Monday, January 31, 2005

Dreams are for those who sleep

Dream On America - The American Dream is no longer the a global fantasy but a global myth by Andrew Moravcsik

The U.S. Model: For years, much of the world did aspire to the American way of life. But today countries are finding more appealing systems in their own backyards.

Not long ago, the American dream was a global fantasy. Not only Americans saw themselves as a beacon unto nations. So did much of the rest of the world. East Europeans tuned into Radio Free Europe. Chinese students erected a replica of the Statue of Liberty in Tiananmen Square.

You had only to listen to George W. Bush's Inaugural Address last week (invoking "freedom" and "liberty" 49 times) to appreciate just how deeply Americans still believe in this founding myth. For many in the world, the president's rhetoric confirmed their worst fears of an imperial America relentlessly pursuing its narrow national interests. But the greater danger may be a delusional America—one that believes, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the American Dream lives on, that America remains a model for the world, one whose mission is to spread the word.

The gulf between how Americans view themselves and how the world views them was summed up in a poll last week by the BBC. Fully 71 percent of Americans see the United States as a source of good in the world. More than half view Bush's election as positive for global security. Other studies report that 70 percent have faith in their domestic institutions and nearly 80 percent believe "American ideas and customs" should spread globally.

Foreigners take an entirely different view: 58 percent in the BBC poll see Bush's re-election as a threat to world peace. Among America's traditional allies, the figure is strikingly higher: 77 percent in Germany, 64 percent in Britain and 82 percent in Turkey. Among the 1.3 billion members of the Islamic world, public support for the United States is measured in single digits. Only Poland, the Philippines and India viewed Bush's second Inaugural positively.

[...]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6857387/site/newsweek/

from MSNBC yet....

Pincer of the Tenebrae

In addition, a new offence of "economic damage" through campaign of intimidation will be added to the serious organised crime and police bill in the Commons. [...] http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1402399,00.html Fill in the blanks.

I gasp at the genius of Meau

Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right To Bear Arms That was PURE EVIL GENIUS!! A triplet dontchaknow....

While the Iron is Hot

Draconian law abidiing (what the sheep do) Totalitarian State dinner (where the sheeps blood is drunk)

Topical Triplets

The Great Divide and Rule

Sunday, January 30, 2005

The only example you need

"Tukwila, Washington firefighter, Philip Scott Lyons found out the hard way that supermarket loyalty cards come with a huge price. Lyons was arrested last August and charged with attempted arson. Police alleged at the time that Lyons tried to set fire to his own house while his wife and children were inside. According to KOMO-TV and the Seattle Times, a major piece of evidence used against Lyons in his arrest was the record of his supermarket purchases that he made with his Safeway Club Card. Police investigators had discovered that his Club Card was used to buy fire starters of the same type used in the arson attempt. For Lyons, the story did have a happy ending. All charges were dropped against him in January 2005 because another person stepped forward saying he or she set the fire and not Lyons." http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/29/030223&tid=158&tid=187 Now. Imagine that you are a vicious person, that borrowed someones card to purchase a list of goods that would be used in a crime. You use the tools in your crime, leave them at the scene, and then deposit a small part of the swag at the home of the person whose card you have borrowed. The purchace evidence would point to the person who you are trying to frame, and some of the stolen goods would be in that persons house. It would be an open and shut case. Now replace the supermarket card with a card which everyone implicitly trusts as being tied to the owner of the card, since it is ubitquitous, issued by the government and cumpulsory: your National ID Card. This is going to happen again and again, in convoluted scenarios that we cannot even begin to conjure up, on small scales and large scales, in matters of life and death and matters trivial. As soon as you accept this card, or any card like it, you are open to an attack like this. That poor fireman (incredible; a fireman being charged with ARSON due to a loyalty card!) had his life ruined for no good reason; the whole thing would not have happened if he did not use a supermarket loyalty card. I am sure that he would have paid the equivalent of all of the savings he made in order to 'get off the hook'. This is what you need to think about. It is what everyone who has not yet done so needs to think about.

Friday, January 28, 2005

FOIA releases no surprise at all.

