Don't panic...please.

Just a quick note to put your fears concerning this years stock-market woes into perspective.

By panicking and selling up, you sell your stock at the lowest point which is pointless, and the more people that do this, the faster the value of the stock in question will decline. As you can see from the following chart from the ASX (the All Ordinaries), this is but a blip in the radar really. Significant, yes, doomsday, no.

So have a cup of tea, sit down and listen to some nice music. Pat the dog on the head...do anything to calm your nerves. Just don't sell up unless you really, really have to.

As soon as things start to look up, buy! Even if you don't buy at the lowest point, the market will aways bounce back over and above where it was before, giving you lots of gain (as long as you buy the right stocks that is...). If you're unsure, stick to the market leaders like the ASX 200.

Have a relaxing weekend!

Introducing Space-flight

Ever fantasised about being an Astronaut? In the near future space-tourism will launch in earnest, with various companies developing vehicles for sub-orbital flight. Sub-orbital flight is where an object reaches space, but does not achieve a full orbit of the Earth, meaning its trajectory intersects the Earth's atmosphere. So, you hop in, experience all the fun of taking off, reach space and hang in zero gravity for a little while, before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere and coming down (hopefully) safely to land.

Vehicles I will feature here show promise, and they will work in competition to bring down the cost of space-flight to make it more realistic. I will add more information and new profiles as they become available.

No. 1: Spaceship 2- Virgin Galactic (with Scaled Composites)

Purpose: SpaceShipTwo is designed to carry passengers to space.
Maximum Capacity: 8 (2 pilots, 6 passengers)
Launch Type: Mothership (WhiteKnight2)
Launch Altitude: 14000m
Apogee: >110,000m
Top speed: ~4200km/h (Mach 3.5)
Propulsion: Hybrid Rocket Propulsion: Oxidiser tank and solid fuel (CTN)
Ships ordered by Virgin Galactic: 5 (VSS Enterprise and VSS Voyager in development)
Expected completion: There are no deadlines for this ship, but in Jan 2008 it was revealed to be 60% complete.
Spaceport: Spaceport America
Cost of ticket: Founders: (first 100):Deposit - $200,000 the full price of a ticket.
Pioneers: (Next 1000): Deposit - between $100,000 and $175,000
Voyagers: (immediately after Pioneers): Deposit - $20,000
Booking Status: Founders reserved.




After the success of Spaceship One in the Ansari X-prize 2004, Spaceship 2 began development as its evolutionary successor. Follow this link to view a tasty concept video of the Spaceship 2 experience!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everybody, have a great weekend. Find someone you love and who loves you, and hold them tight. Easter is a time for love, sacrifice and new beginnings. Take care, think positive, be compassionate, and be grateful for life.

I am off to our nation's capital to visit someone extra special, so I don't know if I will post much over the holiday. If you're lucky, but actually I hope you will be otherwise lovingly preoccupied and will have no time.

To those who are accross the land and accross the seas who care for me, I love you all, and will be thinking of you fondly this weekend.

Don't forget to eat no meat tomorrow! I know it's aged, but it's still a tradition. Culture is a great thing.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention one thing Easter is also for. CHOCOLATE! Make sure you get some really nice stuff so you don't feel so guilty. Bigger is not necessarily better. Yes I'm talking to you dad. I don't think you can top last years without giving yourself a heart attack.

Lots of love,

Jetsam

Campaign: Stand With Tibet

In my recent post about the Elders, I mentioned the people-power movements that are currently gaining quite a high profile in activism for important issues, mainly in human rights. Avaaz.org is my favourite of these, and appears to have the most significant results.

I would like to bring your attention to the campaign they are currently running titled "Stand With Tibet: Support the Dalai Lama".

Now before you jump to conclusions, this is not about supporting the violent protests that have been occurring in Tibet, various other Chinese provinces and around the world. The Dalai Lama does not support this. The petition is run to urge China to enter into discussions with the exiled spiritual and political leader, and to encourage them to exercise restraint in putting down the protests.

I urge you to sign this petition, or at least check out Avaaz.org, see what they do, and make up your own mind.

Sign the petition here. You can also email your friends from there to get them on board (or send them to Adrift, they might thank you for it [/shameless plug])

Do not delay as time is always of the essence with Avaaz petitions.

If you do, I and the Tibetan people thank you.

