Thursday, January 30, 2003

Signature of Council of Europe Protocol against racism in cyberspace Strasbourg, 28.01.2003 - Eleven member States of the Council of Europe (*) today signed the Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime, concerning the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature, committed through the use of computer systems. More states are expected to sign the Protocol in the weeks to come. The Austrian President, Thomas Klestil, will sign the Protocol on Thursday 30 January, during his visit to the Council of Europe. This Protocol widens the scope of the Cybercrime Convention, to cover offences of racist or xenophobic propaganda and aims at facilitating the Parties' use of means of international co-operation in this area, as set out in the Convention. In particular, the Protocol defines racist and xenophobic material and calls on states to criminalise its distribution via computer, racist and xenophobic threats and insults, as well as denial of, gross understatement of, approval or justification of genocide and crimes against humanity. The Protocol was adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 7 November 2002. http://press.coe.int/cp/2003/048a(2003).htm
Something interesting happened today: we had a referrer from: http://hatomasamune.easter.ne.jp/merzbow/ (not linking it deliberately). When I looked at the page, there was no link to irdial.com. Could this be referrer spoofing to get the dir name of where we keep webalizer? interesting!
hmmm... Project Censored Censored 2003: The Top 10 Censored Stories of 2001-2002 #1: FCC Moves to Privatize Airwaves #2: New Trade Treaty Seeks to Privatize Global Social Services #3: United States' Policies in Colombia Support Mass Murder #4: Bush Administration Hampered FBI Investigation 46 into Bin Laden Family Before 9-11 #5: U.S. Intentionally Destroyed Iraq's Water System #6: U.S. Government Pushing Nuclear Revival #7: Corporations Promote HMO Model for School Districts #8: NAFTA Destroys Farming Communities in U.S. and Abroad #9: U.S. Faces National Housing Crisis #10: CIA Double Deals in Macedonia
Anti Gravity Is the REAL reason behind the war on Iraq!!!!
[...]When you next hear Blair or Straw or Bush talk about "bringing democracy to the people of Iraq", remember that it was the CIA that installed the Ba'ath Party in Baghdad from which emerged Saddam Hussein. "That was my favourite coup," said the CIA man responsible. When you next hear Blair and Bush talking about a "smoking gun" in Iraq, ask why the US government last December confiscated the 12,000 pages of Iraq's weapons declaration, saying they contained "sensitive information" which needed "a little editing". Sensitive indeed. The original Iraqi documents listed 150 American, British and other foreign companies that supplied Iraq with its nuclear, chemical and missile technology, many of them in illegal transactions. In 2000 Peter Hain, then a Foreign Office Minister, blocked a parliamentary request to publish the full list of lawbreaking British companies. He has never explained why.[...] Daily Mirror
Dr. Seuss replies to the State of the Union address.
In November, Kurt Vonnegut turned 80. He published his first novel, Player Piano, in 1952 at the age of 29. Since then he has written 13 others, including Slaughterhouse Five, which stands as one of the pre-eminent anti-war novels of the 20th century. As war against Iraq looms, I asked Vonnegut, a reader and supporter of this magazine, to weigh in. Vonnegut is an American socialist in the tradition of Eugene Victor Debs, a fellow Hoosier whom he likes to quote: “As long as there is a lower class, I am in it. As long as there is a criminal element, I am of it. As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” [...] Anybody practicing the fine art of composing music, no matter how cynical or greedy or scared, still can’t help serving all humanity. Music makes practically everybody fonder of life than he or she would be without it. [...] http://inthesetimes.com/
I don't remember if this was ever posted here before, but... "aaron funk, who has recorded several cds on the planet mu label as venetian snares, is on the verge of a breakthrough for electronic funk. together with his girlfriend, rachael kozak (who performs under the alias hecate), he is at work on an album created exclusively from samples recorded during sex. "people i've played it for don't believe it," says funk. "they're like, 'no, no, no - you've sampled high hats there, i know it.' it's essentially alchemy, shaping sex into a new form." the couple recorded directly to minidisc during a european tour and captured the sounds of anal and oral sex, bondage, caning, spanking and microphone insertion. funk says, "it's weird to deconstruct the sounds of sex. it makes you conscious of a lot of stuff you'd normally ignore. i remember thinking, shit, like, oh, that slap will make a good snare drum. or, wow, that was a freakish set of grunts and moans - i want to make that into a choir later." so far the duo has completed a few songs - including hymen tramp choir, pervs and blood on the rope - that play with the genres of breakbeat, ambient and dub. a full-length cd, nymphomatriarch, will be released this spring on hymen records. "i like to listen to sex when i'm having sex," funk says. soon you can hear his sex, too."

Wednesday, January 29, 2003

Simply beyond belief: http://www.dur.ac.uk/paul.clark/crabvspipe.html
the father of television? the nu-jazz musician? the french film-score composer?
kosma
BC Protesters Yes, Akin, you have uncovered a sad truth of BC. There is a streak of unchecked and misguided aggression that surfaces. The protest, or more correctly, destruction, that ensued after the concert cancellation was shocking and embarrassing. And what a waste! And for who? Spoiled drunken people, lashing out. It's not the first time this has happened. The chronic misunderstanding of civil disobedience and undercurrent of increasing violence has resulted in the cancellation of several public (and free) celebrations. Fortunately, we have new crops, and they thrive in their low-key, less shiny packaging. I must apologize if my previous post was not clear. Certainly, this was not an effective means of resisting a fascist power. But what else could they do? Remain downtrodden and without hope? There was a unity in their resistance, and a freedom, and that is what is interesting to me. I guess I have a romantic notion that there is something, the sacred cow, the flying nun, something, that will be accessible to a full span of people, that generates peace and kindness, that doesn't seek for its own gain, and that isn't in reaction to war. Dreamer.
Which OS are You?

Tuesday, January 28, 2003

Incredible If you please Alun, have you heard ANYTHING like this before??!!
http://www.drububu.com
Some gorgeous photographs of hangars, billboards, ammunition bunkers and gas stations on this site.
Not in our Name PDF of the New York Times double page statement.
irdial is unflinching irdial is back irdial is dead irdial is quite unusual irdial is not supported on all mobiles NOW I can start my day!!!!
posted by the attentive and insightful A_t, and MUNGED by the careless me (leading ' instead of "): "What do you mean by decentralized? A protest with many, or no centres? A spontaneous act of public aggression (for want of a better word, it should and could be entirely peaceful)? It seems unlikely in this country. It's as if people don't care, like if they dont think about it, it will go away. There's a protest in London (and elsewhere) on the 15th. If you London/Blogdial crew are going don't you think it would be nice to meet up? Maybe not. heh! The only people on teh internet I've met in rea life are people I already knew, so it would be a freaky new experience for me. Maybe someone should organise a 'sleep over' or 'pajama party' in Oxford Circus. Not really the right time of year, but whatever. People bring their tents, sleeping bags, beds, teddy bears, hot water bottles, etc to Oxford Circus and lie down in the middle of the road. You could either do it in the middle of the night when there's less traffic, but you run the risk of being foiled by the police before people start arriving and taking notice, or you risk your life trying to do it in the lull just before rush hour (is there a lull before rush hour in central London?)..."
BEHOLD And it came to pass that the last days of BLOGGER were upon them, and there was great confusion, weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth!
Originally posted by Mary: "My grandmother tells me about when Germany invaded Norway during WWII. Oslo was occupied, and a blackout was enforced. All the Norwegian citizens would turn their lights out, prop their radios out the window, and blast the BBC news from England. It was one of their few sites of resistance (somewhat decentralized). Effective in pissing the Germans off, and fun, until all their radios were confiscated ... how can we translate this to today's world? Unless, of course, that's what that worm was all about. "

STUUUUUUPIIIIIIIIIIID!!!!!

BC Rioters!
Priceless

Monday, January 27, 2003

I admire these people, they put thier personal safety on the line again and again. Its time though, that a more decentralized protest took place, dont you think??
Greenpeace Activists Block Military Port in Iraq Protest

U.S. - IRAQ INVASION LIKELY TO BEGIN WITH STATE of the UNION, Tuesday

January 24, 2003, 1930 PST (FTW) - Serious international developments are indicating that the first stages of the U.S. invasion of Iraq will begin unilaterally no later than next Wednesday and most likely as the President delivers his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday night. The Associated Press reported today, in a story little noticed by mainstream American press, that the Japanese government had today urged all Japanese citizens to leave Iraq as soon as possible. Japan has large numbers of its nationals working in Iraq in various trade and oil-related business ventures. According to a second report today on CNN Headline News the Japanese advisory was specific that all Japanese citizens should be out of the country by next Wednesday at the latest. The Japanese alert was followed by a simultaneous advisory from the U.S. State Department issuing a worldwide alert to all Americans traveling overseas. According to another AP story, State Department officials tried to downplay the significance of the warning, "but officials were unable to say when the last such advisory had been issued." A worldwide alert for U.S. citizens is extremely rare and suggests that the administration is concerned about a global backlash against Americans traveling overseas. Cautionary advisories are normally isolated to specific countries or geographic regions. The invasion of Iraq will most likely commence with a massive aerial campaign in which the U.N. and many military analysts have predicted widespread collateral damage with heavy civilian casualties. One recent UN estimate suggested that the total Iraqi casualty count for the entire operation could exceed 500,000. http://www.fromthewilderness.com/
Believe it. Most amusing that this file is being hosted/hammered on the Mothers Against Video Game Violence and Addiction site!!!
(^_^)
Britain 'is not an island' claims EU By Richard Savill European Commission statisticians have decided that Britain is not an island. They say an island can not have fewer than 50 permanent residents, can not be attached to the mainland by a rigid structure, can not be less than a kilometre from a mainland and, crucially in the case of Britain, can not be home to the capital of an EU state. Their study has raised fears that Anglesey and Skye, which are linked by bridges, and Lundy, which has a population of 18, could lose their island status. Paul Roberts, Lundy's general manager, said: "It's an absolute nonsense to say we are not an island. "Lundy means 'Puffin Island' in Norse and nothing can take that away from us." [...] Telegraph