UK's Ministry Of Defense UFO Files Released By Robert Verkaik The Independent - UK 1-22-5
They contain Britain's very own X-Files: thousands of classified documents detailing credible observations of unidentified flying objects reported by RAF personnel, British Airways pilots and senior police officers
http://www.rense.com/general62/dm.htm

Here is the money

You ask for money? Here it is:

Puzzling "UFO coin" (front) Rare coin researchers still don't know if the object depicted on this 17th century French coin (jeton) is some kind of UFO or a representation of the Biblical Ezekiel's wheel. Uploaded: Jan 27, 2005 File Name: UFO_coin_(front).JPG

Back side of "UFO coin" The "tail's side" of the mysterious UFO coin made in the 1680s in France depicts rain falling. Uploaded: Jan 27, 2005 File Name: UFO_coin_(back).JPG

Centuries' Old UFO Coin Remains Mystery

An unidentified flying object on a 17th century French coin continues to mystify rare coin experts.

Colorado Springs, CO (PRWEB) January 28, 2005 -- After decades of seeking possible answers about a mysterious UFO-like design on a 17th century French copper coin, a prominent numismatic expert says it remains just that: an unidentified flying object. After a half-century of research, the design has defied positive identification by the numismatic community. "It was made in the 1680s in France and the design on one side certainly looks like it could be a flying saucer in the clouds over the countryside," said Kenneth E. Bressett of Colorado Springs, Colorado, a former President of the 32,000-member American Numismatic Association and owner of the curious coin. "Is it supposed to be a UFO of some sort, or a symbolic representation of the Biblical Ezekiel's wheel? After 50 years of searching, I've heard of only one other example of it, and nothing to explain the unusual design." Bressett said the mysterious piece is not really a coin, but a "jeton," a coin-like educational tool that was commonly used to help people count money, or sometimes used as a money substitute for playing games. It is about the size of a U.S. quarter-dollar and similar to thousands of other jetons with different religious and educational designs that were produced and used in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. "The design on this particular piece could be interpreted as showing either a UFO or Ezekiel's wheel, but little else. Some people think the Old Testament reference to Ezekiel's wheel may actually be a description of a long-ago UFO," he explained. "The legend written in Latin around the rim is also mystifying. 'OPPORTUNUS ADEST' translates as 'It is here at an opportune time.' Is the object in the sky symbolic of needed rainfall, or a Biblical reference or visitors from beyond? We probably will never know for certain," said Bressett. "It is part of the lure of numismatics that makes coin collecting so intriguing."

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/1/emw202359.htm

A9's new tool

One of my favourite shops: http://www.amazon.com/gp/yp/B000353HGG/102-7685575-9644105? Now you can visit the store fronts of NYC without going there... 'Travelling without moving'

ray gun

Bakelite Ray Gun.

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Bach Gamut

Marshall Yaeger invented the Kaleidoplex Light Organ, the Kaleidoplex Light Organ [...]an optical projector to accompany live music improvisatorially. Whereas the common kaleidoscope (invented in 1816 by Sir David Brewster) divides an image into 6-12 "slices," the Kaleidoplex fragments an image into no less than 64 segments, and sometimes as many as 4,096 images, all traveling in different directions, “fractalizing” the music.[...] He was fond of organ music, wrote the definitive biography of organist Virgil Fox, and put out a DVD of Fox playing Bach along with images from his Kaleidoplex Light Organ. You can view a clip here. Once the photogrpahs begin to come on, a couple of minutes in, it gets pretty good. Oh, and I do love the sound of those organ bass notes distorting on my computer headphones.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Why I used to hate the mac philosophy

The image “http://homepage.mac.com/mbishop/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2005-01-26%2000.14.55%20-0800/Image-04EE3F496F7111D9.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors. This advert is the perfect example of why I used to hate the Apple philosophy. A philosophy that said, "You are too dumb to learn and thats OK". Apple was a company that use to sell computers whose selling point was that you didnt have to learn in order to use them. In fact, this advert and many others made a virtue out of not having to learn. This was coming from a company that was selling itself as the makers of the best computers for education. Apalling and anti human in equal measure. Humans love to learn, they love challenges, they aspire, they collect knowledge - this is what is special about them. The Apple Macintosh was a tool that kept the user dumb; anathema to anyone with human curiosity about how things work. Now of course, the anti learning OS that MacOS was has been completely dumped for a real OS, UNIX, 'arcane' command line and all, and lo and behold, its the best operating system ever, for the dumbest of the dumb and the higest of high evolutionaries and all in between. You can 'just do your work' like the Apple devotees use to bleat, AND you can run Ruby (almost) straight out of the box; its the best of both worlds, and a miracle that Apple had the guts and foresight to completely abandon their previous OS for a completely fresh start. This is what sold me on Apple, and having finally bought one, it has performed as expected over the year that I have been runnning it. Perffectly. I just had an uptime of 38 days, the restart due only to software update. It never fails. You can get into an uninterupted workflow with it....you know the rest. http://homepage.mac.com/mbishop/PhotoAlbum30.html That caused this.