Jetsam

Arthur C Clarke kicks the inter-galactic bucket

Yep, it's true. One of the greatest science-fiction authors and visionaries of the last century has passed away. He died today at home in Colombo, Sri Lanka after suffering from some kind of respiratory distress.

He was the author of over 100 books, the most well known of which being "2001: A Space Odyssey", later made into a popular motion picture by Stanley Kubrick. I have always been a great fan of his work, and agree with the commonly held perception that he emphasised the human and practical elements rather than the utterly fantastical. His brilliant mind will be sorely missed the world over. It is a shame he will not see most of the technological marvels that he helped inspire through his work.


Now excuse me while I strip naked, scream and club my colleagues to death with a bone.








.........[I can't let you do that Jetsam].........

Introducing Healthy Life-Extension

Every day, 100,000 fully developed, valuable and experienced people die around the world, not from murder or hunger, nor conflict or unsanitary conditions. These people die from what we have all come to accept as an inevitable consequence of life: the aging process.

Now, had I told you simply that 100,000 people were dying around the world as a consequence of something that is largely accepted and ignored, you would be outraged. You would ask, "how can I prevent such an awful tragedy, where can I donate? Who is responsible!?"

The fact is that you are probably not reacting this way right now. Why? Because we as a species have become desensitised to death. Because we cannot prevent it, we have stopped rebelling against it and have become resigned to our "fate". It is simply easier to accept death if we convince ourselves that we cannot do anything about it. This is what has recently been called the "pro-aging trance", and it is this that is hampering the efforts of those that believe death should not have to be inevitable.

I don't blame you, in fact if I knew for certain that there was no possible way that I could live any longer than my allotted 70-80 years, I would have to come to terms with that as well. However, I know better. Because I know, and are no longer stuck in that trance, my base fear of dying, of disappearing completely from the Earth and consciousness, of everything that I am being cut off in an instant, has returned. I can no longer sit by and watch myself drift towards certain doom like a ship towards a reef, I have to grab the rudder and make a hard turn to starboard, putting all the distance between me and that reef as I can.

Why am I no longer certain that my own death at the currently accepted life expectancy is necessarily inevitable? Because I came across a community of scientists, researchers, activists and visionaries that are actively working to "conquer the blight of involuntary death". Involuntary death. This phrase means that far from forcing people to extend their life, the ultimate aim is to give people a choice in how and when they die. My contact with this community has opened my eyes to the groundbreaking research and promising technologies which have the potential in the long run to defeat aging as we know it.

Healthy Life-Extension is not simply extending life, which currently has connotations of lengthening years of physical and mental decline and frailty, but refers to increasing years of optimal human performance.

Obviously this idea is fairly controversial, and to combat this I will regularly address the major concerns of those that have reservations about life-extension; who disagree with the belief that these 100,000 people who die every single day have some kind of right to live. This, however controversial, is the biggest humanitarian crisis of our times. In what sane world could it be considered OK for these people to shrivel up and die, living out their last years in ill-health, depression, mental decline and pain?

For those that disagree with the latter "deathists", I will also outline how you personally can help out and make a difference.

Feel free to leave comments, but think very carefully before you do. I will work to address any issues that are brought up. Also I encourage you to visit the recently upgraded Immortality Institute website (don't be scared by the name, check it out before you make a decision).

"Get busy living, or get busy dying" - Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Yours in good health and compassion,

Jetsam

Introducing the Elders

In tribal groups, elders were revered for their age and knowledge of the ways of the world. With the dawn of modern society, capitalism and new social values, elders have lost their leadership role in providing the wisdom, clarity of thought and impartiality we need in times of strife and tension. Now, as we move further into an age of accelerated globalisation, we need our elders more than ever. This need has recently been met with action by some of the most amazing role-models the Earth has seen in many years.

"We are moving to a global village, yet we don't have our global elders. The Elders can be a group who have the trust of the world, who can speak freely, be fiercely independent and respond fast and flexibly in conflict situations" - http://www.theelders.org/welcome

With names like Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, Aung San Suu Kyi, Desmond Tutu, Muhammad Yunus and Jimmy Carter, the Elders have the capability and global respect to mediate in situations where others would surely fail, and to bring their wealth of resources and experiences into play where they could be of the greatest help. While the UN and other global powers sit on their hands, drowning in bureaucracy, the Elders can act.

I implore you all to closely follow this group, and give them your support whenever you can. They are a relatively new group, but have actively worked to broker the power sharing deal that is potentially all that stands between Kenya and genocide. They are currently working in Sudan to galvanise the international community into bringing an end to the region's suffering.