Sunday, January 26, 2003

The Race to Kill Kazaa

The servers are in Denmark. The software is in Estonia. The domain is registered Down Under, the corporation on a tiny island in the South Pacific. The users - 60 million of them - are everywhere around the world. The next Napster? Think bigger. And pity the poor copyright cops trying to pull the plug. By Todd Woody On October 2, 2001, the weight of the global entertainment industry came crashing down on Niklas Zennstr�m, cofounder of Kazaa, the wildly popular file-sharing service. That was the day every major American music label and movie studio filed suit against his company. Their goal was to shutter the service and shut down the tens of millions of people sharing billions of copyrighted music, video, and software files. Only problem: Stopping Napster, which indexed songs on its servers, was easy - the recording industry took the company to court for copyright infringement, and a judge pulled the plug. With Kazaa, users trade files through thousands of anonymous "supernodes." There is no plug to pull. Nor, as attorneys would soon discover, was there even a single outfit to shut down. That's because on a January morning three months after the suit was filed, Amsterdam-based Kazaa.com went dark and Zennstr�m vanished. Days later, the company was reborn with a structure as decentralized as Kazaa's peer-to-peer service itself. Zennstr�m, a Swedish citizen, transferred control of the software's code to Blastoise, a strangely crafted company with operations off the coast of Britain - on a remote island renowned as a tax haven - and in Estonia, a notorious safe harbor for intellectual property pirates. And that was just the start. Ownership of the Kazaa interface went to Sharman Networks, a business formed days earlier in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, another tax haven. Sharman, which runs its servers in Denmark, obtained a license for Zennstr�m's technology, FastTrack. The Kazaa.com domain, on the other hand, was registered to an Australian firm called LEF Interactive - for the French revolutionary slogan, libert�, �galit�, fraternit�. Confused? So were the copyright cops. "It's hard to know which one to sue," complains Michael Speck, an investigator with the Australian Record Industry Association. Hollywood lawyers figured the best way to bring Kazaa to justice was to squeeze Sharman. Trouble was, Sharman, which operates out of Sydney, had no employees. All its workers, including CEO Nikki Hemming, are contracted through LEF. The names of Sharman's investors and board members are locked away in Vanuatu, a republic that bills itself as an asylum whose "strict code of secrecy" is "useful in any number of circumstances where the confidentiality of ownership, or control, want to be preserved." Why all the subterfuge? It's an international business model for the post-Napster era. A close look at Kazaa reveals a corporate nesting doll that frustrated Hollywood attorneys for more than a year. From Estonia to Australia, they pleaded with courts to force Kazaa's operators out from the shadows. Meanwhile, every week that Sharman was able to hold the law at bay, countless copies of Kazaa software were being downloaded. In the last six months alone, PC users have downloaded more than 90 million copies. Kazaa has 60 million users around the world and 22 million in the US - an irresistible audience to marketers. Last year, Sharman raked in millions from US advertisers like Netflix and DirecTV, without spending a penny on content. The chase could have gone on forever. And then, suddenly, a few days before Thanksgiving, it ended. Hollywood's disdain for file-sharing can be measured in the 10-foot stack of papers that make up Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios v. Grokster et al., which sits on file in the Los Angeles federal courthouse. In the suit, a roster of entertainment conglomerates accuse FastTrack-enabled services Kazaa, Morpheus, and Grokster of profiting from a "21st-century piratical bazaar." Record labels and movie studios want the services closed and fined $150,000 for each illegally traded song or movie. Given the billions of files changing hands every week, the damages could be astronomical. [...] Wired

Saturday, January 25, 2003

I'm getting massive packet loss to various points on the globe. I am seeing a lot of these in my tcpdump output on each host. 02:06:31.017088 150.140.142.17.3047 > 24.193.37.212.ms-sql-m: udp 376 02:06:31.017244 24.193.37.212 > 150.140.142.17: icmp: 24.193.37.212 udp port ms-sql-m unreachable [tos 0xc0 It looks like there's a worm affecting MS SQL Server which is pingflooding addresses at some random sequence. All admins with access to routers should block port 1434 (ms-sql-m)! Everyone running MS SQL Server shut it the hell down or make sure it can't access the internet proper! I make no guarantees that this information is correct, test it out for yourself! -- Michael Bacarella 24/7 phone: 646 641-8662 Netgraft Corporation http://netgraft.com/ "unique technologies to empower your business" Finger email address for public key. Key fingerprint: C40C CB1E D2F6 7628 6308 F554 7A68 A5CF 0BD8 C055

Friday, January 24, 2003

The average weight of a stool is about 100 grams (3.5 oz) but, again, this varies a lot. The colour of normal stools is always brown, but, curiously, the nature of the brown pigments is unknown.
Today
Woooooo! Wooooooo!

Thursday, January 23, 2003

Thanks Capt D. I am downloading Audio Mixer now. The suction of a PC would be the PC's suck. not the PCs suck.
Or it could be referring to the suction capacity of PCs...
Do any of you know of an MP3 editing program for PC where i can either cut up and save Mp3s or (more towards what i am trying to do) mix them together in some sort of multitrack environment?

Wednesday, January 22, 2003

Has George W. Bush ever met Saddam Hussein in person? I did a quick search, but couldn't find anything. This disturbs me ...
Sometimes I wonder about this city and their stance against the shaking of one's ass. Too many cool venues shut down over the years because of this inane cabaret law. Dancing in NYC is seriously limited to illegal warehouse parties (which is probably a good thing, come to think of it...). from the Village Voice:

A Crash Course in Cabarets

(NYC, obviously) 1926 The cabaret law is created to crack down on multiracial Harlem jazz clubs. "Most of the jazz in 1926 was being played in clubs in Harlem where there were mixed groups. And a lot of people considered jazz to be a mongrelized, degenerate music," says Paul Chevigny, author of Gigs: Jazz and the Cabaret Laws in New York City. The law defines a cabaret as "any room, place or space in the city in which any musical entertainment, singing, dancing or other form of amusement is permitted in connection with . . . selling to the public food or drink, except eating or drinking places, which provide incidental musical entertainment, without dancing, either by mechanical devices, or by not more than three persons." In other words, a venue can't have dancing without a license. 1961 The law requires that cabarets only be permitted in manufacturing and commercial zones like the meatpacking district. 1967 The law is amended to remove the requirement that musicians playing in clubs "be of good character." 1978 The law requires that sprinkler systems be installed in clubs seating more than 75 people. 1986 Chevigny wins a case on behalf of the musicians' union (Chiasson v. New York City Department of Consumer Affairs). State Supreme Court Justice David Saxe strikes the three-musician limitation, which he says "nearly eliminated certain types of music, such as Dixieland and bluegrass music [and] also had a negative impact on jazz." 1989 The city tightens zoning restrictions as commercial zones become gentrified. With the exception of grandfathered spaces, areas that were previously considered as-of-right�Tribeca, Soho, and the flatiron district�are judged to be off-limits for cabarets. 2002 While there are 4811 liquor licenses in Manhattan, only 276 are licensed cabarets�down from 12,000 in 1961�with an additional 40 venues up for renewal.
I received this in my email today: "The Bush White House has an "opinion" line for you to call. So, if you oppose or support the proposed war in Iraq, give a call. The line accepts calls only from 9:00 am to 5:00pm EST, Monday through Friday. Just call the White House at 202-456-1111. A machine will detain you for only a moment and then a pleasant live operator will thank you for saying "I oppose...." or "I approve.." a war in Iraq. It will take only minutes. Note that the weekends are closed for calls. The president has said that he wants to know what the American people are thinking. Let him know. Time is running out. Then please forward this e-mail to at least five people right away " I've tried calling a couple of times but its always busy. I guess I will keep it up all day. But I wonder if its really what it says it is. Anyone else from the US hear about this?
But Verizon said it would appeal against the ruling, arguing that it violated privacy. Dont be afraid just yet; the "common carrier" defence used by all telecoms companies comes into play here. This will (should) be shot down in flames.
"...the smell of americas God" http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,879543,00.html
http://www.ryano.net/fusker.php they are fusking!!!!
What is a LifeGem? A LifeGem is a certified, high quality diamond created from the carbon of your loved one as a memorial to their unique and wonderful life. The LifeGem diamond is more than a memorial to visit on the weekends� it is a way to embrace your loved one's memory day by day. The LifeGem is the most unique and timeless memorial available for creating a testimony to their unique life. We hope and believe that your LifeGem memorial will offer comfort and support when and where you need it, and provide a lasting memory that endures just as a diamond does. Forever. http://www.lifegem.com/secondary/whatisLG.htm
Do online petitions work? They do what they are meant to do; collect names and indicate the strength of public feeling for or against legislation. In the end, it is up to legislators, who do what they choose to do, depending on many factors, none of which involve the benefit of the electorate. Everyone has to learn that refusal to participate is the only sound that will really make these people sit up and listen. Just because a piece of legislation is passed, that doesnt automatically mean that you are obliged to obey. You choose to obey. If everyone refuses to obey, comply, give in, knuckle under, cave, bend over, lie down, give up, $submit, then they will have no choice but to confront this as a new situation, and change the law accordingly, so that the rest of the laws that everyone agrees to obey do not become discredited. This is exactly what has happend with plant smoking in the UK. So many people ignore the law, that it is discredited as illogical and arbitrary. This is far more dangerous than the nebulous anti-social effects of intoxicating substances. Now, the govt. has had to confront this new reality, so that it can retain control over everything else. In fact, the loosening of the regulations was spurred by the unilateral actions of one police force, who were fed up with wasting their time busting cigarrette smokers. Petitions are a threat. They imply "If you do this, there could be a massive negative real0world reaction. You have been warned". Its effortless to sign one. Sign them. If they do nothing, refuse to aid the evil thing that the petition is against, in word, action or money.
I will have to buy some I know you know about Open Office... Have you seen this STFB has some open source products, but I didnt check if they are free; there MUST be at least one package out there.
Do online petitions work? I think we've talked about this before ... but here it goes: On-line petitions do work, but perhaps not in the direct way that we would hope. If anything, they create awareness of the issue at hand, and by providing a minimum of interactivity (sign me!), the perceived usefulness or value of said interaction will provoke forwarding. However, perhaps an inverse and less desirable result is occuring at the same time. Whilst creating awareness and perceived activism, said petition could be mistaken for effective (affective?) action, at which time, all other action (both more imaginative and possibly successful) is halted as those signing the petition feel that their duty is done. In which case we now have an inordinate number of individuals that are informed, activated, and impotent (??). Fortunately, effective petitions do provide alternate sites of resistance, including demonstrations where, antics in which, and email addresses to whom you may address your concerns about said issues ... Didn't they pass a similar law in NYC, the Cabaret Law? Not popular ... Claus, do you have credit unions in Denmark? They might be kinder ...
Spent all day trying to figure out .httaccess and httpd.conf what a nightmare. I did get webalizer installed and a cron job running on it, so thats cool. Nexts its movable type, and then ezmlm. joy! And what was your day like CES? Good night !
I WISH I had beer'd up tonight. Oh well.
I need to play that game....
At last!
How many beers CES??!! :]
scale="exactfit" ?? Talk about "high level language"!