diffficulter than I thought

not really triplets but, masquerade ball & chain episode guide dog doorman hunt refugee whiz cocktail wind liberal cause for alarm clear as a bell curve Jimmy Page boy Rod Laver camp Alfred North Whitehead case lumbar support group new world order out glass ceiling fan stairmaster race treadmill worker's daughter sitting duck sauce drive-in the doldrums under the weather report welcome back handed compliment crocodile Tears For Fears long in the tooth fairy code red light district by one's self-oscillation helicopter crash at your pad

grasping ...

Four Ever Rainbow Connection Bikini wax poetic French manicure all Goldfrappuccino

An Amazing Photolog

http://fotologue.jp/ashiato/ Fat!

scratch scratch scratch!!!

Barbecue Bob James and as for 'New Labour Camp' that should have read: New Labour Camp (Belmarsh) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The end, ....

The occult Bush family 'dossier' "Adolf Hitler was obsessed with the occult, in his case the Thule Society, closely inter-connected with German Theosophists. The jolly roger, skull and cross bones, "der Totenkopf" was an emblem worn by Hitler's SS soldiers and was emblazoned on SS armoured cars and tanks (see images on this page). The SS was a religious cult of sworn Hitler/German ancestor worship. If the Nazis' occult lodges had been exposed then shut down, not treated as a taboo, millions of lives could have been saved. A small price to pay for insane racism and the blood of millions of people. The second world war need never have happened. Unless you want the occult fuelling a totalitarian West's Third World War 'on terror' and their 'New World Order' - please - do your bit to expose George W. Bush, the bonesmen and other interconnected lodges round the world. " [...]

Feel it curdle

Get The BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!

For Heaven's Sake Dont Let That Out!!!!!!!!

Satan Displays Bush 'Hook 'em' Hand Gesture; Is The Devil a UT Fan Too?

Prison Planet | January 22 2005

Since our feature on the use of the Satanic hand gesture during the inauguration we have received a massive volume of E mail.

We have received E mail from people claiming that the signal is sign language for 'I love you'. This is only true in the case of the thumb being extended outward (see here). As you can see from the Bush family photos, in no instance is the thumb extended outward.

Additionally, people still seem to think the signal is solely the 'hook 'em horns' UT symbol. We know this to be true but this doesn't answer our primary questions.

1) If the symbol denotes Texas football or UT, why are people like Silvio Berlusconi and Bill Clinton doing it too? They have no links with Texas.

2) Why are the Bush family so obsessed with the signal, displaying it dozens of times during both the inauguration an the evening ball? A few times maybe we could accept, but why this many? What has Texas sports got do with a national inauguration?

We have now uncovered photos where the gesture is used in a clearly Satanic context.

This is an album cover by the rock band Dio. The album is called Holy Diver. Dio's singer is former Black Sabbath frontman Ronnie James. The Satan character is clearly displaying the same hand signal. Is he a fan of the Texas Longhorns too?

This is a photo of an apparent Satanic ritual. We are yet to find the source. The diablo symbol is clear again.

WOW - even King Abdullah and Putty Pute are fans, everybody's doing it! Go Long Horns!

After we broke our first story, the Associated Press released an article discussing how Europeans were shocked at the Satanic hand signals.

[...]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2005/210105devilhand.htm

YOU SEE!!!!

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

I've got the itch

cock sucker punch half life saver frame rate cap head of david blunkett charles clarke bar claire sweeny todd electric sheep dip dry ice maiden juan carlos the jackal Hmmm Dr. K; does your list include all the Irdial-List triplets? Some of them still crack me up!

What an incredible tool this is..

