365 Days of Hell on Earth

Babylon Telecom Progress Report

Day 012: Tue 12 Jan 2010

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Project News

  • Podcast arrangement is in its final stages
  • Plans proceeding well for quarterly journal; no release date set

Developments to Watch

Personal

  • Slept all day; how can I still be so tired?

Song of the Day: Ministry, “Grace”

Written by Jacob Singer

January 12th, 2010 at 10:04 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Day 011: Mon 11 Jan 2010

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Project News

  • Podcast feed is officially live
  • First podcast should go out to masses on Friday as scheduled

Developments to Watch

  • Day 012 without government: Clement says only “elites” and “chattering classes” care enough about prorogation to contact him; his email address is Clement.T@parl.gc.ca
  • North Korea proposes formal end to war
  • Invasive airport scanners can totally store and transmit naked pictures
  • Media section of CBC finally runs rare media-related story; turns out it’s this
  • Libraries are apparently burning in slow motion

Personal

  • There’s nothing good on TV this late at night

Song of the Day: Joy Division, “Transmission”

Written by Jacob Singer

January 11th, 2010 at 11:32 pm

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Day 010: Sun 10 Jan 2010

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Project News

  • Podcast feed goes live tomorrow; after that we can sit back and watch the subscribers line up
  • Still can’t fix the damned Twitter link

Research

  • Earl Babbie writes about reality in “The Practice of Social Research”
  • Human attempts to learn about the world are only partly linked to direct personal experience or inquiry
  • Much larger component of our education comes from agreed-upon knowledge we get from others
  • Two important sources of that knowledge are tradition and authority
  • Tradition is knowledge everyone knows; we accept vast majority of it without personally testing it
  • Helpful in that it spares us the job of starting from scratch; detrimental in that whatever is already “obvious” is rarely investigated
  • Authority is the knowledge that comes from relevant credible sources
  • Helpful in the sense that it’s arguably trustworthy; detrimental when it turns out not to be
  • Both can be called starting points; might just as easily point us in the wrong direction as the right one

Developments to Watch

  • Day 011 without government: Liberals sink to Tory level by saying Unfriendly Giant has “something to hide” in radio and print attack ads; Ignatieff says “Prime ministers serve at the pleasure of Parliament rather than Parliament serving at the pleasure of prime ministers”
  • But the reds may not have the money to get ads into high rotation; they definitely don’t have money for TV campaign
  • Giuliani hullabaloo symptomatic of everything wrong with news media, cowards that run it
  • Meanwhile, some cat won’t come down from a tree in Nova Scotia and everybody’s losing their shit over it to the point that it’s officially news
  • Obama says he’s not planning to send troops to Yemen or Somalia following the underpants bomber; Trueliesinator says he’s doing a fine job
  • God lands a plane
  • System failure in Afghanistan
  • Feinstein says Guantanamo experience only makes things worse
  • Jordanian suicide bomber who killed seven g-men calls for further violence from beyond grave

Personal

  • I never understood what the big deal was about drinking alone
  • If you get hammered and act like a jackass, and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?

Song of the Day: Meat Beat Manifesto, “Teargas”

Written by Jacob Singer

January 10th, 2010 at 11:17 pm

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Day 009: Sat 09 Jan 2010

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Project News

  • Vague reports from out east suggest podcast is on track
  • Frankly, though, why take them at their word?

Developments to Watch

  • Day 010 without government, and what about the economy? Or freak Canadians who care about torture?
  • Giuliani acknowledges 9/11 eight and a half years after the fact, but not the rest of the domestic attacks that were carried out on Bush’s watch
  • Republican congressman proposes bill to ban, deport all immigrants from designated “terrorist” countries
  • Independent consultants call for review of Canada’s no-fly list; Halle Berry thankfully still doing great
  • Ottawa cancels funding for education think thank; it is because educated people and the ruling party don’t tend to get along?
  • Karzai names new cabinet nominees
  • Innovative approach to convincing drug companies to do the right thing
  • 6.5 quake shakes Northern California

Personal

  • The fact that I have to do this sort of thing on Saturday night is ridiculous
  • If I had any kind of negotiable contract, you can bet I’d be in there

Song of the Day: The Jacksons, “Torture”

Written by Jacob Singer

January 9th, 2010 at 11:38 pm

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Day 008: Fri 08 Jan 2010

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Project News

  • Seven days until podcast launch; feed link to be posted on main website Monday
  • Recording scheduled to begin out east this weekend