Tuesday, January 21, 2003

The ring of cameras around the city of London will be expanded with the charge system. This new system is not about the congestion charge, its about the war on "terrorism" and even if the congestion charge doesnt work (or even if it does), the cameras will remain in place, and they will use to watch EVERYTHING going in and out of every street in london. from thier privacy policy: How do we collect personal data? Personal data is collected from you, by various methods for example by forms, the Internet and over the phone when you purchase a travel ticket, apply for SMS travel alert or for a CCS license, apply for a discount, contact us with enquiries and ticket refunds. Images of people and vehicles, including number plates, may be captured by CCTV cameras operated by TfL. This data will be used for the above purposes and be held for as long as required for TfL to fulfil its obligations [...] Where CCTV or camera systems are operated, they are done so in accordance with Codes of Practice. TfL may disclose personal data to the police and other law enforcement agencies at their request, for the prevention and detection of crime and where required to do so by law. We have policies and procedures to ensure that all disclosures are in compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998. And there you have it http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/privacy.shtml

PEL Law - attention all musicians/DJs/performers

Sorry for bulk email but i just got sent this and it's pretty scarey... There is a law currently passing through parliament which could kill off the UK's live music scene for good. if this law is passed then any unlicensed musician or DJ will face a fine of up to �20,000 for playing in public! so that's goodbye to most people who play week in week out in bars, pubs & restaurants and keep the UK's music scene alive please take a minute to click on the links below and sign the petition. there's also a demo in london on 27th January SIGN THIS PETITION http://www.petitiononline.com/2inabar/petition.html LICENSING OF LIVE MUSIC http://edm.ais.co.uk/weblink/html/motion.html/ref=331 TOP STORY Not Good > >-----Original Message----- >From: Lisa Fitzgerald [mailto:lisa@mostwanteduk.com] >Sent: 20 January 2003 12:36 >To: Undisclosed-Recipient >Subject: PEL Law - attention all musicians > > > > > > >Dear all, >You may not be aware of proposed changes to the Public Entertainment >Licensing laws, currently awaiting ratification by the house of lords. > >As most of you I'm sure know in the UK, under current legislation any venue >wishing to have live music events (including clubs) needs to obtain a PEL >from the local authority. > >If the new law comes in to effect, it will mean that not only will the >venue require a PEL, but also each and every performer - doesn't matter >whether you're a dj, guitarist, cellist or what... > >The proposed penalties for performing without are 6mths in jail or >�20,000GBP fine!!!! > >please please please take a few minutes to check the links below for more >details including an online petition to sign. > >This is nothing less than fascism from people who are supposed to be our >elected representatives, we MUST stop this law getting on to our statute >books. > >if you thought the CJB was bad, it's nothing compared to this. > >there is a demonstration being organised for Monday 27th Jan 2003, 13:00hrs >at parliament square, see ya there! > > > >Thanks for your time, >peace, >Jamie Wilkins (Scuba) > >TOP STORY > >PETITION >LICENSING OF LIVE MUSIC < >http://edm.ais.co.uk/weblink/html/motion.html/ref=331> > > Not Good
Spiritually speaking, owning a label has much to offer artists. As William Blake said "Create your own System or be enslaved by another Man's". Also, before you consider it, check your (primary) motives. Are you doing it as a purely business thing? If you are, you're nuts. Or are you, like Blake, doing it for eternity? I'm doing it for eternity. The Independent

Monday, January 20, 2003

Russia leases nuclear bombers to India

�1.9bn arms deal to give India power of mass destruction across Pakistan and China Luke Harding in New Delhi Monday January 20, 2003 The Guardian India last night signed a �1.9bn deal with Russia to lease four long-range nuclear bombers and two nuclear-capable submarines, in a move which campaigners say will dramatically escalate the arms race on the subcontinent. On a visit to Moscow, India's defence minister, George Fernandes, said the agreement - which will also see Russia throw in an ageing aircraft carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov, for free - will be finalised by the end of March. "We have agreed that all efforts will be made to complete the three contracts," Mr Fernandes said. India and Russia will also pump more money into a joint programme to develop a new long-range nuclear-capable cruise missile, the BrahMos, he revealed. The massive deal will dramatically improve New Delhi's ability to deliver its nuclear warheads. It follows months of simmering tension between India and its arch-rival Pakistan, the world's newest declared nuclear powers. The two countries almost went to war in June last year, and for 10 months deployed a million troops along their shared border. India is believed to have more nuclear bombs - between 60 and 150, compared with Pakistan's 20-60. It also has a much larger conventional army. But defence experts believe that Pakistan, which secretly acquired much of its missile technology from China and North Korea in the 1990s, has better means of getting them to their targets, and this is an edge which New Delhi wants to eliminate. Last night anti-nuclear campaigners in India said they were dismayed by the nuclear deal with Russia. "I think it is terrible," said Praful Bidwai, of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP). "We are just going into a vortex that steps up the nuclear and missile arms race. They are actually moving towards a high level of readiness to use nuclear weapons. You are not talking about deterrence." Under the package, India will lease four Tu22 M3 long-range aircraft - capable of dropping nuclear bombs on China - as well as two Akula class submarines, which are nuclear-propelled and can deliver nuclear warheads. India's existing submarine fleet is not nuclear capable. Indian officials say that in the event of a nuclear attack by Pakistan, the new Russian subs, which can hide underwater for months at a time, would be able to launch a devastating response. India has also agreed to pay about �370m to refit the Admiral Gorshkov, a decrepit aircraft carrier which was completely gutted by fire in the early 90s. The purchase has caused much raising of eyebrows in the Indian press, and follows an expos� two years ago of massive official corruption in India's defence industry. Mr Fernandes was forced to resign in the wake of the scandal. He later got his job back. The defence minister put the finishing touches to his procurement spree after spending six days in Russia, where he met his counterpart Sergei Ivanov. The comparative speed with which India and Russia have wrapped up their agreement is in stark contrast to Britain's attempts to sell 66 Hawk jet trainer aircraft to the Indian air force. Tony Blair and other ministers have so far failed to convince the Indians to sign the billion-pound deal, despite more than 15 years of negotiations. This story was buried in the middile of The Guardian; the front cover was of Miss Dynamyte'ee pop sensation, decrying the shooting of two teenagers in Birmingham. I cannot think of a reason why this INCREDIBLE deal was not on the front page, seeing that war is colse to commencing over the posession of weapons. Maybe it wasnt on the cover because the UK is still trying to sell Jets to India? But then that would mean that The Guardian was corrupt, and how likely is THAT? Hmmmmm what is the equation used to choose between this and the Dynamytee'eeee story making the front page? millions of Indians threatened by nuclear escalation at a time when everyone is debating such weapons. A Hip Hip concert to mourn two teenage girls shot by juvenile delinquents....hmmmm cant play the racism card, cause both groups are "brown", could play the "foriegners dont count as humans" card, but then arent brown people in Birmingham foriegners? Uh oh, thats the racism card! Maybe BOTH stories should have been on the front cover. Or niether. Either way, this story is astounding, not only for the fact that it was buried, but that India can rationalize spending 1.9 BILLION POUNDS on weapons, when thier electricity grid is a piece of crap, thier water distribution is useless, and they have so many other problems to solve. Surely it would be better to simply ignore thier percieved enemies, emulate Japan and then leap into a Singapore style 21st century country. It makes perfect sense....of course! Thats the problem!!!!

