The Demise of the Manson era?

Being a huge Marilyn Manson fan, I write my findings in this post with worry, though I’m merely interpreting evidence.

Marilyn Manson, in my opinion, and many other people, was a pioneer of industrial metal. If it wasn’t for Marilyn Manson, I can guarantee industrial metal wouldn’t be where it is today; raised from the underground and getting relative popularity amongst metal crowds. Manson released his debut album in 1994, Portrait of an American Family, and gained Manson a large audience to make his second album, Antichrist Superstar, his biggest selling album at 1.9 million units.

Manson has hit number one in the Billboard album charts twice with Mechanical Animals and Golden Age of Grotesque. However, Manson’s sixth studio album in 2007, Eat Me, Drink Me, was an indicator that perhaps the once huge Marilyn Manson era was over. Eat Me, Drink Me was heavily criticised as an album that wasn’t reflective of Marilyn Manson, but instead the large gothic cults which followed his music.

The High End of Low, Manson’s most recent album from 2009, was in my view a great album; he was edging back to his original roots and it has given me great hope for his next album. However, selling only 137,000 units, clearly my view of the album is in the minority. Album sales were a dismal failure, though it has been widely blamed on Interscope records, who were extremely picky in what they were allowing Manson to release; attempting to tame him. Though, taming is not what Manson needs for high sales – he is a great artist with a fucked up personality, and his racy lyrics are what have got him to where he is now.

Manson has dropped Interscope Records, and is now signed to Cooking Vinyl Records, a relatively small time label based in the UK. Though, Manson has created his own imprint in Cooking, Hell etc. This will hopefully give him the freedom he so desperately needs. However, the fact that Manson is now signed to such a small record label could suggest that that was his biggest offer, a bad sign if you ask me. So all that can be done now is to wait for the release of Manson’s eighth album, and hope that it gets the representation it deserves from Cooking Vinyl to make the album all it can be. This new album will inevitably be what will bring the Manson era back, or send it into the grave; his last two albums have put him close – how many chances can the industrial crowd give Manson’s 21st century material?



Webpages in a spark? Use a bookmark!

Can’t find that website you visited a few days ago? You should have bookmarked it!

The bookmark tool is so underused, or at least I know that that’s the case for Firefox Beta 4 developers.

Because you see, the graph above shows that most people don’t have more than 100 bookmarks. And the further in depth I look into bookmark use, fewer people use the tool effectively i.e. folders and using sub-folders.

I don’t have a huge amount of bookmarks and bookmark folders; but what I do have is neatly organised to optimise my web browsing. It helps me find the web pages I visited a while back which I found interesting. I often bookmark webpages on a purely “just in case” basis, as who knows when I might want to bake chocolate tartlets!

Below shows my basic setup of my bookmarked webpages, and where I conveniently store the websites that see the most traffic from me.

Using bookmarks is essential in my view if you really want to enjoy web browsing, as it takes away the stress of trying to remember exactly what you typed into Google to find that really cool page.

The space below the address bar also speeds up web browsing, as it means you don’t have to go through a search engine, you don’t have to type in the website address or you don’t have to search through your bookmarks. I’m not sure about Internet Explorer and Google Chrome, but I know that Opera also has this space below the address bar for websites.

Give bookmarking a go. Though you may not see the benefits straight away, I can guarantee in time it will be an invaluable tool for you.

What’s grinding in industrial?

What’s new in industrial? 2010 hasn’t been a great year for industrial to date, but there’s definitely more to come. So far this year, by far the most notable album release has been Rob Zombie’s Hellbilly Deluxe 2: Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfulls and the Systematic Dehumanization of Cool. If you’re a fan of industrial metal, or even just heavy metal, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the album. With a lot of samples and great solos, the album is very similar to his earlier work.

There’s a few albums that have yet to be released, but should be sometime this year. Ever since January of this year, I’ve been frequently checking up on both Marilyn Manson and Tim Skold, both promising albums this year. Marilyn Manson said at the start of the year that he was expecting to release a new album in the first quarter, but alas, we’re approaching the end of the third quarter, and there’s still very little details on his upcoming album, other than “suicide death metal”. Tim Skold has been uploading numerous photos on twitpic via his twitter account for many months now, which he believes is giving away clues to what should be expected in his upcoming album. All I can grasp is industrial. But hey, there’s nothing wrong with that!

