The Reference Council » Current Affairs

Welcome To Fuck It Retreats

Steven — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:00:27 +0000

You know, I tried yoga and all of that, and in all honesty, it is not for me. Mostly, I just fell over and farted a lot, much to the amusement of everyone else. My wife has been on my vase for nigh on 4 years to go on some sort of yoga holiday, ideally in Thailand etc but I just can’t do it. The idea of not eating, enemas and meditating don’t gel with my idea of hell raising, beer drinking and falling around as a vacation. Seems like some one read my mind, though, and opened what is aptly called the “Fuck It Retreat” in Tuscany. A perfect mix of yoga and chilling out with the lovely nihilistic approach of just saying “fuck it!”. I don’t know about you, but I am fucking sold.

Read all about it here.

The Gypsy Gentleman: Episode 2

Steven — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:27:57 +0000

Thanks to the Vancouver Chapter for bringing this to my attention- a web based by Marcus Kuhn show about cool shit: tattoos, people living happily outside of the propagated mainstream, good tunes and living a good live. What I initially liked about the most was the relaxed, honest and understandable- without ever dumbing anything down- conversations about tattoos. A major turn off lately has the arrogance of the good tattoo scene and, at least to me this was refreshing. For Episode 2, they head down to Austin, Texas and for this non American, put Austin into a light that at least gives me hope that America hasn’t turned into a Fascist Starbucks Theocracy.

Take 30 minutes to watch it. It is by all means worth it.

Lists Of Note: Things To Worry About

Steven — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:53:57 +0000

I like lists, I probably make about 2-4 a day, ranging from my daily, shit-to-do list at work, to grocery lists and then at the end of the day, people whose ass needs kicking lists on the next day. Surely, most of you know the site, “Lists Of Note” – and I randomly came across one that put a smile on my face this morning. Rather than indulging in my usual nihilistic / anarchistic attitude in the early mornings, I like how F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a list of things to worry about for his daughter.

Read it here.

The Booming Business Of American Slavery

Steven — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:43:18 +0000

I think anyone with half a brain has always known that the “War on Drugs” was nothing more than a scam to get free, or at least cheap labour into the American Privatized Manufacturing System, aka, prison. Personally, I still can’t get over the fact that prisons can be, and are, private, profit orientated institutions in America, but hey, each to their own, I guess.

Kyle Lovett wrote en excellent article on the relationship between the War On Drugs, The American Prison System and Private Profiteering thereof.

Read it here.

Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 (2nd ed.)

Stephan — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:33:30 +0000

Though The Reference Council is a men’s lifestyle mag you won’t find any of the usual “How to get that six-pack-look for the beach” or “How to pump your biceps-peak” bullshit here. Not because we are lazy fucks (well, sometimes we are), but because we do not believe in the mainstream-fitness-only-for-the-looks crap. What we do believe in, however, is lifting weights, heavy-metal and being true to ourselves. In comes Jim Wendler and his fantastic “5/3/1″ training template. Centering around the “big-4″ (no, not Slayer, ‘tallica, Anthrax and Megadeth) of lifts, this is a simple but highly effective and challenging training-system, which will not only make you the strongest dude at your gym and your muscles explode but make you grow as a person too. It’s a state-of-mind and it is about being a man. Hop over to Jim’s website or buy the book via amazon.com. And don’t forget: “If in doubt, play some Sabbath”.

Whiskey Blender

Steven — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:35:44 +0000

Whiskey Blender is a website / service that let’s you blend your own brand of whiskey based on 7 different stock whiskeys. Seriously, I haven’t been this excited all week. Whilst, the variety of usable whiskeys to blend with is seemingly a little small, this is still the best thing I have seen on the web all year. It’s designed in such a way to make the experiment enjoyable for even the slowest among us and I have bee fooling around with it for an hour already.

Check it out here.

Levi’s – Locals Only: Marseille

Steven — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:45:07 +0000

There is this huge story behind this video that I won’t get into here, those who need to know, do so, but to wrap it up: The head of the Black Lodges Marseille Chapter, Anthony Dettori, does some really good work on the Levi’s skateboarding project. I spent my summer down in Marseille with my crew- which was beyond awesome, and whilst we where there drinking and shooting the shit, he worked on a video project called “Locals Only” with Levi’s. It is hard to capture the essence of that great city and the spirit of the crew down there, but the film does do it justice. For some reason we even got a shout out at the end of the film when really, all we did was supply booze and spiritual guidance.

Anyhow, enjoy the clip, it is essentially about the Black Lodges Chapter in Marseille, but don’t tell anyone. Respect to Anthony & David.

Watch it here.