Sunday, January 19, 2003

MoodLogic Mixes change the way you think about your MP3 collection, whether it is on your computer or on your MP3 Player device. Over the last three years, tens of thousands have contributed to MoodLogic more than a billion survey answers on how they feel about music. MoodLogic has assembled these answers and created the world's largest music database. After years of research and development creating complex computer algorithms to clean up the user-contributed data MoodLogic built an industrial-strength infrastructure to serve it back to you. Now you can experience your music in ways you never thought was possible*. Automatic music organization, intuitive MP3 mix generation, and robust ID3 tag cleanup are just a few of the highlights of MoodLogic. Download MoodLogic and rediscover your MP3s today! http://www.moodlogic.com/
Cut Taxes, Help the Rich. (And the rest of us too) by Russell Roberts National Public Radio's Morning Edition January 16, 2003 A lot of people seem to think that the Bush stimulus plan is just a way for the President to pay off some of his fat cat friends. Could be. But for those who always assume the worst about this President, I have two words: Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter also supported the centerpiece of the Bush plan, the elimination of the tax on dividend income. Wow. Who knew that Carter had a secret agenda for helping his fat cat friends? Or maybe there's another reason for cutting taxes on dividend income. Actually, for over fifty years, prominent economists have opposed taxing dividend income and the so-called double taxation of corporate earnings. The President's plan increases how much investors get to keep, after-tax, from investing in successful companies. That makes it easier for corporations to raise money for risky investments. That gives corporations more machinery and capital to work with, boosting productivity and wages. That's the idea, anyway. The President's plan also makes it more attractive for corporations to pay out the profits from successful investments to shareholders in the form of dividends. Those corporations already paying dividends will have an incentive to increase them. Increasing the use of dividends should reduce the kind of accounting shenanigans we've seen lately. It's one thing to have high profits on paper based on an arcane Caribbean partnership. But you can't pay a dividend out of a paper profit. You need to earn real cash. So dividends encourage credible accounting. That's one reason why the Carter administration dropped the idea of eliminating the tax on dividends. Big business wanted a murkier playing field, earnings kept inside the company for CEOs to play with rather than paying them out to shareholders. CEOs didn't want the pressure of having to make dividend payments. Sure they could choose not to offer dividends. But the companies knew that if dividends were tax-free to investors, there would be pressure from investors to offer dividends as a way of proving a company's reliability. Getting rid of the taxation of dividends will make some rich people richer. But it will also make the rest of us richer too. Not just those of us who happen to invest in dividend paying stocks. The real gain will an increase in investment that will raise our wages and our standard of living. Will it fix the sluggishness of today's economy? Probably not. For that, we're going to have to resolve the situation with Iraq. Russell Roberts is the John M. Olin Senior Fellow at the Weidenbaum Center at Washington University in St. Louis and the author of The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance (MIT Press, 2001). To subscribe to (or unsubscribe from) Russ Roberts's mailing list, or to see other writing of his, please visit http://www.invisibleheart.com Here's an article from Forbes from 1988 that discusses the Carter Administration's flirtation with getting rid of the tax on dividends: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/1988/1128/192_print.html

Saturday, January 18, 2003

Interesting patterns in bookbuying. In plain english, this diagram displays what is called "preaching to the converted". I wonder if people who have music on these lists would be groupable into the "overground" and the "underground". Certainly, they would be groupable into genres that overlap on the "crossover" artists. Astounding and frightening, how this display seems to show that people really are closed off from the thoughts and analysis of "the opposition". This has to be unhealthy.
fellow geeks, your wisdom is needed case sensitivity. your local machine is windoze, is the remote machine running a unix OS? use the same version of php on both machines. use the same version of apache on both machines. something else I dont know about.
S�NAR organises a conference at Midem 2003: IS DISTRIBUTION DEAD? ELECTRONIC MUSIC DISTRIBUTION IN EUROPE As part of the activities of the Electronic Music Village, the electronic area of MIDEM, S�NAR is organising a round table discussion on the current panorama of electronic music distribution in Europe and its future potential. In doing so S�NAR wants to put forward a rigorous analysis of the issue which will allow us to assess from every possible angle why distribution has stagnated and to answer the following questions: What is the distributor's role today? How is the crisis in the record industry affecting the electronic music market in Europe? Can a pan-European distributor operate in the same way as a local distributor? Is online distribution profitable? What other distribution/promotion channels are there and are these viable? What do the labels think of their distributors? The aim of the encounter is to take an in depth look at traditional distribution routines, to assess their position in the specialised market of electronic music and to envisage new alternatives that will ensure survival, consolidation and improvement. The Conference will take place on Monday January 20 at 16 hrs in Auditorium K (Floor 4) of the Palais des Festival, Cannes (France). Conference participants will be: Gerardo Cart�n, General Manager of Pias Espa�a (SP) Thomas Morr, Label Manager of Morr Music and head of the independent material of Hausmusik distributors (GER) Paul Esposito, Label Manager of Domino Records (UK) Peter Thompson, General Manager of Vital (UK) Dominic Smith, Label Manager for Europe of Ninja Tune (UK) Gary Smith, journalist (UK), will chair the discussion. For further information contact us at the Electronic Music Village area of Midem 2003.

Friday, January 17, 2003

Lord, I am hungry....
There has been press comment recently about `voluntary vetting' of foreign research students being made compulsory. See for example the Sunday Telegraph of the 12th January: Tis is a disturbing political development; it is both a direct threat to academic freedom and an attempt by the Foreign Office to make an end run round Parliament. The existing `voluntary vetting' scheme works as follows. If a foreign student wants to do a PhD in a possibly defence-related field, academics are supposed to call a phone number in London and ask advice. If the advice is that HMG would rather not have that student study that subject, then we're supposed to turn the applicant down saying `sorry, you're too thick' (or whatever the local euphemism is). The reason for this scheme is this. Some organs of state want to place severe restrictions on foreign students. For example, GCHQ does not want any Chinese to be allowed to study cryptography (despite the fact that many universities teach it to all maths and computer science undergraduates). Now if someone is coming to the UK to acquire knowledge for evil purposes, it is the job of the Foreign Office to refuse them a visa. However, the Foreign Office would get into trouble with China if they stopped giving visas for any Chinese students to study mathematics or computer science. Also, the FO prefers to avoid blame when things go wrong. And how can they argue `Bad Iraqi person X studied biochemistry in the UK and now works on war bugs for Saddam' without immediately drawing the criticism `Well, why did you give them a visa then?' They don't want to have to admit `Well, back in the mid-1980s we were desparate for Iraq to beat Iran so we gave Saddam all the discreet help we could with chemical and biological weapons.' The voluntary vetting scheme is designed to let the Foreign Office escape from this dilemma. It isn't about increasing the security of the UK; that would be best served by taking honest visa decisions and sticking with them in the face of criticism. It's about enabling the FO to wriggle out of what they see as an inconvenient duty. Some universities go along with it, but Oxford and Cambridge always refused to in the past. The main reason was one of principle: we always considered the scheme to be unethical. If we are going to refuse a place to a perfectly well qualified Chinese candidate, simply because a faceless voice on the telephone tells us to, we are not going to pretend to the candidate that he or she was too stupid to get in. There is also the practical consideration that at Cambridge, at least, the admission of students is decentralised: decisions are taken by the individual academics who would supervise the candidates if they get in. So it is not practical to keep such a process secret, even if it were desirable (which it isn't). A further practical problem is that anyone in the University can go to any lecture (with a few specific exceptions, such as dissections in the Anatomy school). My lectures on cryptography are open to all members of the University, and our postgraduate security seminars and security group meetings are open to everyone, including interested members of the public. The only way to stop our Chinese suspect from attending is to exclude him from the UK completely. The alternative, of demanding ID cards from all students as they turn up for lectures, would involve an unacceptable change in the open culture that is an essential part of all great universities. Rational argument did not, however, cut any ice with the FO. Their response was to try to give ministers the power to license teaching of foreigners under the Export Act of 2000. The idea was that the transfer of knowledge between a UK academic and a foreign national who might then leave the country constituted an export. This was shot down last year by Parliament, much to the mandarins' disgust. In the process, there was some quite interesting dishonesty by the officials promoting the bill. They had their ministers say in public that there was no plan to use the bill to license foreign research students, while they had also informed lobbyists in writing that such transfers of knowledge would in fact be licensed. In order to maintain the pretence that ministers had not lied, they concocted the argument that the licences would not apply to students but to teachers. In other words, instead of saying that Chinese student X was licenced to be taught cryptography by Dr Anderson, the license would say that Dr Anderson was licenced to teach cryptography to Chinese student X. It was further explained that the requirement for a license would be triggered by the DTI sending a notice to the academic in question. However, this clearly raises serious issues with academic freedom, and Parliament decided it was too much; a research exemption was written into the bill as a result of the Lords' vote. The Lords voted 155-108 against the government on academic freedom; Lib Dems, Tories, plus such crossbenchers as Lord May (President of the Royal Society) and Lord Butler (former Head of the Civil Service) combined to give Blair one of his worst defeats ever. Now, it seems, the Foreign Office are using the ricin incident to try to get voluntary vetting back on the agenda. The subtext is that the DTI are currently working on the regulations that will give force to the Export Act, and the FO seem to be pushing for some hook that they can use to punish recalcitrant academics. An indirectly enforced `voluntary' scheme could be even worse than the powers they originally bid for. Maybe any University that refused to take part in the scheme would find that it wouldn't get licenses to import semiconductor test equipment for its engineering labs. In other words, if academic A refused to play ball with the FO's silly little scheme, then academic B (in another department entirely) would find his research cut off? That is just insane. It is also unlikely to work, as in democratically governed universities with tenured staff, the centre simply doesn't have the power to boss its staff around. However, the FO seems to hope that while there is a terror scare going on and the universities are awaiting a decision on fees and funding, they might just get away with it. This is not just being extremely silly, it's blatantly defying the will of Parliament. That's not the sort of game that crown servants should be playing. Instead, they should do the job they're paid to, and refuse visas to anyone who is reasonably suspected of wanting to come to the UK in order to acquire education or training in order to do wicked things.
And the rest! http://jp.eecue.com/photos/show_group.php?Id=39