Sounds 1-5 of 5 labelled "grebe"
1.Comparisonics Waveform Display
Download and Play This Sound http://www.kwic.com/~pagodavista/grebe.wav bird: grebe 67k, mono, 8-bit, 22050 Hz, 6.2 seconds (show page | e-mail this sound)
2.Comparisonics Waveform Display
Download and Play This Sound http://www.hindinest.com/bachpan/pakshi/grebe.wav bird: grebe 67k, mono, 8-bit, 22050 Hz, 6.2 seconds (show page | e-mail this sound)
FindSounds.com is only the appetizer. Click here for the entree!
3.Comparisonics Waveform Display
Download and Play This Sound http://www.originalbirdart.com/sounds/grebe.wav bird: grebe 100k, stereo, 8-bit, 22050 Hz, 2.3 seconds (show page | e-mail this sound)
4.Comparisonics Waveform Display
Download and Play This Sound http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/jblincow/sound/lgrebe1.wav bird: little grebe 115k, mono, 8-bit, 22050 Hz, 5.3 seconds (show page | e-mail this sound)
5.Comparisonics Waveform Display
Download and Play This Sound http://www.kepu.ac.cn/english/animal/concert/wav/cnt107.wav bird: little grebe 948k, stereo, 16-bit, 44100 Hz, 5.5 seconds (show page | e-mail this sound)
WOW. And check out the waveforms from each sound displayed in the list. http://www.findsounds.com/types.html

Monday, January 24, 2005

new scrob op

The new 'Weekly Chart' function on Audioscrobbler, is quite nice, as it saves recently played music from getting buried in larger profiles. Another neat data input/output manipulation turned browsing method. Has any blogdialian ever learned anything from their Audioscrobbled recommendation lists?

The comprehensive list

I wonder if this book contains these: Vengeful Angel Boson Arrow Covalent Epsilon Sleeping Photon Bamboo Discus Alto Origami

Talk is cheap.

Not In Our Name STATEMENTS OF CONSCIENCE AGAINST WAR AND REPRESSION

"No election, whether fair or fraudulent, can legitimize criminal wars on foreign countries, torture, the wholesale violation of human rights, and the end of science and reason." --from the new Not In Our Name statement

The new Not in Our Name statement of conscience, opposing the domestic and international agenda of the Bush government, finally appeared in the Times on Sunday, January 23.

The statement was signed by nationally known figures in the arts, academia and politics including Russell Banks, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, Eve Ensler, Andre Gregory, Bill T. Jones, Barbara Kingsolver, Congressman Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), Walter Mosley, James Stewart Polshek, Francine Prose, Wallace Shawn, Alice Walker, Cornel West, and Howard Zinn.

Now the challenge is to get the statement published everywhere across the country, read on local radio stations, and posted on web sites. [...]

http://www.nion.us/

This is all bullshit.

Unless they are willing to 'AC' their problem, they are just rubbing calomine lotion on a gunshot wound, its more feelgood factor nonsense. Prozac Politics.

If thats the best these idiots can come up with, we had all better join the fascists.

Secret Language

Codebreaker unlocks the 3,000 secrets of US military vocabulary By Rupert Cornwell in Washington 24 January 2005 If you had heard of "Power Geyser", "Titrant Ranger", "Toychest" or "Barracuda" before today, you were privy to the innermost workings of the US defence establishment. Now, however, those secrets are being exposed to general scrutiny for the first time. In a remarkable book to be published this week, William Arkin, a former intelligence officer and analyst, lists and defines 3,000 codenames for military and national security plans past and present, several of them involving Britain and many of them still classified. "Project 19" is about the defence of Taiwan against an attack by China. "Beady Eye", "Barracuda", "Soothsayer", "Delphin", "Pinemartin" and "Odette" are among the 13 codenames listed by Mr Arkin for British intelligence operations related to the "war on terror". Mr Arkin, a campaigner for greater government disclosure, says the 600-page Codenames is intended as a "DNA map of American national security". "Titrant Ranger" apparently refers to a top-secret counter-terrorism unit once engaged in the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Among other titbits in the book are "Sites 51 to 56", said to be secret US bases in Israel. "Toychest" was the plan for the deployment of US nuclear weapons in the Netherlands. Similar plans existed for Germany ("Tool Chest") and Italy ("Stone Ax"). The book may even resolve the mystery of the "secret undisclosed location" of Vice-President Dick Cheney after the 11 September attacks. "Site R" a granite mountain shelter 50 miles north of Washington, was built in the 1950s to withstand a Soviet nuclear attack. [...]

Friday, January 21, 2005

Its Refreshing!

Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 04:14:46 -0100 (GMT)
From: anakata
To: Peter Pehrson - enya.com 
Subject: Re: For your information

On Wed, 22 Dec 2004, Peter Pehrson - enya.com wrote:

> Fredrik Neij
> PRQ Inet / SE 969700-4027
> Box 1206, SE 11479 Stockholm, Sweden
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> FOR YOUR INFORMATION
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Dear Fredrik Neij,
>
> it has come to our attention that a number of our works and trade marks now
> appear on your own website.
>
>
> http://thepiratebay.org/torrents-details.php?id=3215747
>  &hit=1
> Enya A Box Of Dreams - 886 transfers
>
> http://thepiratebay.org/torrents-details.php?id=3252776
>  &hit=1
> Enya - The Celts - 291 transfers
>
> http://thepiratebay.org/torrents-details.php?id=3252777
>  &hit=1
> Enya - Watermark - 316 transfers
>
> http://thepiratebay.org/torrents-details.php?id=3230233
>  &hit=1
> Enya - The Celts - 386 transfers
>
> As these albums are under Copyright and no EU or Swedish law allows
> unauthorized distribution of this ripped music, you are in violation of our
> Copyright.
>
> You are additionally in violation of Swedish and EU law as you are violating
> our Trade Mark by listing Trade Mark protected names (protected under
> Swedish law) on your web page without permission.
>
> You have 72 hours to completely remove the above links.
>
> After this you will receive 1 (ONE) legal note from GrayZone. You will
> receive no further notices.
>
> Also please note that making this email public or ridiculing it will result
> in immediate legal action and we are also contacting RipeNCC for suspension.
>
>
> Regards
> Peter Pehrson
> aigle music / warner music international

Dear whatever-you-are,
thank you for providing us and our users with such great entertainment.
I'm not talking about Enya (hey, Enya fucking sucks), but instead of your
nonsensical email.

You have
- confused us with our ISP
- no knowledge whatsoever about BitTorrent
- no knowledge whatsoever of the appliciable laws (trademark or copyright)
- made very entertaining threats (hey, go ahead and contact RIPE NCC,
please, I beg you)

You have scored 10 out of 10 points on our Legal Threats Entertainment
scale. You win the grand prize: A lifetime of ridicule on our legal
threats section (http://static.thepiratebay.org/legal/) !
Congratulations!

Please also note that I'm not currently out of toilet paper, so you may
wait a while before sending legal papers.

> ================================================
> CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:  This e-mail message, and any attachments thereto,
> is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain legally
> privileged and/or confidential information. Any unauthorized review, use,
> disclosure or distribution is strictly prohibited. If you are not the
> intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and permanently
> delete all copies of the original message.
> ================================================
>

Yeah, right...

Fuck?

I find "FUCK" far more satisfying. I think you will find that 'The Mastery of Money' is most rewarding.

Exeem Spreads Like Wildfire.

Exeem is spreading like wildfire; it will have millions of users. Lets see if the eXeem links work: Kylie_Minogue_no_underwear_clip.mpg Looks like it does!

Exeem Lite is launched!

Exeem has been pipped at the post byExeem Lite, which has gone online BEFORE the release of Suprnova's Exeem!!! This version is 'a spyware free version of eXeem'. Hmmmmmmmmm!!!!

Unmissable Hafler Trio Works

I have never owned a Hafler Trio recording. 'Masterbatorium' is a must have masterpiece. 'A Thirsty Fish', 'A Loud Egg' and 'The Mastery Of Money' are also worth listening to again and again. And again. And remember: Reading about music is like dancing about painting. 'With print you substitute an ear for an extra, useless eye' Simple directions are all you need to get to a destination. Capiche?!

hafler output

This happens to be my favorite Hafler Trio sound-set. When I first heard it, it did a lot to solidify my interests in steady-noise-ambiences where the listener was as much the creator as the creator was the listener. I had read John Cage, sure, but this was contemporary music!! I had no knowledge of the Hafler Trio myths when I first listened, it was just a CD, and it probably marked some of the first times that I started to think about computer-mangled field recordings as possibilities. The CD was stolen from me, but I have recently recovered the sounds via SLSK, and again listened to it a few times with open ears. Although I am not as naive as I was when I first placed it on a pedestal, I think it is a fine recording, bordering on timeless. Also, I am still looking for a copy of Robert Spridgeon's 1944 masterpiece, "Inherent Aggression - A Meditation"

ebay silliness

Regarding ebay silliness: A few months ago I posted something from the Museum of Soviet Synthesizers. The LIDER-2 A LIDER-2 is now available on ebay, starting bid $299.99 The people selling the item, were even nice enough to offer up sample sounds of the thing!! And a translation of the controls: I am sure that it is not that special of a combination of electronics, really simple effects (PITCH-SHIFT, CHORUS, FLAGER AND SOLO/RHYTHM SECTIONS.) I have a Soviet wah pedal that sounds like complete crap, but there is something about Soviet electronic devices which is very nice, very other-world like.

