Heat of the Moment Recorded

Filed under: Music

Recorded Heat of the Moment by ASIA today (after 30-ish tries to get the damn solo at the right speed). The bg music is too quiet, but screw it, I’m not making another take.

.MP3 Version

.wav Version

I’m using Media Convert as both the converter and file host for the files. It’s like that saying goes, “give credit where credit is due.”

Great Guitar Site for Backing Tracks

Filed under: Music

I’m going to be using this awesome site I discovered for the background music in the future. All glory to guitarbt.com! My posts are usually longer than this, but screw it too lazy to type.

Cosmos Does Something Right!

Filed under: Music

I got a new tuning peg (mechanism, w/e you wanna call it), for me electric and it works! Unlike the last two… Anyways, I still plan on uploading Heat of the Moment and possibly YYZ if I’m bored in the next week or so.

NDP-Green Merger Ctd.

Filed under: Politics

Well since both parties are chickens, and did not answer my simple questions, I’m going to give my opinion (because everyone cares right!).

First off, its unlikely, both parties have disproved this idea in the past. The NDP seem to be more ‘liberal’ on this (well after all they are a Socialist party), and are the ones who started circulating the idea when an MP mentioned that they need to start negotiations with the Greens. The NDP and the Green party have similar views to the environment, but different opinions on how to go working towards it. This isn’t a real big difference but whenever asked the Greens overplay it so as to make it seem that the two parties are different. NDP does something similar. Nevertheless it seems inevitable that the Greens shall win a seat in the next election or two, and will have a voice in the house of commons. the NDP on the other hand is getting boring to most Canadians, Jack Layton for the past few elections (Ed’s Back! (well I wish (Ed Broadbent - former leader of the NDP, and the most popular NDP leader in Canadian history))).

I DO believe that there are some negations, which the two parties are preparing for, before the start of the next election campaign. Imagine if the NDP and Greens joined forces - finally the possibility of the NDP/Greens beating the Liberals in the next elections. Let me take the latest polls for a second (from this site). For the purpose of fairness I shall use the average between Harris-Decima (a somewhat unknown poll) and the more commonly known Strategic Counsel polls. So what we have from this is:

Conservatives - 35%

Liberals - 29.5%

NDP - 15.5%

Green - 10%

Bloc Quebecois - 9.5%

Well, as expected, the Liberals are going slightly higher with the bribery scandal of the Conservatives recently, and the NDP go down while the Green party moves up. Now, lets say for a moment we combined the NDP and Green party, that would give 25.5% (I’ll take away 2.5% for those who would stop supporting either to make it 23%). Now all of those who did not want to vote Green because they were too small and do not have a real platform other than environmental issues, will have both those problems solved with the help of the NDP (I’ll give that +5%), and those who did not want to vote NDP because they shall never get anywhere, will also have that solved (lets make that +2%). Now, if we take into account these approximated values the NDP/Green Party might have 30% approval!

I would definitely support this merger, but it seems unlikely for the next election, and more reasonable if they did it during the following elections. That’s it for me for tonight. VOTE NDP!

Gini Coefficients Around the World

Filed under: Politics

Well since I can’t do anything music wise these next few day I’m gonna ramble on about political issues. Today I shall be talking about the Gini Coefficient and North America’s failure in it over the past few decades.

The Gini Coefficient is a rate between 0 and 1 used to measure the inequality of pay distribution in a country. I consider it the best method of measuring economic equality, well for income at least, which leads to wealth distribution. There is also the Theil index, but it is not measured universally nor is it accepted. The Robin Hood and Atkinson index both lack the detail that the Gini Coefficient and Teil index contain, so they are rarely used. Due to the fact that the Gini Coefficient measure INEQUALITY the lower the rate is the greater, so if a country were to have a 0.00 Gini Coefficient (which is impossible in today’s society), that would mean that every single citizen of said country would be given the exact same wage.