Blowfish Dinner

hell hell hell on earth

Thursday, January 16, 2003

Okay, so I'll renege on that comment, written in the heat of the moment after reading up on UA's use of the song. Gershwin's Etate doesn't deserve the money as they had nothing to do with the creative input, and said creative input happened almost 80 years ago. If youwould not be turned, you would have been DESTROYED. But does UA deserve to have this piece of music swallowed into its marketing image, to forever claim a piece of music that they have but a monetary claim to as their theme song? How do you mean "deserve"? If it was free from copyright, everyone would have the RIGHT to use it( and benefit from it) in any way they see fit, thats the whole point of copyright expiring. Not just huge corporations, but ANYONE would be able to exploit Gershwin. Perhaps they do "have the right," they dont, they are leasing it. but the issue bugs me and arises another question in this copyright tangle. Or at least in a corporate/artistic tangle. How will artisticly creative ideas be claimed as their copyrights run out? they wont be claimable, thats the whole point. Those with the most media power can represent these images, sounds, &c. as their own without any threat of a challenge from folks like you and me (the public domain) who will also own the rights. Corporations are part (or should I say, have equal access as if they were individuals) of(to) public domain works, and only copyright owners have the right to challenge copyright infringement. History can easily be reshaped with a slick marketing team. And you can un do it, by setting up your own archive and making it available. Think about it, a snopes.com for keeping history accurate; impossible if copyright never expires, which is why we argue infinite extension is evil.
This video is aparently being played on TV in the states. One to forward for sure. http://www.moveon.org/
The funny thing about the Girl Scouts not being able to sing God Bless America is that in 1940 Irving Berlin (the songwriter) donated all future royalties from the song to the Girl and Boy Scouts. They continue to recieve royalties from it, but must pay the fee to sing the song at camp.
Okay, so I'll renege on that comment, written in the heat of the moment after reading up on UA's use of the song. Gershwin's Etate doesn't deserve the money as they had nothing to do with the creative input, and said creative input happened almost 80 years ago. But does UA deserve to have this piece of music swallowed into its marketing image, to forever claim a piece of music that they have but a monetary claim to as their theme song? Perhaps they do "have the right," but the issue bugs me and arises another question in this copyright tangle. Or at least in a corporate/artistic tangle. How will artisticly creative ideas be claimed as their copyrights run out? Those with the most media power can represent these images, sounds, &c. as their own without any threat of a challenge from folks like you and me (the public domain) who will also own the rights. History can easily be reshaped with a slick marketing team.
The gershwin estate deserved every penny for the airline usurping such a piece of music... This is wrong. Mikkel is completely correct. Reading the dissenting views in Eldred vs Ashcroft should give you an idea of what copyright is for, from a pure legal standpoint. Copyright is a bargain and balance between the interests of the public and the creative individual. That work should now be in the public domain, and in fact, this is an example (which is why it is in the dissent) of how extension of copyright hurts the public interest, and also hurts business. If copyright had not been contiunally extended in this unconstitutional way, UA would not have to pay 500gs to the Gershwin Estate, no member of which has any right to continue to benefit from the copyright of the genius of Gershwin. Everyone flying on UA is suffering because of this, every school orchestra that wants to play Gershwin music suffers because of this. Did you know that the owners of the song "God Bless America" wanted to charge the Girlscouts of America $1000+ per year per troupe for the right to sing that song around a campfire? Totally Absurd. Everyone benefits from copyright, only when it expires and passes into the public domain. The creators have many decades to milk thier works, and in the end, the public can (not in America at present) make use of these works for thier own benefit. Society is bolstered and knowledge flourishes and spreads freely. Read the dissenting views. It is going to be impossible for anyone to put together a historical database because every photograph, piece of music and sentence of text will be perpetually protected by copyright. Just researching and getting clearance takes up money and time that will automaticall limit the quality of archives throughout the usa. Of course, this is a market opportunity for everywhere in the civilized world. Now, an entrepreneur in the UK for instance, can set up an archive full of USA copyrighted works, with complete freedom, and then charge Americans to access that database (or not, depending on her philanthropic bent). I read on slashdot, a most interesting post along the lines that Disney are a bunch of hypocrites, having just made "Treasure Planet" a bastardization of "Treasure Island" without having to pay a single penny in royalties, since the original is out of copyright. Amazing how its one rule for Disney and another for every other person, and that there are people who actually support this.
Just for clarity on the United Airlines/Gershwin payment: They used a snippet of Rhapsody in Blue (da-da da-da da-da da daaah) in an advertising campaign. People really began to know it as the United Airlines theme music and not as a wonderful piece of 20th century music (as evidinced here and here.) The gershwin estate deserved every penny for the airline usurping such a piece of music...
"Our food is better than yours now" Daniel Boulud's DB Burger, served at his DB BISTRO MODERNE in Midtown, is not properly a burger. It contains too much foie gras for that. But it is nonetheless a delicious, if expensive, specimen of ground and braised meats, served with wonderful fries. At 55 West 44th Street; (212) 391-2400. "I HAVE eaten hamburgers every day for the last two months. I have traveled the five boroughs of New York City to do so. And in the city's lowliest corner diners and loftiest expense account restaurants, I have found satisfaction. New York, my research has documented again and again, is a hamburger heaven." New York Times
Swearing or loitering could be punished by jail in France Jon Henley in Paris Wednesday January 15, 2003 The Guardian Streetwalking, begging, loitering in public places and swearing at a policeman will become crimes punishable by a jail sentence under radical new laws that France's National Assembly began debating yesterday. More than 30 human rights and civil liberties groups, as well as the leftwing opposition, have united against the 75-article "internal security bill" tabled by the hardline interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy. But the centre-right government, elected mainly on a promise to fight crime, is unlikely to soften its plans despite 100 amendments from Socialist and Green MPs, and the bill - dubbed "a war on the poor" by its opponents - should become law this spring. The package introduces a new offence of "passive soliciting" for prostitutes, making them liable to fines of up to �3,750 (�2,500) and two months in jail for "soliciting by any means, including dress, position or attitude". [...] [...]The bill also dramatically extends police powers to search vehicles, frisk people, and take DNA samples from suspects. An amendment proposes to drop the police obligation to tell suspects that they have the right to remain silent.[...] So, does this mean that Jean Paul Gautier is going to be imprisoned for insiting prostitution by virtue (!) of the outrageous clothes he makes? How much more crazy can it get???? The Guardian
ELDRED v. ASHCROFT BREYER, J., dissenting: "The extra royalty payments will not come from thin air. Rather, they ultimately come from those who wish to read or see or hear those classic books or films or recordings that have survived. Even the $500,000 that United Air-lines has had to pay for the right to play George Gershwin’s 1924 classic Rhapsody in Blue represents a cost of doing business, See Ganzel, Copyright or Copy-wrong? Training 36, 42 (Dec. 2002). Further, the likely amounts of extra royalty payments are large enough to suggest that unnecessarily high prices will unnecessarily restrict distribution of classic works (or lead to disobedience of the law)—[...]" $500,000 to play a piece of music on airplanes? Extraordinary. How was this calculation made? On a per seat basis? On any aircraft, each person has a choice of music from a large selection. In fact, its possible that no one may listen to Rhapsody in Blue whilst in flight. Either way, this is further evidence (as if you needed it) that royalties are the future of the music business. As for disobedience of the law; the 100,000 copyrights that were "promised" to the public but which now have been unfairly and arbitrarily withdrawn from entering the public domain by a small number of corporations will cause much disregarding of copyright law. Why obey the law when the goal posts can be changed in a moment, always favouring the corporations? Something to think about.