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Hail Satan!

new exhibit! Exhibit #5 Photographic Evidence

According to "Satanism In America" the Il Corduno or "horned hand" is a sign of recognition between practicing Satanists. Here is a picture of the salute taken from a Satanic manual. Notice how it is a one-handed salute, and that the palm of the hand faces outward. The following are a few examples among numerous times where Bush has been seen flashing this 'devil's salute'.

His lame explanation? According to Bush, what he is doing is not giving the internationally recognized sign for devil worshippers. According to him, he is really giving the sign of the University of Texas Longhorns. But this deception doesn't hold water for two very good reasons. #1 George W Bush never attended the University of Texas. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University. The University of Texas law school turned him down because his record at Yale was so mediocre. Family connections enabled him to get into Harvard Business school instead. Let's face it - nobody in their right mind goes around continually flashing the sign of a college they never attended, a college that rejected him. I suggest that he picked it up at college all right, but while attending Yale, after joining a Satanic cult called "Skull and Bones". #2 There is another very good reason why his alibi just doesn't wash. Anybody who knows anything about the University of Texas knows that Bush isn't flashing the sign of the Texas Longhorns at all. This following is a picture of a University of Texas student giving the Longhorns salute. Notice how BOTH hands are used, and the back rather than the palms of the hands are facing outwards to better simulate Texas LonghornS. It is apparent from the evidence I've accumulated here, that Bush was definitely NOT giving the University of Texas Longhorns salute. He WAS giving the Satanic 'horned hand' salute.

http://66.135.33.70/bushisantichrist.com/

Some very interesting tests on offer from Harvard

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ feel free not to post your results.

Tapes!

bought them by the box of 10. Still have some of the boxes. I have some of these, with the box. and some of these SONY cassettes from almost all eras. I had a Nakamichi cassette deck, but never any of their cassettes. I rember a cassette that had a metal body, I think if was made by Memorex, each one was suitably heavy and substantial...they didnt last long in the market! What an astonishng site; obsessive Russian Geeks! And look at this auction item!!!

Slowly But surely, they get some sense

Not One Damn Dime!

Boycott Bush's inauguration by not spending any money on inauguration day


NOT ONE DAMN DIME DAY

Since our leaders don't have the moral courage to speak out against the war in Iraq, Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is "Not One Damn Dime Day" in America.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day" those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending.

[...]

http://www.notonedamndime.com/boycott/

So, someone somewhere is getting some braincel co-operation!

Now, the next step, spelt out for you:

"The good half

We the people of the good half, the half of America that represents the people that believe in the principles that this great country was upon, are going to boycott the US government this April 15th. Since it is impossible to alter the policies of our elected officials through the ballot box, and violence is againt the nature of good people everywhere, we choose simply not to finance this government in its headlong rush to invade Iran and cause more chaos and hatred towards Americans in the world.

We, the good half of America cannot with a clear concience, continue to finance the destruction of our country and the lives of other people in other countries..."

You get the picture.

Why should they just boycott the inaguration? After the inaguration, then what? Business as usual with the invasions and this false 'war on terror'?

The logical conclusion is that all the people who did not vote for The Neocon Cabal 'Bush' should withdraw their services, meaning their money, until such time as their government returns to its proper place. That means that on April 15th, they simply do not comply. 30 million people doing it should be enough to bring it all to a grinding halt.

You cannot be expected to finance the killing of innocents. You have a moral duty not to. They can do this with a clear concience. They MUST do this.

Project C-90 and the mixtape memory

Hello all, long time since I've posted here, I know, but rest assured I've been lurking and soaking it up. Couldn't pass on posting this incredible find of information archaeology: Project C-90, a massive collection of cassette tape brands for your browsing pleasure. I know that Capt.D has professed his (once?) devoted love of the cassette mix tape. Here are a couple of the tapes that bring back fond memories for me: Memorex dBS Type 1- 90 minue Maxell XL-II Type 2 - 90 minute Sony HI-Fi Type 1 - 90 minute And you?