The Filthy Little Atheist…Founding Father

Steven — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:00:34 +0000

I love fucking with religious nutbags around the world and exposing their idiocy, hatred and bigotry by simple use of opening up a High School level history book. Luckily, Daniele Bolelli recently put out a book called: “ 50 Things You’re Not Supposed To Know: Religion, “, which I can again only recommend getting and reading. In it, she writes about Thomas Paine – you know, the dude that came up with the term “United States of America” and is essentially the man that came up with the modern concept of a democracy. No? Well, that might well be because of a “little” book he wrote afterwards called “The Age Of Reason”, which till today, guarantees him nothing but hatred from “folks” like Newt Gingrich.

Read On.

Megaupload, SOPA And One Giant Fuck You

Steven — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:28:27 +0000

The filthy rich bastards that control our governments must be having a party and a half these days. Ever since SOPA etc became a public debate, and with public opinion for once not rolling with the bought for and controlled media I bet some of these fat cats were getting a little worried about their populace control mechanism. Lo and behold, they pulled a stunt last week that essentially sticks their middle finger right into our collective asshole. As Glenn Greenwald so eloquently put it :” the U.S. Justice Department not only indicted the owners of one of the world’s largest websites, the file-sharing site Megaupload, but also seized and shut down that site, and also seized or froze millions of dollars of its assets — all based on the unproved accusations, set forth in an indictment, that the site deliberately aided copyright infringement.”

So SOPA apparently is irrelevant, since what the bill PROPOSED should be allowed, just happened. Take that democracy. To make matters even worse, here is a great little interview with the owners of Megaupload from last December that should make it very very clear as to why the site was illegally shut down:

“UMG knows that we are going to compete with them via our own music venture called Megabox.com, a site that will soon allow artists to sell their creations directly to consumers while allowing artists to keep 90 percent of earnings,” MegaUpload founder Kim ‘Dotcom’ Schmitz told Torrentfreak”

Read the rest here.

Your Daily WTF: The CIA & Charles Taylor

Steven — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:00:48 +0000

Like anyone with half an analytical brain would need any more proof that the majority of activities the CIA has decided to engage in since its creation has been nothing shy of dumb and criminal, add this piece of information onto the scale. Just last week, Foreign Policy, reported on THE FACT that the CIA supported and worked with one of Africa’s worst dictators and mass murderers, Charles Taylor of Liberia.

So today’s ASSHAT goes to Ronald Reagan, US President at the Time, George Bush Senior, DCI at CIA during this time and the rest of the world that still glorify those criminals and letting them get away with this shit.

Read the full article here.

For God So Loved the 1 Percent …

Steven — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:00:01 +0000

With the increasing spectacle that is the Republican Campaign Trail- I mean is it just my sadistic self, but I can’t stop watching that lunacy- the New York Times, especially their Op-Ed writers are starting to make up for the shit they pulled in 2001-2003. Case in Point, this exceptionally well written and researched article by Kevin M.Kruse on the relationship between the American Christian Faith- I cannot even call that radicalism Christianity anymore- American Government and the so called 1 %.

Especially to us non- Americans, it is these reports that help us understand America.

Notes On How To Actually Make A Change, SOPA

Steven — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:11:45 +0000

Whilst I am still in the middle of writing my two cents on SOPA, some clever little git put together this very simple plan of how to have a real impact on this whole notion of SOPA. Since everything is quantified these days and it is all about economics, this is the smartes piece of advice I have read so far if you want to do something against SOPA and not waste your time jacking off on the internet.

Read it here.

Daniel Ellsberg On The Limits Of Knowledge

Steven — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:07:30 +0000

Daniel Ellsberg might not make it to the top of your usual hype sites as the next cool guy, but I have always been fascinated by his intellectual output. He rose to fame in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, whose full scope only was released to the public last summer. Anyhow, Kevin Drum of Mother Jones, wrote a noteworthy article recently in which he quotes a conversation between Ellsberg, well, really a monologue by Ellsberg to Henry Kissinger about what you think you know, what you really know and what you then can do with that knowledge.

Seriously, worth your time.

Your Daily WTF

Steven — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:00:45 +0000

I was browsing reddit during a very comatose stint yesterday when I came across this article from last year about Virginia State Delegate Bob Marshall (R ) – like I had to mention that he is a “Republican” that, aside from waking me up, also made want to punch my wall.

Essentially, he said/believes ( i actually don’t anyone can be this moronic ) that women who have abortions will have disabled children afterwards as God#s punishment.

Seriously, dude, you are today’s Asshat. And that’s the nicest thing I can say about you today.

Here is Delegate Bob’s Website. Have Fun.

Boycott SOPA App

Steven — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:15:06 +0000

I am still in the middle of writing a big report on SOPA and I hope to get it done before January 18. If you feel in any inclined to bring your armchair / internet revolution to the real world, than this app is the way to go. Essentially, it is a bar code reader that you can install on your smart phone to scan products. Rather than giving you the usual crap that you get from bar codes though, this app will let you know if the product you intend to buy comes from a company that either supports or refutes SOPA.

Awesome. More here.