Wednesday, January 15, 2003

The United States of America has gone mad

John le Carr� America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War. The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded. The combination of compliant US media and vested corporate interests is once more ensuring that a debate that should be ringing out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the East Coast press. [...] The Times
** *** ***** ******* *********** ************* The Doghouse: Yahoo When you register for a Yahoo account, they ask you for your date of birth. The purpose is security; if you forget your password, they can authenticate you with this information. Someone's birthdate isn't a secret, and is a terrible way to authenticate someone. But Yahoo goes one step further. "My Yahoo," the company's popular personalized news page, uses the information to put a "Happy Birthday, !" message at the top of your page when you visit on your birthday. An excellent example of not getting it. Oreilly ** *** ***** ******* *********** *************
have you seen this yet?

Supreme Court Opinions are here:

Majority op by Ginsburg: http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/archives/01-618o.pdf Dissent by Stevens: http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/archives/01-618d.pdf "Ex post facto extensions of copyrights result in a gratuitous transfer of wealth from the public to authors, publishers, and their successors in interest. Such retroactive extensions do not even arguably serve either of the purposes of the Copyright/Patent Clause." Dissent by Breyer: http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/archives/01-618d1.pdf
The deal with copyright is that authors get to benefit from the work that they create, and then, much later, the public gets it for free. This ruling goes to show that there is no law, save that which you can buy. The only people who are going to benefit from this are the small number of shareholders in large corporations. The public good is an irrelevance to the courts. To the sadness of all concerned, Europe will no doubt enact similar legislation so as to "cork the bottle". Asia will bend over so that they can feel like they are equals. Everyone in the states needs to simply take the law into their own hands, since the law is clearly only working for the corporations. And that is why they need guns. Without the guns, the corporations would have total control over everything and everyone in the states. That is not a hypothesis, it is a fact. All Americans are not evil or stupid, alot of them cannot read English however. Any categorical statement in this type of discourse is immediately taken as a form of rhetoric, and is never taken literally. If this were not the case, we would all be arguing like children, nitpicking over qualifiers and adjectives. This leads us to wonder what would gestate and be born if the tears of Chief Scientist A.K. were mixed with a robust homosapien ovum and a little "spunk". A cry baby!!!
but it's simpler to recommend 'Bowling for Columbine' and to say that in almost 15 years in London I don't know a single person that has ever come across a gun crime in person. In BFC, it was shown that gun ownership in the USA and Canada was the same, but gun crime disproportionately low on the Canadian side. BFC makes her point; if guns were freely available in the UK, the gun crime rate would not go up, just as it has not in Canada. hmmmmmm!

Europe Needs to Get Real

To this American, it's Europeans who are naive, superficial and materialistic By CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL Posted Sunday, Jan. 12, 2003; 2.09 p.m. GMT Any American who spends time in Europe will have lived through the moment � usually around 11 p.m., after Bordeaux or Bushmills has got the better of the guests � when an old friend wheels his gaze slowly around the dinner table, like a piece of mechanized artillery, until you're staring into his angry muzzle. Out comes a salvo of imprecations about American foreign policy and the United States in general. Call it the George W. Bush-cowboy-Palestine-death-penalty-Enron moment. This is a transatlantic tradition, of course, but there's something discomfiting about hearing such things (as I did recently) from someone who'd called you up from Paris on Sept. 11, 2001, sobbing in solidarity with your country. What happened to that solidarity? The piles of flowers in front of U.S. embassies in every capital, the concerts in Berlin, the Continent-wide three minutes of silence, the invocation of Article V by Europe's NATO members? It all seems very long ago. It was a long time ago. Time heals everything. No sensible person would dewll on a tragedy for eternity. The time has long passed to put 911 behind us and to start to live and behave differently. Everyone in the world except Americans understands this profoundly. Today a majority of French and Russians think America opposes Iraq only as a pretext to seize its oil. Is that a lie? A German Chancellor with an abysmal economic record won re-election by sneering at U.S. arrogance at every whistle stop. That isnt how he won the election. A typically childish American oversimplification. There is no questioning the sincerity of Europe's post-Sept. 11 mourning. But the turnabout since then has been so sudden, so strong and focused that I begin to worry that Europeans oppose America not despite the attacks but because of them. You have not been listening. You have not understood the causes of both 911 and the near universal distaste for America and Americans. This inability to listen, this singular and spectacular failure of imagination is the cause of all Americas "international problems Here's what I mean. For decades, Europeans of all ideologies asked whether the prosperous democracies of the West had become too decadent to defend themselves. Once the U.S. moved to dislodge the terrorist-sponsoring Taliban in Afghanistan, Europe was faced with an ally doing something it would not � could not � have done itself. You should have said "should not". European governments are more careful, thoughtful and considerate of cultural differences than the American government is. The Taleban was a USA creation. Everyone outside America knows this. What is amazing, is that YOU dont know this. It had the choice, then, of whether to consider the U.S. less decadent or less democratic than Europe. It's not hard to see which version is easier on a continent's self-image. The new economy of the 1990s did a lot to set the two continents at cross-purposes. Americans have never developed a critique of globalization, because we haven't suffered either France's rolling strikes or Germany's festering joblessness. With impeccable market logic, European antiglobalists complain that in a global economy that fosters specialization, the U.S. has become the specialist � the monopolist � in the military defense of the West. Monopolies behave as monopolies do, in America's case by polluting disproportionately, throwing its weight around and flouting European norms on such matters as multilateral consultation and the death penalty. And monopolies, even if you happen to like their products, must be broken up for the greater good. What a mish mash of nonsense. The death penalty is an internal US policy problem. Globalization, strikes, unemployment, "terrorism", defense spending...these should really be discussed at length, with care and preferably separately. The American view is that the Europeans are looking a gift horse in the mouth. They get what defense strategist Robert Kagan of the Carnegie Endowment calls "free security," which subsidizes a Continental life of Riley. Defese is fine. What everyone except Americans seems to understand is that defense is different to offense. Attacking Iraq is offensive (in both senses). Provoking Korea because it has withdrawn from the anti-proliferation treaty is offensive (especially when America refuses to sign up to the international court of justice and treaties like Kyoto). The double standards brutally enforced by the Americans are crystal clear to children. That you cannot see them means that you are either deliberatly being stupid, or that you are stupid by accident, or that you have in some way been brainwashed into stupidity. If the Europeans want a larger voice in the defense of the West, let them pay for it, even if it means buying fewer garbage trucks or defibrillators or opera houses. Only an American would say that paying for war is better than paying for Opera houses. Astounding So when Europeans make their impassioned points across the dinner table, Americans tend to doubt they have the will to match their words with actions. Thats because you are blinkered and stupid, insular and backward. But Americans go further. We increasingly take the anti-American stereotypes of postwar Europeans and reverse them. We see ourselves as inhabiting history � doing the ugly, necessary work of the world � while it is the Euros who inhabit a superficial society. This is nonsense. It would be far better for everyone on earth if the 50% of congressmen who do not own passports tried to visit other countries rather than the rather nebulous "inhabiting history". Perhaps then, some of the insular traits would be erased from their ranks. Of course, Americans only eat McDonalds when they go abroad, so its unlikely that these congressmen will get any sort of feeling on a trip to enlighten themselvs. It is incredible that Americans think that they have sufficient insight into the world to bomb other countries when fully HALF of their legislators, the very people who vote for such actions have never left the continental USA. If you dont know this, then you should. If you do know this, but say nothing, you are guilty, and a part of the American problem. Europeans are materialistic; the E.U. has a low profile on strategic issues because it was designed by bureaucrats obsessed with trade and money. Trade is better than war. All enlightened people understand this. All civilized countries practice this philosophy. Europeans care more than we do about physical pleasure; they traffic in titillation (to judge from the nightly offerings on television or such bestsellers as The Sexual Life of Catherine M.) Europeans are not puritanical. They are not prudish like the Americans, who will gladly suck on their mothers breasts for nourishment, but cannot show this act on television. Your puritanical society is violent, repressed and backwards. In the CIA world handbook, the USA is the only country listed as having a danger of rape for visitors. Your free speech and first amendment, which you wave to everyone in the world as an example of how man should live should apply to the program that you watched should it not? Use some logic! and are obsessed with their food (which is, by the way, no longer superior to ours). Now you are dreaming. Pray tell when this eclipse happened? When you looked up from your Big Mac sitting in Paris watching Porn perhaps? And if "heritage," Europe's age-old bragging point, is measured by family traditions and religious values, then Europeans no longer have a lock on it. To American eyes, it's tough to have family traditions in a region where so many choose to be childless (the fertility rate in E.U. countries is 1.47 births per woman), Everyone understands that the birthrate in the world needs to come down if we are going to create a sustainable world economy. Everyone except maybe Americans, who belive that unfettered growth is not only possible but desireable tough to have religious values when less than 20% of Europeans regularly attend church. The obsession with institutions demonsrated by this ignorant and pathetic comment is clear. For your information, just because someone doesnt worship in precisely the same way you do doesnt mean that they are not religious. Relying on statistics like this is a typically American way of experiencing the real world. They use them as a substitute for travel, first hand knowledge and real experience. It would not matter if Americans didnt operate a foreign policy, but sadly, they do, and the consequences are disasterous and deadly. But the heart of the American complaint � again, reversing an old European saw � is that Europeans are naive and provincial. Your president has barely traveled outside of your country. Tony Blair for all his faults, is well travelled, speaks French, and actually worked in France as a young man. The president of Russia speaks fluent German. The president of Germany speaks fluent english, as do most European leaders. Europeans, are absolutely NOT "provincial" and in fact are working practically to permanently erase the borders, both real and imaginary, between all european states. This is hardly the behaviour of insluar "provincial" people. Another loud, childish and idiotic tit for tat statement. Utterly useless. It is easy enough to browbeat Americans about the flimsy coverage the E.U. gets in U.S. dailies. But where does European interest in the world rise above the dilettantish? When has the E.U. come up with a workable plan for Iraq? There is no need for a "workable plan for Iraq". After having armed Iraq to the teeth, America wants everyone to join in smashing this already shattered country, a "monster" that America created for its own ends (Raytheon & co selling arms). For the Middle East? For North Korea? North Korea? You dear sir, do NOT set the agenda by simply naming countries that you know absolutely nothing about, and that your President cannot even find on a map. Europeans will not be drawn into your ignorant and inflamatory nonsense. After the carnage of two world wars, the European distrust of power politics is something for which we have reason to be grateful. The problem is that postwar Europeans think their strategic differences with America are the product not of a specific historic experience but of a new, higher morality. Actually, Europeans have tasted devastating war, twice, ON THE GROUND. America has never tasted war in this way. They have always brought war to other countries, and then bombed them into oblivion from the air. Perhaps if you had some real world experience of total war, you would not be so eager to wage it or deride others for being cautious before in engaging in it. And that is what George Bernard Shaw was talking about when he defined a barbarian as one who mistakes the customs of his tribe for the laws of nature. Q.E.D. Your customs of religious practice are not the laws of nature. Your constitution is not a law of nature. Your puritanical society is not a law of nature. War as the only solutoin to international problems is not a law of nature. You are a perfect examlple of the problems we in the civilized world face today. Christopher Caldwell reports from Europe for the Weekly Standard, a U.S. opinion magazine, where he is a senior editor. Time

