THE SYSTEM

Everything is a system. Financial systems. Moral systems. Transportation systems. Ecosystems. Solar systems. Weather systems. Circulatory systems. Everything can be broken down to an element of a system.

Our solar system moving through space. From 4GIFs.com

Our reality is built on layers of systems, and our manufactured society reflects those systems. It builds on those systems. It utilizes the "system layout" to exist.

The drawback to any system is that it can be manipulated. Just like cancer manipulates systems in the human body, viruses manipulate computer systems. Just like pollution impacts environmental systems, selfish people manipulate social systems: school systems, political systems, global trade systems, etc.

What's happening in our current global society is that people are manipulating multiple systems and getting away with it. Take this example. A person manipulates the financial system for personal gain until at some point a piece of the system (or the entire system) breaks down. Then, that person hires someone familiar with the legal system to manipulate it and keep them out of trouble. The person hops from system to system, taking advantage of loopholes and leaving the broken systems in chaos for the rest of society.

There is no perfect system because we live in an imperfect reality. Every system relies on other systems to function. We cannot have a trade system without a legal system. We cannot have a solar system without a planetary system.

The Demon of Greed. By Pouyaafshar, via Wikimedia Commons

The question is: why do people try to break systems? Why are so many of us constantly rejecting our reality? Why are so many of us pursuing selfish goals? Why are so many of us ambivalent to the systems that shape our world? What is it about these systems that so many people reject and take advantage of?

We have no answer for you. We are at a loss for a solution. But something must be done. If humanity is ever going to reach a state of peace, something will have to change. Perhaps it's time to create new systems. Maybe we should start over and build something new, rather than building on the old. Have we learned nothing from our time in existence? Do we not have the tools to build a better system? We hope we do, because the current systems are failing everyone. They are crumbling, and pretty soon there may be no recognizable system left, but maybe that's just the start.

THE WEATHER CHANNEL IS A PIECE OF SHIT

It's common knowledge that major media blows everything out of proportion, choosing exaggerations and hyperbole over facts and hard news in order to boost ratings. The Weather Channel is just about as bad as they get.

The good ol' days.

Long ago the Weather Channel decided to give up its format of slow-moving data and sexy saxophone music for reality programming like Storm Stories, Storm Riders, Forecasting the End, It Could Happen Tomorrow and more. Click here for a complete listing of their shows; it's pretty hilarious. Of particular note are Iceberg Hunters and Deadliest Space Weather (we might actually check out that last one).

What's most ridiculous, though, is their continually overblown coverage of "deadly" storms. This year the Midwest was "ravaged" by two storms of apocalyptic magnitude: Rocky and Q. In reality, they were nothing more than several inches of snow along with some wind. The panic caused by the Weather Channel may have helped stores sell out of milk, but it didn't mean much else.

Then, came "Snowquestration", the fierce storm that shut down the federal government before it even started. Ace blowhard Jim Cantore himself went to D.C. to fist-fight the storm as he usually does. And while the storm amounted to hours of rain, all the Weather Channel decided to show were the ten short minutes of actual snowfall on loop for about 92 hours.

TAKE SHELTER!!! Photo by Pauline Eccles, via Wikimedia Commons

Mother Nature is a scary beast, and time after time she's dealt deadly blows, but the Weather Channel needs to check itself with all these cries of wolf. We've tuned them out completely. Our weather information consists of checking the radar on other sites, and ignoring all warnings and cries for attention. Maybe some day we'll be caught off guard, but it's better than hiding in the basement while it sprinkles outside.