Rats Asses and Rights of Asses

Friday, January 14, 2005 MOISTWORKS IS HIGH AND DRY! I have been forced to removed my mp3's by my hosting service (lypha.com) because of the following letter they recieved from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Who knew the Brits had Chuck Ds back? I have never personally received any such letters, and it was only after I inquired about my site being suspended that it was forwarded to me. In the next week or so I shall be moving the site to a new hosting service, a move I was planning on making anyway. So check back in a week or so and we should be up and running here. In the meantime, let me restate for the record what I have said before: I run this site for the purpose of promoting music and bands that I feel would benefit from this exposure. I always encourage my readers to purchase material from artists and I provide links to do so, as well as links to further material on these artists. I do not maintain this site for the purpose of people obtaining music for free at the expense of the artists and publishers. I don't give a rat's ass about the rights of downloaders. I fully support the rights of the artists that I feature on this site, and if any artist or label has a problem with a post, I encourage them to contact and the song(s) will be immediately removed. And if these requests ultimately make it too dificult to continue this site then so be it. [...] http://www.moistworks.com/ Hmmmmmm 'I dont give a rat's ass about the rights of downloaders'. This doesnt make any sense; he says he will take down whatever people ask upon request, but thinks its wrong that he is asked to take it all down by the very people he says he respects and supports. He doesnt care about the rights of downloaders, but wants them to be able to access his site and its 'service' so that he can promote the bands he thinks needs it. He clearly thinks its his right to promote bands in whatever way he sees fit, including using their works so that he can get commission for each CD sale refered by him. If you want to do a service for someone, then thats fine, ask permission to do this service. You cannot use as an excuse for hosting MP3s that you are helping someone get promotion; some of these bands could easily say that they dont want this 'service' performed for them at all. Very poor reasoning. If you want to run a site hosting MP3s for free thats fine, but don't post jumbled up thinking and absurd justifications when it gets pulled down. Honestly! Or was this simply a note written in incandescent anger. Who knows? We all know that these blogs drive sales of CDs and dont hurt sales, BUT get your arguments straight BEFORE you cry about getting shut down, and for heavens sake, dont expect sympathy from anyone when you blantantly (yes, blantantly) shout your contempt for other peoples rights.

This is why people are shunning the USA

American Airlines Customer Relations
P.O. Box 619612 MD 2400
DFW Airport, TX 75261-9612Ê

14 January, 2005

To whom it may concern,

On Sunday, January 9th, I flew AA51 from London Gatwick to
Dallas-Fort Worth. At Gatwick, I was confronted with a security
check that exceeded sense and decency and, I feel, creates a
terrible potential liability for your airline.

At Gatwick, I was directed to a security podium before I checking
in for my flight. The security officer asked me a series of
questions, such as:

* Where are you flying?

* How long have you owned your luggage for?

* Have any of your electronics been serviced recently?

* Why are you flying this route?

This last one was a little weird: the route I was flying had been
selected for me by the computer running www.aa.com's reservation
system, but I answered anyway, wanting to be cooperative. Then
the officer asked me where I would be staying in the USA:

"I will be staying with a friend tonight, at a hotel near LAX
tomorrow, and with a different friend in Tarzana for the rest of
the week."

The security officer then handed me a blank piece of paper and
said, "Please write down the names and addresses of everyone
you're staying with in the USA."

I actually began to write this out when I was brought up short.
"Wait a second -- since when does AA compile a written dossier on
the names and addresses of my friends? Why are you asking me
this? Do you have a privacy policy and a data-retention policy I
can inspect prior to this?"

The security officer told me that this was a Transport Security
Agency (TSA) regulation. I asked for the name or number of the
regulation, its text, and the details of the data-retention and
privacy practices in place at AA UK. The security officer wasn't
able to answer my questions, and she went to get her supervisor.

After several minutes, her supervisor appeared and said, after
introducing himself, "Sir, this is for your own protection."

I think it's pretty hard to argue that making passengers produce
written dossiers on their friends' home addresses makes planes in
the sky secure. I asked again if this was really a TSA regulation
and what AA's privacy and data-retention policies are.

The officer said, "This is a TSA regulation."

I said, "Why didn't I have to provide this information when I
flew out of Gatwick on US Air in December then?"

He said, "Well, you know that American Airlines has had some
terrible things happen to it in the past."

I asked "So the TSA wrote a special regulation for AA? What is
the name of this regulation, and what is your data-retention and
privacy policy?"

He didn't know the answer and went off to fetch the terminal
supervisor for AA.

Several more minutes passed, and then the supervisor appeared. He
had looked over my documents and said, "Sir, I'm sorry, you are a
Platinum AAdvantage member and shouldn't have been asked this
question." I thanked him and asked him if he knew what AA's
privacy and data-retention policies were. He didn't.

