How many lies do you believe are true?
Got a question for you - how did Apple start?
Steve & Woz in their garage, building their first computer together is what most of you will say... LIES!
Both of them worked at HP and Atari. Both of them were involved in the formative years of those companies - Woz tried to sell his idea to HP and they didn't go for it, so Steve and Woz went out on their own. Sure, they had a garage, they also had formal training and careers in the industry long before breaking out on their own.
How about Youtube?
Two dudes who wanted to share their videos with one another in a discussion after a dinner party... LIES!
Steve Chen and Chad Hurley both cut their teeth at PayPal. In fact, Hurley was one of PayPal's first employees and helped designed its logo. He is also the son-in-law of James Clark, who founded Netscape and Silicon Graphics. A long way from college kids who did it "for kicks".
How many other stories are like this - creation myths, expounded and exaggerated and falsified to sell a story rather than to tell the truth?
I'd argue all of them.
Chris Columbus' is a long cry from looking for India from the West in order to prove the world wasn't flat amongst a mutinous crew. In actuality, he went off looking for gold to get rich so he could get favour of the Queen, and sailors of his day knew the world was round from sailing around the ocean and navigating by the stars and an astrolabe for centuries.
Of course, the greatest creation myth of all is the one found in the Bible, but that's probably unfairly called out because it was the first reproduced in book form and accessible to the 'common man', the first to be set to a specific formula and stay that way, rather than alter and change like so many spoken myths before it.
But for centuries, people have been faking this myth, making it believable by things like the Shroud of Turin or Solomon's Pomegranate.
This is why the only truth is in archeology, the only science to believe is history.
Showing posts with label truth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label truth. Show all posts
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Sunday, 2 September 2007
The Truth about Ecstasy
I'm really, really disappointed that no journalist has the balls to stand up and tell the truth about ecstasy.
Since Anna Wood, no journalist in Australia has dared question the hardline stance on the drug, even though deaths from the drug have been very few.
Truth of the matter is pure MDMA is one of the least harmful 'illegal' drugs available.
Yes, it causes brain damage in rats, but anything that simply makes a case for rats shouldn't be able to take it.
The infamous "hole in the brain" on Oprah has been proved as precisely what it is - bullshit. The brain scans have been shown to be false, and the scientist involved in initial testing on monkeys to back up this claim somehow mixed his MDMA sample with a methamphetamine sample and drew the wrong conclusions. This was the same scientist paid by the DEA in the 1980s to first investigate MDMA and it's impact on the brain.
There is one guy in the UK who took 40 ecstasy pills a week for 14 years who is severely mentally retarded, but you'd have to be pretty retarded to take 40 a week in the first place.
Even though Australia's ecstasy pills contain little MDMA, and the substitutes can cause both physical and mental health problems, proper testing of pills will reduce some of the harm that can do.
I'm not proposing everyone go out and take the drug. That would just be silly.
But I am amazed that all the Johns debacle has done is made people call for tougher testing.
It's predictably pathetic of the Australian press. These people need to grow a pair and seek the truth, not regurgitate the garbage the Government feeds them.
If anything, Johns has shown that being a regular taker of the drug has little impact on an individuals performance within society.
And isn't that what they whole drug debate is meant to be about - limiting the impact of harmful drugs on individuals, ensuring people performing well in society?
Isn't that what makes someone who drinks a bottle or two of wine a night but can still go to work the next day "better" than a bum who does the same but doesn't go to work?
Since Anna Wood, no journalist in Australia has dared question the hardline stance on the drug, even though deaths from the drug have been very few.
Truth of the matter is pure MDMA is one of the least harmful 'illegal' drugs available.
Yes, it causes brain damage in rats, but anything that simply makes a case for rats shouldn't be able to take it.
The infamous "hole in the brain" on Oprah has been proved as precisely what it is - bullshit. The brain scans have been shown to be false, and the scientist involved in initial testing on monkeys to back up this claim somehow mixed his MDMA sample with a methamphetamine sample and drew the wrong conclusions. This was the same scientist paid by the DEA in the 1980s to first investigate MDMA and it's impact on the brain.
There is one guy in the UK who took 40 ecstasy pills a week for 14 years who is severely mentally retarded, but you'd have to be pretty retarded to take 40 a week in the first place.
Even though Australia's ecstasy pills contain little MDMA, and the substitutes can cause both physical and mental health problems, proper testing of pills will reduce some of the harm that can do.
I'm not proposing everyone go out and take the drug. That would just be silly.
But I am amazed that all the Johns debacle has done is made people call for tougher testing.
It's predictably pathetic of the Australian press. These people need to grow a pair and seek the truth, not regurgitate the garbage the Government feeds them.
If anything, Johns has shown that being a regular taker of the drug has little impact on an individuals performance within society.
And isn't that what they whole drug debate is meant to be about - limiting the impact of harmful drugs on individuals, ensuring people performing well in society?
Isn't that what makes someone who drinks a bottle or two of wine a night but can still go to work the next day "better" than a bum who does the same but doesn't go to work?
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