In April of 2010 Sascha of KMFDM was interviewed, stating that a new album is being worked on. So that’s definitely something to look forward to on the industrial scene, though because of their 2010 tour, a new album from KMFDM is more likely to be released in 2011, in my opinion. Sascha has also stated that there might be follow-up music with Skold after the success of Skold vs. KMFDM.

Depending on how far you’re willing do delve in to industrial, you may be a fan of Combichrist. Dubbed as electronic body music (EBM), the bass is generally deep, the drumming is fast and the lyrics are questionable! Just a couple of weeks ago, Combichrist’s new album Making Monsters was released, and it’s awesome! Combichrist falls into a small niche, but give it a try, it could change your entire view of what good music is!

Has pop music finally befriended my ears again?

Pop music released in the last two years, in my view, has been terrible. It has all been focused around a lively R&B beat, mixed in with mild [c]rap. There has clearly been a lack of imagination in the genre, which led me away. For the past two years I’ve grown to be a huge fan of industrial metal, a lot of classic rock and pop music of the 1960s – 80s. The music I have been listening to has been lively, the lyrics meaningful and often influential. It has been a great couple of years in terms of finding my music niche. Marilyn Manson, Combichrist, KMFDM, Dope, OhGr; all have become everyday listening, as I made the transition from liking hip hop, to hard rock/nu metal, finally to industrial metal.

I now stand far away from anything popular, though I have been loosely listening to pop music the last few months, though not following the charts, nor particularly enjoying any material I heard. It all sounds the same to me, the beats are similar, so are the lyrics and so is the generic nature. I guess a lot of artists joined the band wagon with their tongues out, grabbing all the money they could from the generic material that was so appealing to the large audience of hip-hop-esque urban teens. And this summer reached it’s all time high (or low, in terms of my approval). But then, seemingly out of the darkness came a bunch of what I would consider to be good pop music! Ok, I say a bunch, there’s two pop songs in the charts that I really like at the moment – Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dogg – California Girlz and Enrique Inglesias ft. Pitbull – I Like it. I just hope that other artists follow suit. These two songs remind me of the Scissor Sisters, who released new album Night Work in June, though I don’t think it matches their previous two albums. It seems that even Scissor Sisters have turned on their original quirky music and turned very similar to The Kooks.

When will we find some unique talent in pop music? I don’t know. But what I do know is there’s many other flourishing genres which are packed with uniqueness, which I would recommend highly over today’s pop scene. As I’ve already mentioned I’m a now a huge fan of industrial metal, so that’s an obvious recommendation, but I would also recommend today’s trip hop, house, folk and folk metal.

Understanding how GB, GB Isles and UK are different

United Kingdom, Great Britain, Great British Isles, England. To many they’re thought to be synonymous, though this is not true.

The United Kingdom is a sovereign state that is made up of four major countries (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland).

Great Britain is the main island of the United Kingdom, thus including England, parts of Scotland (as the entirety of Scotland is made up of many islands and islets) and parts of Wales (as Wales also has numerous islands, most notably Anglesey). Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Isle of White etc. are all ignored in the term Great Britain.

The Great British Isles are all of the islands and islets that lie in European waters.

England is the largest country in the United Kingdom, thus meaning the entire state is often mistakenly referred to as England.

I’ve been short of ideas recently, a bloggers’ block, if you will. Anyway, I hope this post has been informative, and I’ll get back to frequent blogging as soon as I can think up a good running theme.

What would you say to your 16-year-old self, and why?

Run. Just do it.

What keeps you up at night?

Keeping up to date with WordPress blogs, I came across a tag for website www.plinky.com, which is part of the mass of new micro-blogging websites. It gives a question or statement, then users comment their response.

It’s 12.30am, and I’m not tired, and a few minutes ago, I wasn’t sure what I could blog about. So, today’s plinky question – what keeps you up at night? shall be what I’ll write about. So this is a slight break to the continuum of my blog themes, as I usually don’t write about myself personally on my blog, because it’s just not what I do. But in this post, I’m going to mention at least 5 things about me, that you might not already know about me.

What keeps you me up at night?

Not being tired: primarily. Some days, I drink large amounts of coffee (Jordan fact 1). Why? Because I got a small amount of sleep the night before! It’s a bad cycle.

Games. Last night I had a mere four hours sleep. I was waiting for something until 4am, and in that time I was playing this lame game called Virtual villagers. It’s terrible, but the simplicity of it gives cheap thrills and kept me amused for hours. I also had Big Brother on in the background – live. It’s not like me to watch it, especially live, but there I was. I don’t usually play games, nor do I watch Big Brother (especially live) – that’s Jordan fact 2.