Now let me move on to how it is functioning in today’s society. Throughout most of the last century and this century pay distribution has been alright for developed countries (normally around 0.35 to 0.40). Normally the developing countries would be a bit higher (0.40-50) and the non-developing or whatever you would like to call countries which are not developing went over this. The first year (1967) that it has been reported in the US, they got an outstanding Gini Coefficient for their time - 0.397. Yet as time progressed the US’ Gini Coefficient rose, and according to the latest measurement (2005) it has reached an all time high of 0.469. Canada has done fairly well compared to the US, staying around 0.31 for the better part of the last few decades, and a drop to 0.27-ish in the 1990s, but now, in 2005 Canada has also jumped up, except only to 0.326.

Contrary to what most westerners think, its not just America and Canada, there’s also another part of the world that has been developed longer than us, Europe. Norway, which had a higher Gini Coefficient around the same time the US first measured theirs has now dropped dramatically to 0.258! This is splendid, and great for a developed nation, but in fact, they are not first on the list, Denmark is, with an outstanding 0.247. Japan is second on the list with 0.249, both great amounts. All the countries I have specified and several others (excluding the UK) have had a decreasing Gini Coefficient for the past four decades - and all developed country. It seems that capitalism has overcome western society, while other developed countries have found a way to maintain their equality (and not only Europe, Japan has achieved this too!).

America and Canada are not the only culprits of an increasing Gini Coefficient. There are two developing nations, very well known which have also had their Coefficients skyrocket - China and India. India has now surpased its 1960’s Gini Coefficient (and only in the span of five years), while China has done the unthinkable, they have leapt past the US’ high standard for failure! There are other countries of course, but I shall not go in depth. What I am trying to prove is that no matter how much America considers itself superior in “equality,” “human rights (erherm waterboarding),” it is failing right now, and will continue to do so unless it gets off that high horse and starts cooperating and not letting rich capitalist pigs rule politics (like what the UK is in danger of now).

Potential of the EU as a Superpower?

Filed under: Politics

The EU, not currently one nation, but if it was, the might may become greater than that of the US, it might well be a ’superpower.’ T.R. Reid, Andrew Reding and Mark Leonard have stated that the power of the EU shall rival that (if not dominate) the US in the 21st century. This is not unlikely at all when you take into consideration all the factors. In 1999 alone, BEFORE the fifth enlargement and the addition of nine former-Soviet countries, the EU was holding its own, if not destroying the US in several issues.

Trade in goods and services (billion Euro):

Militarily the US is spending more, but the technology the EU has is up to par with the US. The EU are also beginning to separate from the US. For those who do not know, the majority of Europeans spit down at Americans (and Canadians, as they consider them the same), and this is different from decades ago. One huge step taken was when Rumsfeld went up to NATO and spoke about the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of Iraq because the terrorists were from Iraq (which is a lie… 90% of the Al Qaeda members on the 9/11 flight were from the United Arab Emitrates, where the US gets most of its oil. Conspiracy?), and the members of the EU (and Norway) disagreed with the US and decided not to invade Iraq.

I previously mentioned the EU does not have as much spending in its military as the US (billions of dollars, if not trillions, I’m not sure), but it can definitely hold its own if the two were to go to war. First off the combined power of the British navy, air force, and German, and Italian land forces would created an overwhelming defense, and would provide a possible offensive tactic. This would decimate the US, as we have seen what long-term wars have done to them, i.e. the Iraq war or Vietnam war. These wars lower the morale of the people, the people become angry, ask for a new government, the new government steps in, and pulls out, but if this scenario were to happen - they would have to pull out and find on their home turf. In case any of the readers have not noticed, North America isn’t a very popular place, and the only ally the US might have would be Canada, and possibly Mexico (unless they decide to stay neutral which seems more likely). The EU on the other hand may well have allies from all over the world - Russia definitely, because of its spite for Americans, and close ties with Europe. If Russia allies itself, then there is a good chance that Cuba, Venezuela and several other socialist countries may follow, and any other countries who have a deep hatred for the US (so about 99% of the world). Therefore, the US would not stand a hell of a chance in a war between the two.