Citzenship Renouncer to Burn Flag in Protest if US Attacks Iraq

From: Kenneth Nichols O�Keefe http://educate-yourself.org/cn/kennicholsflagburn3oct02.shtml October 3, 2002 For Immediate Release As a result of the continuing revolutionary actions that directly confront the United States and its policies of war, Mr. Kenneth Nichols O�Keefe is receiving increasing interest and invitations to express his alternative approach. He has publicly announced his intent to burn a US Flag before the US Consulate in Amsterdam if/when the US begins the invasion of Iraq. Former US Marine O�Keefe has already burned his US passport and has proven himself to be a victim of human experiments at the hands of the US Military during the Gulf War. He has called the CIA the "greatest terrorist organization of the 20th & 21st Centuries" and called for the CIA�s immediate abolishment. Additionally, he has publicly declared in his July 1, 2002 International Notice, his intention to bring formal charges against the US for �Crimes against Humanity� for its use of Depleted Uranium in Iraq, but it is the burning of a US Flag that is sure to bring even more notoriety, both of praise and anger. O�Keefe is now confronting the Dutch Government through his latest International Notice of September 30, 2002, which has been legally served to the Dutch Minister of Justice and Foreign Affairs. In this notice O�Keefe challenges the Dutch Government to defend its "injurious position which regards me as a US citizen." Specifically O�Keefe has been issued a Dutch ID (which he is required to carry as a Political Asylum seeker) that lists him as a US citizen. He says that if nation/states such as the US or Holland define him than the right of "Self Determination" does not exist. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights � Article 1 �All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.� O�Keefe believes that exposing the hypocrisy of nation/states and their governments their routine denial of human rights is an essential step towards a just and peaceful world. "Nations have obligated themselves to honor human rights by lawfully entering into human rights treaties such as the pre-eminent Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the time has long since come to confront the hostile actions of these governments and demand a stop to it right now. In order to reject war we must also attack those who deny human rights, that is exactly what I intend to do by my actions." Universal Declaration of Human Rights � Preamble �Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, �Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,�� O�Keefe is currently demanding that the Dutch Government honor his human right to "Self Determination" and legally acknowledge his status as a Stateless "World Citizen" by issuing a new Dutch ID. Furthermore, at the invitation of the Stop The War Brigade, the German Peace Council, and the Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation O�Keefe will be traveling to Berlin to speak at an event entitled "AMERICAN WAR--WITNESS ACCOUNTS ABOUT RESISTANCE IN THE US ARMY FROM THE VIETNAM WAR UNTIL TODAY." He expects to enter Germany without need to present his newly acquired World Citizen passport which has been issued to over 350,000 people world wide and accepted by over 150 nations (information at www.worldgovernment.org), but he intends to force the Dutch Government to honor his right to travel by intentionally demanding official reentry into Holland as a lawfully registered asylum seeker. Geneva Convention on Refugees - Article 27 & 28 (Identity Papers, Travel Documents) �Article 27 - The Contracting States shall issue identity papers to any refugee in their territory who does not possess a valid travel document.� �Article 28 - The Contracting States shall issue to refugees lawfully staying in their territory travel documents for the purpose of travel outside their territory, unless compelling reasons of national security or public order otherwise require,� O�Keefe is openly inviting media agents to accompany him upon reentering Holland from Germany. It is highly possible, he says, that the Dutch authorities will deny him the right to reenter and thereby reject his Political Asylum application based on his leaving Holland to attend the peace demonstration in Berlin. "I have been told directly by Dutch Agents that I do not have the right to travel. If they reject my rights we will have a legitimate international incident with serious consequences. If however they honor my new passport and my human right to travel we will also have a major event in support of human rights with broad implications. For those who choose world citizenship/allegiance instead of nation/state citizenship/allegiance travel rights will be affirmed and the flood gates to world citizenship registry may open. What I am doing is a direct challenge to the authority of all nation/states who currently deny human rights by arbitrarily demanding nation/! state allegiance via passports and citizenship. What I will be exposing, one way or the other, is that nation/states cannot have it both ways, either you honor essential human rights, or you do not." Contact Note October 5th Amsterdam: At the invitation of event organizers O�Keefe will be a participant in an event sponsored by Vrij Nederland called "happy Chaos!" (www.happychaos.nl � in Dutch). The October 5th event in Amsterdam will include politicians, journalists, NGO representatives, activists and more. O�Keefe has been asked to deliver a short speech to begin a debate with the title of "War of the Worlds: Europe vs America." Among those in the debate will be a Dutch General (Adriaan van Vuren), notable journalist (Willem Oltmans) and several others. Those of you who know O�Keefe will know that he will not be holding back and it is sure to be a very "lively" debate indeed.
Release 1.2.5 of Celestia is finally ready. The new release includes a lot of bug fixes and some major new features. Linux users should be pleased with the new KDE interface (though the Gnome interface is still there, and even has bug fixes.) In 1.2.5 comet tails are rendered, so you can see striking views of Hale-Bopp in 1997 and other famous comet encounters. The accuracy of Celestia has improved dramatically. It's possible now to watch the moons of Jupiter eclipse each other, follow the Voyager spacecraft on their grand tours of the solar system, and see the eclipse of Xerxes in 479 B.C.E.