In the past few days, I've told this story to many friends in the
US and the UK and they've all been shocked by it. It's really
stuck in my craw, and left me with three questions for your
airline:

1. What is the AA privacy and data-retention policy?

2. Do non-Platinum flyers have to provide dossiers on their
friends on demand from an AA officer? Why?

3. Is there a TSA regulation that requires you to gather this
information? What is the number or name of that regulation and
where can I get a copy of it?

Under the UK Data Protection Act, AA is required to be
accountable for the personal information it collects from the
public. On presentation of a nominal fee of ten pounds, AA is
expected to provide a reasonable accounting of what information
it has gathered from me and how it uses that information.  I
believe gathering these dossiers means that you incur this
liability not only to me, but to all of my friends, too -- in
other words, if you require me to give you my friends' name and
address, my friends also have the right to find out how you use
that information. This explodes your data-retention liability,
potentially by an order of magnitude.

I was told that I came under extra scrutiny at the podium because
I was flying from the UK to the US on a Canadian passport; that
is, a passport that doesn't come from either the origin or
destination of my flight. I fly a lot to the USA, and other
airlines don't seem to have this policy. Should I take this to
mean that if I continue to fly AA on this customary UK-US voyage
of mine, I can expect to be given a hassle every time I fly?

I'm cc'ing this note to my colleagues at the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, to my friend John Gilmore who is currently suing the
TSA over some of its regulations, and to the website I co-edit,
Boing Boing (boingboing.net), which has over 200,000 daily
readers. I will be very interested to hear your reply.

I would appreciate a response by February 1, 2005.

Thank you,

Cory Doctorow


AAdvantage Number: XXXXXXX
This is yet another example of why people are shunning the USA. Here in the UK there is a massive advertising campaign in full swing to get people to go on holiday there. Clearly there has been a large refusal to go to america for a holiday, and why not? Why should anyone risk being humiliated, being turned back, having their family separated and brutalized, or othewise having their holiday ruined by some facist enabler at an airport or US 'Homeland Security' when you can go everywhere else in the world for a vacation hassle free? This is the campaign - 'See America' is what it is called. There are posters all over London, and TV spots running. Clearly people have some sense, and are staying away in droves. On of the billboards, which is at Earls Court, features Spiderman. It reads, 'You've seen the movie, now visit the set'. Hmmmm. Everyone says 'no thanks'.

Colored Men

The image “http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/ppmsc/00200/00217r.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors. http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/085_disc.html

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Lenticular

The image “http://www.ess.washington.edu/roe/Web_page_314/index_files/lenticularlogo.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Family destroyed in Iraq.

US soldiers in Iraq approach a car after opening fire when it failed to stop at a checkpo int. Despite warning shots it continued to drive towards their dusk patrol in Tal Afar on 18 January.

Chris Hondros a photographer with Getty News was on hand to record these pictures.

Inside the car were an Iraqi family of seven. The mother and father were killed but their five children in the backseat survived, one with a non-life threatening wound. As the children get out of the car one of them screams, her hands covered in blood... Why does that soldier have a hood on in this photo?!
Murderers in action. Note how all of the soldiers faces are obscured, or blurred. Can you imagine it? And this is what they let us see!

Titans' Battery

What I find interesting about the sound of the radar echoes received by Huygens during the last few kilometres of its descent onto Titan is the fact that is sounds just like a battery as it dies inside a Digitech Digital Reverb pedal. Hear, here for yourself.

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Secret Symbols and Secret Sauce.

File photo of Charlie Bell(L) and James Cantalupo(R). The two former McDonald's CEOs, died within a year. As people regret the early ending of their lives, their death raises rumors and criticism of the security of the company's food. (File photo) File photo of Charlie Bell(L) and James Cantalupo(R). The two former McDonald's CEOs, died within a year. As people regret the early ending of their lives, their death raises rumors and criticism of the security of the company's food. (File photo)

BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Charlie Bell and James Cantalupo, the two former McDonald's CEOs, died within a year. As people regret the early ending of their lives, their death raises rumors and criticism of the security of the company's food.

Charlie Bell, CEO of McDonald, died of colorectal cancer at the age of 44 on Jan 17, 2005. McDonald's announced his death Sunday evening in the United States.

In May 2004, a few weeks after taking over from Mr Cantalupo, who died in 2004 April at the age of 60 after suffering a heart attack while attending a McDonald's franchisees convention in Florida, he was told he had colorectal cancer. Bell, who had surgery last May, resigned from his job in November 2004.

The Australian is an advocate of his own product who would eat McDonald's for breakfast. He worked for McDonald's at age of 15 and had hamburgers since then. [...]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-01/18/content_2477136.htm