Now you may wonder why I mentioned a potential war scenario between the EU and the US. Well let me go on to explain growing tensions between the two powers. Well let’s see, I’ve already named a popular one in American debate today - the Iraq war, or the OIL (Operation Iraqi Liberation… hmmm does that remind you of any black liquid that America is in desperate need of?). Then the US went on to name Joschka Fischer, the foreign minister of Germany, and currently the foreign minister for the EU a NAZI PROPAGANDA MINISTER, well the National Review did at least, America only went as far as to say that he is an “enemy to national security.” The US has also done some really stupid things in the past few years - Kyoto, Afghanistan, Iraq, biased Free Trade Agreements towards them, which have all resulted in attacks in the UN by countries such as Germany and France. Now we can go on to blame this on Bush, and yes, he has made a lot of mistakes, but the US need a good hard kick in the ass to get them off that high throne they are on, where they believe that it is only them - that they are the lone power. I would also like to quote something from a blog “Compare European peacekeepers to the USA’s military heads. EU generals are embraced by nations in need, American generals are charged with war crimes. This drives deep-seated resentment from the USA.”

There are many differences between the two powers, and I can go on and on, but these are the real huge ones, and are the ones that are separating the US and the EU. In the end the EU shall come out on top, after all history repeats itself, and like the Roman Empire before it, the Western World shall fall.

I’ll leave you all with this

Source for Stats/Quote

Guitar Tuning Broken

Filed under: Music

Well it seems that my Electric Guitar… less than a year old, now has a screwed up E Tuning mechanism (high E), so I need to get it fixed. I blame Cosmo, as usual.

Tunes of Midnight Completed

Filed under: Music

Finished Tunes of Midnight, its about 2 minutes long. Its not a cover this time, my own composition. It is… different from what I normally play, but there had to be some rock/jazz fusion somewhere so I added it in the solo.

Tunes of Midnight - Nikola Peric (.wav version - 0.5 mb)

Tunes of Midnight - Nikola Peric (.mp3 version - 1.9 mb)

NDP-Green Merger?

Filed under: Politics

There have been rumors for a while now on a NDP and Green merger for the next election, although both parties have disproved this idea. Nevertheless I decided to send an e-mail to the leader of the Green Party, and the NDP last night to see their thoughts, and if anything has changed and/or if the reports given by media are simply rumors

Federal By-Elections Results

Filed under: Politics

Yeah, this just proves that I should never predict elections, my predictions were way off. I’m also very disappointed in the voter turnout <30% in all except Vancouver Quadra (33%)

Toronto Center (turnout 27.8% or registered voters)

Liberal [Bob Rae] - 14,187 - 59.2%

NDP [El-Farouk Khaki] - 3,299 - 13.8%

Green [Chris Tindal] - 3,263 - 13.6%

Conservative [Donald Meredith] - 2,982 - 12.5%

CAP [Doug Plumb] - 97 - 0.4%

AAEV Party of Canada [Liz White] - 123 - 0.5%

Willowdale (turnout 24.4% or registered voters)

Liberal [Martha Hall Findlay] - 13,524 - 59.3%

Conservative [Maureen Harquail] - 6,864 - 30.1%

Green [Lou Carcasole] - 1,325 - 5.8%

NDP [Rini Ghosh] - 1,084 - 4.8%

Vancouver Quadra (turnout 33.9% of registered voters)

Liberal [Joyce Murray] - 10,155 - 36.1%

Conservative [Deborah Meredith] - 10,004 - 35.5%

NDP [Rebecca Coad] - 4,064 - 14.4%

Green [Dan Grice] - 3,792 - 13.5%

neorhino.ca [John Turner] - 110 - 0.4%

CAP [Psamuel Frank] - 40 - 0.1%

Desnethé–Missinippi–Churchill River (turnout 25.0% of registered voters)

Conservative [Rob Clarke] - 4,996 - 47.8%

Liberal [Joan Beatty] - 3,287 - 31.4%

NDP [Brian Morin] - 1,839 - 17.6%

Green [Robin Orr] - 340 - 3.2%

Liberals are losing ground, in short, and so are the NDP, while the conservatives are gaining momentum, or losing it, and the Greens are pushing ahead. The real surprise for me was the fact that a) the Greens nearly overtook the Conservatives and NDP in Toronto Center and defeated NDP in Willowdale, and b) that the Vancouver Quadra Liberal stronghold was a really close race (Conservatives almost won).