For allowing me to be spoon-fed my opinions via a invitation system where I can be bombarded daily with appeals from parties right, left and centre wanting to induct me into their neatly compartmentalised mindset. For making it so easy for people who think I might be vaguely interested in supporting their beliefs to invite me, along with whatever other unfortunate souls happen to be connected to them, to join their I-wear-my-opinons-on-my-sleeve Facebook Group, because remember: if you said it on Facebook, It Can Really Make a Difference.

A Three-Step Plan for Facebook Groups
1. Get to know me first, so you have some vague idea as to my beliefs and opinions. Want to know what I think? Ask me.
2. Don’t bother inviting me anyway. Unless your Group is incredibly witty, chances are I’m not interested. My joining a Facebook Group is not going to influence who becomes the next US President; it is not going to stop war in the Middle East, and it sure as fuck isn’t going to resolve the current AUT strike.
3. Should I - for some unimaginable reason - decline your invitation, have a guess at what the most annoying thing you could do would be. That’s right, inviting me again. Please die.

For those unsure who this applies to, follow this simple test: Are you content to select your political stance from a drop-down list of eight options? If you answered Yes, you have a career waiting for you as a Facebook Group spammer.

</rant>

As I’ve been reading a lot of HST lately, it was only a matter of time before I came across Where Were You When The Fun Stopped?, a compilation by the man himself. It contains some real gems, both favourites of his and influential tunes from his times. Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” and of course Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” are but two examples. If you’ve seen the 2003 documentary “Breakfast with Hunter S. Thompson”, these will no doubt be familiar, as the soundtrack to it is almost identical to this album.

Anyway, it got me thinking. So my question is this: what pieces of music would you choose if you were to choose a compilation album of your life? We are but young, so let’s say six tracks - an EP of sorts. Or however many - my first attempt produced 24. Answers as comments, let’s hear ‘em. Bonus points if you can think of a snappy title for the disc as well. The tracks don’t necessarily have to be favourites of yours, they can be representative. Or whatever.

Revision time sacrificed: 90 mins (1 hr to choose, 30 mins to order). Yes, I am a student.

Where Are We Going, And Why Are We In This Handbasket?

1. Rage Against The Machine - Without a Face (Live)
2. Pennywise - Society
3. Tsunami Bomb - 20 Going On…
4. Million Dead - Breaking the Back
5. Eve 6 - How Much Longer?
6. New Bomb Turks - Wrest Your Hands
7. The Vines - 1969
8. The Doors - Roadhouse Blues
9. Death in Vegas - GBH
10. Moke - Down
11. Eric Clapton - Cocaine
12. Runaways UK - Momentum
13. Jack Johnson - F-Stop Blues
14. Radiohead - Go To Sleep
15. The Stone Roses - This Is The One
16. Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun
17. Powderfinger - JC
18. The Living End - Closing In
19. Bloc Party - So Here We Are
20. Audioslave - The Last Remaining Light
21. Hybrid - Altitude [Red Square Reprise]

After a few days tinkering I’ve released my 2.1 version of wpStats, hot on the heels of Joe’s 2.0 version which included my hacks.

New in 2.1 is a revised approach to web crawlers, some cleaning up of the stats reporting, and a few new sections added to the stats pages. The plugin now detects hits from a load of other crawlers/bots as well.

Full changelog over at binslashbash.org, along with the download.

I went hunting for Wordpress plugins the other morning and, among other things, came across the excellent wpStats by Joe Newing. This awesome plugin collects visitor stats and displays some detailed analysis of visitor locations, browsers, OSs, pages visited, and search bots.

I thought of a few hacks that would improve the plugin, which I submitted to the author, hoping that something of mine might get included in the next release. He responded by making me “official hacker”/developer of the project, as he unfortunately has little time to work on it.

So, in the next few days I hope to be publishing my latest work on wpStats - mainly extending its features. Lucky for me the area of stats collection has great potential, so I should be able to keep thinking of improvements to make :-).

In the meantime, why not check out the most excellent current release of wpStats, right here.

The BBC reported this evening with some gusto that the US Justice Department had released “the first video” of the impact that took place at the Pentagon on the morning of September 11th 2001, thanks to a Freedom of Information request by Judicial Watch. In 2002 stills from another Pentagon security camera claimed to show the same, but were of low quality and failed to really clear up anything. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton was quoted as saying, “finally, we hope that this video will put to rest the conspiracy theories involving American Airlines Flight 77.” Regrettably, it fails to do so.

The still below is taken from the BBC stream of the video - the source camera, like the previously released stills, is of low framerate; this is the only frame containing whatever it was that impacted with the Pentagon.

What annoyed me as much as the treatment of this release as something conclusive was the tone of the article, which reminded me of every official response to critical articles written about the incident. Theories have long circulated about what happened at the Pentagon, and regardless of what the official line is and what is branded as “conspiracy theory” are the facts - that the damage at the Pentagon was not consistent with an impact by a 757, illustrated (among other things) by the complete lack of visible debris. Okay, so perhaps this can be explained away; why then, if this is so, has the US government not released the other video and photographic material recording the incident, namely the private surveillance cameras at the hotel near the Pentagon (confiscated by the FBI after the attack) and at the petrol station across from the Pentagon. National Geographic News reported in December 2001 that “Velasquez [the owner] says the gas station’s security cameras are close enough to the Pentagon to have recorded the moment of impact. “I’ve never seen what the pictures looked like,” he said. “The FBI was here within minutes and took the film.”” The authorities have never released these images which, logic argues, should surely show the true events of that morning.

This is no wonder, however, when blinkered attitudes like those prevalent in the United States still exist. In 2002 French author Theirry Meyssan released two books attempting to give an objective explanation of what he believed were the real events at the Pentagon, namely that what impacted there could not have been a 757 but was instead a smaller plane or missile, or the damage was caused by a truck bomb at the site. Leaping aboard the American institution of anti-French sentiment, Pentagon spokesman Glen Flood described the book as “a slap in the face and real offence to the American people”. To me it seems that this mentality has become the norm when dealing with issues like this - complete rejection of the possible alternative story suggested by the “conspiracy theorists” because the ramifications of it being true are so mind-meltingly huge that civilisation as we know it would implode. The average American, despite being faced with overwhelming evidence to the contrary, simply refuses to even entertain the possibility that what happened could be any different from the official version of events.

The release of this video does not help to shore up the defence of the official story. It should not be treated as such. The other evidence of the events at the Pentagon that is still being suppressed needs to be released. I don’t like the official story; I don’t like the implications if one of the other theories turns out to be true. I don’t claim to know either way, but I and millions of others want to see that other footage.

Yes, what happened at the Pentagon and the World Trade Center on September 11th was an atrocity in every way. Yes, the loss of human life was horrific and terrible, and should never be forgotten. But that is not a reason to refuse to question what went on. Those who suggest alternative theories are not trying to insult the dead. They are only trying to find the truth.

US releases 9/11 Pentagon video, BBC News, 16/5/2006
Why Pentagon released 9/11 tape, BBC News, 16/5/2006
The Suppression of Video Footage of the Pentagon Attack, 911research.com
Three Months On, Tension Lingers Near the Pentagon, National Geographic News, 11/12/2001