Developments to Watch

  • Day 009 without government; Economist accuses Unfriendly Giant of “naked self-interest,” opposition not threatening election, proroguing just the beginning
  • Software flaws blamed for underpants bomber’s attempted attack
  • “We had no domestic attacks under Bush,” says the guy who was the mayor of New York City on 11 September 2001
  • Homeless relocated out of Whistler in advance of the 2010 Olympics
  • System errors in Sudan, Iran and Israel

Personal

  • Watched something like eight or nine episodes of “Beavis and Butthead” tonight; still a great show

Song of the Day: The Diodes, “Tired of Waking Up Tired”

Written by Jacob Singer

January 8th, 2010 at 11:40 pm

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Day 007: Thu 07 Jan 2010

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Project News

  • Podcast arrangement begins in anticipation of weekend recording out east
  • Continued web work, with still no visible results

Developments to Watch

  • Day 008 without government; Conservative lead narrows as general public gets bored of being apathetic
  • System errors in Somalia and Afghanistan; meanwhile, more Afghan women choosing to escape violence through suicide
  • Accused in Philippines massacre of fifty-seven pleads not guilty

Personal

  • Actually, I’ve got nothing to say.

Song of the Day: The Replacements, “Bastards of Young”

Written by Jacob Singer

January 7th, 2010 at 11:12 pm

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Day 006: Wed 06 Jan 2010

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Project News

  • Podcast series debuts in week and change; they’re getting the guy from out east who did the first two
  • Continued web work, but still nothing tangible to report

Developments to Watch

Personal

  • Six days in and the late nights are already getting stressful
  • Really just scratching the surface here; going to need help to capture everything relevant in a given day
  • Someone keeps calling and hanging up
  • Still no cancer

Song of the Day: The Police, “Too Much Information”

Written by Jacob Singer

January 6th, 2010 at 11:15 pm

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Day 005: Tue 05 Jan 2010

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Project News

  • Not much progress within the company tonight because of the game; too bad the ref wasn’t watching the same game we were
  • New web developments in progress; details to be announced shortly in all likelihood

Developments to Watch

  • Day 006 without government, and the Green Party’s on a roll about the so-called Harperator and a multitude of Copenhagen puns; they like their wordplay over at the Green Party
  • The Google people launched a phone today; the word from the top is they need to be put in their place
  • More talk about new airport security measures; why randomized strategies don’t work, and why the UK’s up in arms (hint: American security machines violate UK child porn laws)

Personal

  • Seriously, who paid off that ref?

Song of the Day: Throbbing Gristle, “What a Day”

Written by Jacob Singer

January 5th, 2010 at 11:38 pm

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Day 004: Mon 04 Jan 2010

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Project News

  • Work continues on the podcast; still not sure where they’re planning to go with it

Developments to Watch

  • Day 005 without government; huge anti-prorogation Facebook group may be closest thing we have to functioning democracy at moment (but probably doesn’t represent public opinion)
  • Many Canadians traveling to US will likely now be subject to new, invasive security procedures; meanwhile, some general says all young Muslim men ought to be strip searched
  • Unequal access creates postal code lottery for cancer drugs
  • TerriblePeople put their foot down on five thousand fatties
  • Two reports of fake anthrax in America; what else to watch for in 2010

Personal

  • No energy whatsoever today; I’ve really got to try and get more sleep

Song of the Day: Pop Will Eat Itself, “Nightmare at 20,000ft”

Written by Jacob Singer

January 4th, 2010 at 11:27 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

Day 003: Sun 03 Jan 2010

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Project News

  • Internal memos about “tradition and authority” are flying around at the moment; guess we’ll have to wait for the podcast for an explanation
  • Something about a new illustrator coming on board
  • Tracking code for main site confirmed active; traffic already apparently in decline

Developments to Watch

  • Day 004 without government; climate still doomed, more to come on that shortly
  • TSA agent drops the ball like his name was Dick Clark
  • Troubleman totally cool with Guantanamo Bay
  • Flying to US a worse idea than ever

Personal

  • Too drunk for this sort of thing tonight, frankly
  • Probably left a bunch of stuff out; watch for more tomorrow
  • What are they going to do, fire me?

Song of the Day: Project Pitchfork, “K.N.K.A. (Climax Version)”

Written by Jacob Singer

January 3rd, 2010 at 10:34 pm

Posted in Uncategorized

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