Some nights I simply have too much on my mind. Though I would like a simpler mind without the challenges I face up there – it cannot be helped. There’s a lot for me to think about, so sleep often goes forgotten. This is mainly because I find the night a clearer time without the stresses of ad hoc life. Though smiling a lot, there’s a lot more to me than happiness; trust me. But the smile takes away people’s worry that something might be wrong – not that it’s aways a lie. And that’s Jordan fact 3.

I stay up late to do a load of nothing. I browse random websites that I will probably never go back to, I spend large amounts of time on BBC News, Wikipedia and more recently, Wikileaks (I plan to write a post on this website soon) – reading information that I’ll probably never be able to use. I spend a lot of time on youtube as I have subscribed to quite a few interesting users whom I like to keep up to date with.

I download music. I scrobble a lot on last.fm, which helps me find new bands and new music that fits around my favourite genres – industrial metal and metal in general. That’s Jordan fact 4.

Occasionally I watch TV, though I don’t have any routine as most running series bore me quickly (bar a few US comedy sitcoms).

I would write a paragraph on when I’m not by myself at night, but it’s usually just myself that keeps me up at night instead of other people!

School used to keep me up late, because I always found essay writing easier late at night. but now, no school, so that’s not excuse anymore. Though, since school has finished, I’ve found myself getting bored of not learning, so I have read a few documents on politics and geography.

To bring a close to what keeps me up at night – thinking about other people. I like to hope that the people close to me are happy, and if something suggests that might not be the case, I’ll sit and think about what I can do, sometimes for hours. Though I’m not always able to think up a resolution, it consumes large amounts of my time nonetheless. That’s Jordan fact 5.

for those that aren’t so keen on the general themes of my blog, I hope this is a refreshing change. Please keep checking my blog, because some of the prompts on Plinky are really quite interesting.

As an addendum, blogging keeps me up at night! Thanks, WordPress!

Jordan out.

My predictions on the world

Politically, are we in a state of cool water, or rising magma?

This question can easily be argued both ways.

We are in a world with an overwhelming amount of INGOs watching over aspect of political activity. because of this, geopolitics is extremely regulated. No militaristic moves can be made without condemnation from at least one country over global media. For example, since 2004 when North Korea backed out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the world’s eyes have been on North Korea – and not without reason. Both in 2006 and 2009 north Korea conducted nuclear tests, much to the discontent of many world powers – notably the USA, South Korea and Japan.

On the subject of WMDs, Iran is also a hot topic in the world. Following the UN Security Council Resolution 1737, a spokesman from Iran’s Foreign Ministry said “[the resolution] cannot affect or limit Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities”

Alike the alliances that can be argued to have brought about WWI, could this be the long-term cycle of global interest groups? We have the largest INGOs i.e. the United Nations, which almost all nations are tied to. But then we have smaller INGOs such as NATO. NATO is made up of 28 states, all of the Western World. This is, apart from Albania. through I could not find a consensus of religious distribution. So, as I haven’t been to Albania, nor do I know any Albanians, I cannot argue in either way that Albania is under great or minor Islamic influence.

A majority of countries are signed to more than just the “skeleton” INGOs. NATO was created to safeguard its member states, and this is in part related to defense. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) also holds similar ethos. This ethos is, is one country is attacked, it is attack on all members. Aforementioned, these INGOs are alliances alike those created between 1872-1907, but hidden behind the title of International Nongovernmental Organisation. NATO was the first mutual defense INGO to be born following WWII, thus meaning the founding members of NATO in 1949 (Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, UK and USA) must be blamed for the diplomatic divides that we now have. Was the four year-old UN not enough?

Excluding the Cold War, the only major wars between NATO and OIC countries has been the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War. The War in Afghanistan was initiated by the 9/11 attacks, meaning NATO’s Article 5 was brought into action, thus meaning terrorists in Afghanistan must be blamed for the war, not NATO members. The Iraq War was initiated by the USA. Are both as bad as each other?

Though the OIC is delegated through government officials, does this make the OIC trustworthy? From observing the Corruption Perception Index 2010, it is clear to see that some of the most corrupt countries in the world are directly tied to the OIC. Pakistan is not part of the non-proliferation treaty, and possesses nuclear weapons. Iran has undeclared nuclear weapons. Syria is thought to possess nuclear weapons. With such a grouping and such high levels of corruption and terrorist presence, should the world’s eyebrows not be rising?