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

Will someone please DivX this prog?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New Documentary �The Secret� To Air On The Discovery Channel in Canada January 16th, 2003. Provides Evidence for Government Cover-up of Extraterrestrials � Further Exposing the Top Secret Operation Majestic 12 Broomfield, CO January 12, 2003- Wood & Wood LLC announces that �The Secret: Evidence We Are Not Alone� has been licensed to Discovery Channel Canada and will be aired January 16th throughout Canada. Check your local TV guide listings. For those in the US no specific licensing agreement has been concluded yet. When we know the date and time of a US or other foreign country airing we will post it to our website at www.majesticdocuments.com and send out a specific press release. The program was produced by the father and son team of Robert and Ryan Wood, edited by iO Productions of Los Angeles (www.ioproductions.com), and syndicated with Cinamour Entertainment (www.cinamour.com). After over two years in development, the one-hour documentary will be available for further licensing at the National Association of Television Program Executives (www.natpe.org) trade show January 20-23, 2003 in New Orleans. "We are excited about The Secret because of its unique perspective in the UFO genre. Besides being an outstanding documentary, the program covers new ground with a hard look at the Majestic 12 documents and their authenticity from multiple expert perspectives," said Ryan Wood, Executive Producer. The Secret presents the story of how "leaked" government documents prove that the United States has been recovering crashed unidentified flying objects, often known as flying saucers, since 1941, and has been successful in keeping this information from the public. These documents have been examined using forensic techniques and are declared genuine by those who examine the subtleties of paper, ink age, watermark, type fonts, classification stamps and markings. The central basis of the show is the content of the documents and the amazing story they tell � a different approach. The public is hungry for genuine UFO information, and they are not getting it from the governments of the world. This program is not a rehash of the old Roswell crash scenarios, providing evidence that the first U.S. crash was in Missouri in 1941. A short interview with one of the principal sources of this Missouri crash retrieval can be viewed at: www.majesticdocuments.com/documentary.html Not only does this show have some distinguished advocates taking compelling supportive positions, such as Astronaut Ed Mitchell, and researchers Stanton Friedman, Timothy Good, and Michael Lindemann, but some dissenting views are included from skeptical corners. "Despite the general lack of top tier television coverage by the major broadcast corporations of America about credible stories concerning the UFO phenomenon, it is not that way in the rest of the world. Lead stories in Europe, Asia, and South America often have clear credible witnesses, visuals and military participation," said Ryan Wood, Executive Producer R Y A N S W O O D & D R. R O B E R T M W O O D Majestic Document Investigators For More Information Contact: Ryan S. Wood Phone: 720-887-8171 E-mail: rswood@majesticdocuments.com Or mail to: 14004 Quail Ridge Drive, Broomfield, CO 80020
PRIVACY INTERNATIONAL MEDIA RELEASE MASSIVE BACKLASH AGAINST GOVERNMENT IDENTITY CARD PROPOSALS 14th January 2003 For immediate release The government's plan to introduce a national ID card suffered a setback today with the release of figures indicating a surge of opposition to the proposals. A series of "consultation response initiatives" by Privacy International and the campaign group STAND have attracted more than 2,700 responses to the consultation since last Friday afternoon, nearly all in opposition to an ID card. Yesterday, January 13th, more than 1,200 consultation responses were forwarded by the organisations by email to the Home Office Entitlement Cards Unit yesterday. By 3PM, responses sent through the stand.org.uk portal were being clocked at around six per minute. Downing Street claimed on December 11th a 2-1 majority public support for the initiative. This figure was drawn from an analysis of the 1,500 consultation responses received by that point. Based on the new figures, the current support rate has dropped to less than 25 per cent. The figures are likely to surge further with today's launch of Privacy International's "phone to email" service. Privacy International has set up two local rate numbers. In favour of the ID Card: 0845 330 7245, against the ID Card: 0845 330 7246. Each message left on these lines will be converted to an audio file, and then emailed to the Home Office. In an unprecedented decision, the government confirmed last week that these audio files will be regarded as legitimate consultation responses. "This is an unequivocal vote against the government", said PI's director, Simon Davies. "People are learning at the eleventh hour why this proposal is so dangerous. Public support for the ID card is dropping by more than one percent per hour." "The government has failed to establish a convincing case for the card. The consultation has been a sham from the word go". "An ID card is costly, dangerous and unnecessary. Many of the responses reflect this view. Many also complain about the sheer arrogance of government in the way it has managed the consultation". Mr Davies also strongly criticised the Office of the Information Commissioner, which has organised an invitation-only conference tomorrow (Wednesday) at which the Home Secretary will speak on ID cards. Privacy International has been prevented by the regulator from distributing relevant printed material at the meeting. "I am not sure we can rely on the Information Commissioner's office to guard our rights when they are compromised by an identity card. It appears in this instance that they have a cosy relationship with the Home Office." "It is disgraceful that a civil liberties group should be censored in this way by the official responsible for freedom of information", he added. Privacy International has predicted a total of 10,000 negative consultation responses by the end of January, at which time the consultation closes. _______________ Simon Davies can be reached for comment at 07958 466 552
http://www.chez.com/lesovnis/htm/vidmil.htm

Sunday, January 12, 2003

http://www.davidsuzuki.org
How many people here feel completely helpless and depressed about this? Sometimes I do, Barrie. They have cut a lot of trees down in BC, the last time I flew up North, I was appalled. When you fly over the mountains, you see the odd clear cut, but as you fly farther north, it is the untouched land that becomes sparse. For miles, it is barren. You can't tell me that taking down that many trees en masse does not affect the ecosystem (or should we just say Alberta, to be direct about it). "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard You know, of course, us tree-lovin' BC hippies, we talk a lot about such things, one of my friends says this: "Think of the Earth as a 45-year-old woman. She didn't have an ocean until she was 10 years old, and her ozone layer didn't mature until she was at least 25. She gave birth to her first multi-celled organisms when she was 30, and in her early 40's, there were fish, and lizards, and little furry animals. Humans, well humans showed up just last week." My point being, Earth has been around, I don't worry about her. When she gets tired of us messing things up, she'll shake us off her back, and tidy the place up for the next round.

Saturday, January 11, 2003

http://www.pierre-gagnaire.com/
Into the final days of the government's Great ID Card Consultation - and the Home Office couldn't be more excited. Lord Falconer continues to tell everyone who'll listen that over 1500 people have responded, and the majority of them were extremely positive on the idea. Now, given that they're proposing a massive IT project to introduce a universal identifier for all citizens, with a centralised database of personal details, kept accurate by making a new crime of withholding your current address from the government - well, we can't help but think that more people would a bit squeamish on the principle. And maybe they were. DAN BLANCHARD described what happened when he mailed the HO saying that he didn't think ID cards were necessary. Back came the reply from the Home Office: "Thank you for your e-mail of 13th December in support of the introduction of an entitlement/identity card scheme." Now, we're not saying that something fishy is going on here. Although, obviously, yes we are *implying* it. So to double-check the government, and test the accuracy of the Lord Falconometer, the STAND folk have set up an easy-to-use web form for those wanting to express their discontent (mild or otherwise) with the Entitlement Card scheme. STAND'll keep count of the number of contributions (in a giant, centralised database of biometric - nah, just kidding), and then compare that to the results that come from Lord Falconer next time. We're hoping to get close to the 1500 entries already noted, perhaps even top it (that's only about 0.1 of a slashdotting after all). Because if the government can't even keep their database of an simple e-mail consultation straight, maybe they shouldn't be trusted with a universal database after all. http://www.stand.org.uk/ - slashdot the vote! http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/28783.html - remember that Minority Report/ Demolition Man workaround

Friday, January 10, 2003

CAMEROON: VACCINATION AND POLITICS, The Lancet, May 16, 1992: The World Health Organization's 1991 Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) campaign in the West African nation of Cameroon came under criticism by groups who suspected that the vaccination campaign was unusual in that it targeted only females of childbearing age for immunisation against tetanus, despite their low risk for the illness compared to farmers who were not vaccinated. A group called The World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life claimed that they "found a sterilising agent in the vaccine" and acknowledged "a rumour that a local brewery had put sterilising chemicals in one of its popular beers, the target this time being the male population -- a complete conspiracy." Now, will someone with access to back issuses of The Lancet confirm this please. That means you Alun!!
That is so cool, Alex. All I want is a new router because mine keeps crashing!!!! Do you ever have those days when everything technical just explodes? This is my day today ... And belated happy new year to everyone!

Wednesday, January 08, 2003

New burger joints comin' to a town near you: MeccaDonalds™ Burka-King™
Mecca Cola "Two million bottles have been sold since it was launched two months ago in France and orders are pouring in from around the world. "I got faxes last night from China and Australia and we've got many deals in North Africa," said Tawfik Mathlouthi, a French radio journalist who founded the Mecca Cola company. "People are thirsty for a way to stand up to American hypocrisy." In the heavily Muslim northern districts of Paris Mecca Cola is sold for �1.05 per 1.5 litre bottle, about the same as Coke. It is gradually penetrating the mainstream supermarkets. M Mathlouthi has orders for 11 million bottles and is building his own manufacturing and bottling plant near Paris. "I had the idea in the shower one day," he said. "What is the point in complaining about America all the time if you then go out and help its economy by buying American products? I felt it was time to give people a choice not to buy American goods and cola is a symbol of American economic power." Other firms in the Middle East have tried creating different cola drinks, he said, notably Iran's Zam Zam Cola. But none has turned its drink into a political weapon. "Mecca Cola is not just a drink," said M Mathlouthi. "It is an act of protest against Bush and Rumsfeld and their policies." " The Telegraph
Snow we have...1PM today Battersea Park:
http://www.sidsyn.com/indexe.htm

Dilemma!

Tuesday, January 07, 2003

"The next big thing from Apple: The new 17-inch PowerBook G4. Featuring the largest, most spectacular display ever to grace a portable, miraculously engineered into a 1-inch-thin notebook that�s ultralight (just 6.8 pounds), ultradesirable � and starts at $3299" Beyond belief. And it runs ships with UNIX. Am I dreaming??
Tea Break. During the holidays, we stayed on a vinyard in the middle of nowhere in France. Wether anywhere in France can be considered "nowhere" is another quesition. There was an 18 year old there, who got Missy Elliot's new CD. I got the new Aqualung CD. Both delivered by Santa. Something interesting was observed by all. The Missy CD sounded like it was "made for an 18 year old" it was loud, "phanky", "nayaste", and made you stop thinking, and reflecting, and start reacting. It worked best loud, sounded fresh. The Aqualung CD however, was comletely different. It sounded deeply reflective, brought you into its space without tying up your mind or body, and , most interestingly, was unnaceptable to the 18 year old. The olders in the group could accept, embrace and enjoy both CDs; most found the Missy enjoyable, and slightly amusing. The Aqualung was found to be very pleasant, but did not withstand more than one play in a day..."not in the holiday spirit" was the vote. Other things played constantly: Ravi Shankar, Live at Radio France 1986, Ocora Radio France, Harmonia Mundi, c558674 hm83. Dollar Brand "African Piano", 1968, ECM Various Bach, Motzart, Couperin, Tibeten chants, Ragas, Cuban sounds, and LOTS of Dub: Mad Professor, Perry, Pablo, Scientist et al. No "Music Francaise".