, what better way to take you through my budgeting process, seeing as I only did it myself just now.

I’m going to try to break this down as simply as possible.
This is by no means the finest way to budget your trip, but given the time scale I have, this is how I’ve done it. If I don’t make due to cash, ignore everything beneath this line to do with money!
A series of questions to ask yourself, use this as a template if it helps;

1. How much money do you have in your account? Combining the contents of both the accounts that I use when I am on the road (having a back up account is always a good idea, as is have an account that does NOT charge for cash withdrawals abroad) I currently have £820. I also have £279 as a backup amount incase shit hits the fan.

2. How long are you traveling for? 3 months

3. To how many destinations? At the moment, 3 countries.

4. How much money in each country? Simple, £820 / 3 = £276 (I think!?)

5. Where is your first destination? Vietnam

6. What is the currency of destination 1? Dong and US dollars
Therefore I change half of my £276 into Dollars, half in to Vietnamese Dong.

Now these are the essential basics for figuring out the costs per month.


I can take these three steps further, briefly;
7. Accommodation? Hostels on occasion, hammock and mosquito net mostly.
Therefore, I don’t really need to look to hard at accommodation costs, as I plan to do this on the rugged side of things.

8. How many meals are you eating a day? Intentionally one full-meal in the evenings, and starting the days with fruit – most probably 2 small bananas and a tablespoon of peanut butter.
Thus – food costs are also low, probably £1.50 a day, 31 days, £46.50 for the month I’m in Vietnam, roughly.

9. Transport? Pushbike and Bus/Train primarily. However, a taxi from the airport to HCMC is necessary.

And so weighing up these basic options in my mind, I can pretty much conclude that £276 or there abouts, for one month in Vietnam, is definitely possible. However, it is important to note that I am not doing the average Joe trip here. I am intending to cycle as much as is practical/possible, and sleep in a hammock etc, so I am trying to keep my costs down as much as possible.
But with regards to budgeting, these are the kinds of questions you need to ask yourself before leaving for you next destination.

I’m sure there are many more ways or more efficient ways to budget your trip, so look on the net for more help. This is the way that I have used for years now, and it has sufficed me thus far.

Hope this helps,

Peace and rice,