They are also running an Internet campaign for 2008, along with many other well known organisations such as UNICEF and Amnesty International where individuals can sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (as 2008 is the 60th anniversary of the Declaration). For this campaign to work, the word must be spread. Please visit http://www.everyhumanhasrights.org/ to take action.

Some people scoff at people power, but recently organisations such as Avaaz and GetUp have proven that it really can work.

Lend your voice to global campaigns. They're a great way for you personally to make a difference just through sentiment.

What are you doing reading this blog? Get to it!

Movie Review: Primer (Carruth, 2004)

If you built a machine that allowed you to travel back in time to when you switched it on, what would you do? Think you know? Be realistic, think again.

I picked this movie up at the local rental store, simply because I wanted to watch some sci-fi that wasn't totally crap. This film won two awards at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival: The Grand Jury Award, and the Alfred P. Sloan award, beating a few other popular movies at the time including Napoleon Dynamite (which I stared at with incredulity for a few hours, then threw out the window.)

Now, Primer is not for everyone, and actually has some pretty harsh critics. 'Yes, but what is it actually about' I hear you ask? Well it goes like this:

• Guys try to build gravity-distorting device (of course to make an object appear to have less mass, what else?)
• Guys accidentally build a time machine
• Guys mess around with time paradoxes
• Bad things happen (everyone knows you shouldn't create a paradox in time travel)

Looking at the awards this film won, and the fact that you've probably never heard of it before, should lead you to think that this isn't your average Hollywood Sci-fi digital effects fest. It's quite low-key actually, was filmed on a $7000 budget, and is Shane Carruth's first foray into writing, acting in and directing a film after a career as an engineer.

This film is a puzzle, but a rather exceptional one at that. You need to see it about 3 times to piece things together sufficiently so you don't feel too unintelligent, but it remains fascinating. The story itself isn't actually that visionary, nor is it that dramatic, but it evokes such an unsettling feeling amongst viewers because despite the fact that it's sci-fi, it feels quite real. It is like you are experiencing the chain of events with them, and are as confused as they are, yet are you are detached and unable to affect things. Some people like these types of films, while others do not. It reminds me very much of Donnie Darko, so if you liked that movie, and the way it made you feel, you should like this one.

Not simple entertainment, 4.5/5 stars

Making Money Online Intro: Don't buy into the hype!

As a frequent traveller, and idealist and a guy who dislikes the idea of limiting himself to perform a particular task 5 days a week 8 hours a day, I have a healthy interest in developing sources of residual income. That is, income that will keep, well, coming in, without me putting much further effort into it other than the initial investment. Sounds good? I thought so too.
As such, for the last few months I have been scanning the web for different methods that people are achieving this. There appear to be quite a few.

-Adsense and other adevertising revenue products
-Multi-level Marketing products (MLM's) and other forms of network marketing
-An actual online retail business and
-Other online businesses that provide a service, such as friend-finders, lavalife and such.

Now, for those of you who have bought into the hype that surrounds many of these, such as "you do nothing and get all the cash", "make $5000/day!" and "it's so easy ANYONE can do it!", it simply isn't true. All of these methods require some sort of substantial investment, be it time, money or both. The idea is to put in vast amounts of initial investment in order to provide yourself with a low maintenance continually growing source of income that you only have to put in a few hours here and there for. Of course, it takes a long time to get here with any of these businesses: those that tell you otherwise are either lying/bending the truth, or are the extreme outside exceptions.
As such, no, not everyone can do it. That would be like saying everyone can surf. You can try and fail miserably (never wanting to see a surfboard again), try and get a serious injury, succeed at first and still get a serious injury, or put an inordinate amount of time and effort in to learn only to find you could have better utilised your time climbing mountains or some such.

So the first lesson is: there are no easy ways out. You can make money online and change your lifestyle as a result, but you must be willing to put in the work to get there. My next "making money online" post will cover MLM's and network marketing.

Now go and smell some roses or something.

The Beginning

Greetings from planet Wherethehellami. I am Jetsam (though not literally of course, that would be stupid). This is a personal blog, but as there is no specific theme, almost everone should be interested in something they can find here. I will be writing:
-Travel articles and reviews
-Technology news and reviews
-Current affairs analysis
-Financial hints/information

as well as general musings which may or may not be of interest to everyone.

I welcome discussion concerning the posts, but if you comment please be civil and please stay on topic. You're quite welcome to email me too!

That is all