I don’t predict a happy ending. Though we have so many peace-keeping INGOs, are they stronger than those with defense treaties? I think not. The League of Nations couldn’t hold back WWII, and in the long-term, I’m not convinced that the UN would be able to hold off WWIII. The World Economic Forum has said that there is a 10% chance of nuclear proliferation, and I can see that being a part of WWIII – the world has come close in China in the 1950s, and at many stages of varying severity in the Cold War. I believe that sadly, if the world gets to that stage of mutual distrust again, it’s inevitable that nuclear proliferation will be a present.

My Predictions on the World by Jordan White is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at promulgo.wordpress.com.
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Is stage 5 enough?

After looking at views for each of my posts, I have noticed that Our Populace is Greying is by far my most popular blog post, and being posted 11 months ago, I still get a lot of views from this post.

Because of the overwhelming popularity of this post, this post will look further into the demographic transition model and how it can in fact show implications for our world rather than benefits.

If you read my post – Our Populace is Greying prior to reading the main section of this post, it will all make a lot more sense (I hope!).

The question I pose is – Stage 5; is it really a good thing/is it enough?

In stage five, birth rate falls below death rate,which therefore leads to a falling population. But is it enough? The current world population stands at approximately 6.8 billion. This number is not sustainable. Collectively, we face water shortages as only 2.5% of world water is drinkable, and only 1.5% is accessible. Climate change is causing food issues, especially in poorer nations which rely on food exports for the livelihood of their economy, or those nations which are in a food deficit and must import food products. Stage 5 sees small decreases in population on national levels – though it can be seen as more of a sustainable vertical line.

The table below shows two highly developed countries – Germany’s population has a consistent fall in population, and Japan looks as though her population shall see a consistent fall in very few years to come too.

But what about all of the other countries? China’s population sums to 1/6 of the entire world population, and is still on a steady increase. World population is steadily increasing, much faster than countries are shifting into stage 5 of the DTM.

	Germany	Japan
2004	82,516,250	127,761,000
2005	82,469,400	127,773,000
2006	82,376,451	127,756,000
2007	82,266,372	127,770,750
2008	82,110,097	127,704,000

The world population is already above what can be considered a sustainable level, thus meaning that a leveling of populations in stage 5 will merely reduce the implications, but not oust them. The marginal needs of people in developed countries are much less than the marginal needs of people in developed countries – thus meaning that the flattening of the populations in developed countries will never balance out the gains in populations of developing countries.

With very few humane strategies that can be employed to control population, I predict (as do many others) the world population will grow somewhere between the UN’s medium to high estimate. China may have brought in a one-child policy, but this has hardly impacted on their population growth, as rural areas are poorly monitored. Furthermore, how can population be controlled on a global scale? If you ask any of your friends, I’m sure they’ll be able to note a few unethical factors behind a one-child policy. In Iran, India and many developed nations, vast amounts of money has been injected into family planning; but this I doubt will bring about vast amounts of change in population.

A recent study from Nature journal highlights that advances in development will reduce fertility rates, but then increase them again. Vast increases in an ageing population can lead to socio-economic issues whereby the lowering fertility becomes a concern for countries, thus leading to policies that will attempt to increase fertility levels – manipulating the natural trend of the DTM.

Is there a solution? I’m sure there was. But now; I believe we’re too late. We have raped our planet of its’ resources made available to us. It should have been recognised a century ago that we have very little fresh water, and that fossil fuels needed to be used more efficiently. We cannot fully counteract what has already happened, but if the world joins together and understands how dangerous an ever growing population is to our long-term survival on this planet, we may be able to extend our time on Earth, and perhaps even prove me wrong and achieve the UN’s best (greatest reductions) population prediction scenario.

Good luck world! Jordan out.

That little orange box

Really Simple syndication – or at least that’s what it’s been named.

It’s a relatively unknown/unused tool for many; me included. I read about RSS a couple of years ago, but I never got around to using it.

Though very premature, after my first day of using RSS, I’m going to review the tool.

RSS has the potential to be very useful, but I’ve found very few up-to-date programs that give you feeds. This is probably because of its’ lack of popularity. I am using Outlook 2007, and it’s very messy and has put me off using RSS almost as soon as I begun using it.

I would recommend RSS for anyone who does a lot of reading online on specific subjects, otherwise it is a relatively useless tool. I don’t think I shall continue using RSS, as it will just become another pointless tool I check-up on each time I’m on my computer, which will frankly be wasting my time.

This post would have been longer, but I’m watching The Open (golf).