Hell Bank notes are used in funeral ceremonies in many far-eastern countries to provide money and goods in the afterlife for the dead person. The term "hell" just designates the place where the dead go, and does not carry the negative connotations that it does in the Christian world.
Friday, November 29, 2002
There was a sound of another person being hung high...I must have been mistaken.
Now, on to "Godspeed You Black Emperor".
Naturally, after hearing about them so much from different quarters, the final straw came when my sister told me to check them out.
What a load of unrefined garbage.
That group, sound like a bunch of talentless students who were of the type that used to produce the most tiresome and uninspired "knock-off prog-rock"; dreadful, baleful, directionless soulless, ill concieved, rubbish.
That they are paraded around like something worthwhile is astounding. Even thier words are grey in shade, as witnessed by the spiretless, spineless, dour and moping interviews that can be read online.
That group are so bad, I had to check that I had bought the correct CD, and that some other, older garbage had not been mistakenly put into the jewel case.
Godspeed? Godspeed straight to hell. Do not collect $200.
Uninteresting "compositions" poorly mixing strings and electic guitars. Apalling production that is worse than what can be found on any demonstration tape. Poor musicianship, full stop. Everything about this group shouts "turn off immediately"; a total dead end, an enthusiasm sponge, designed to suck the life out of you, and render you completely inert.
Yes indeed. "Bad®"
The Latest Kissinger Outrage
Why is a proven liar and wanted man in charge of the 9/11 investigation? [...] Slate
Thursday, November 28, 2002
The caption reads:
"Alun Kirby, found hung by the neck, for disrespecting Ladytron. A member of the crowd said: 'We warned that boy; he had to pay' "
"As you play the album you'll believe Ladytron are the only band you've ever really liked"
(Mixmag ***** Album of the month)
Ladytron
In some flaked out jurisdictions, its illegal to link to a site, let alone link to images in a site. Do a search for "deep linking" to read more of this insanity, or the DECSS fiasco with 2600 being prosecuted (sucessfully) for linking to sites. Sometimes, when someone finds that they are being hit by a popular image, they replace the image with something like this:
which is linked from http://leech.kthxbye.de/leech.gif .
Anyway, the solution that Mikkel gives solves this problem completely, but then, you have to know what you are doing to make it work...
which is linked from http://leech.kthxbye.de/leech.gif .
Anyway, the solution that Mikkel gives solves this problem completely, but then, you have to know what you are doing to make it work...
Wednesday, November 27, 2002
..........
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Easy, Breezy, Beautiful Irdial.
I'd Walk a Mile for an Irdial.
Iirdial is good for you.
For Mash, Get Irdial.
Nobody Does it like Irdial.
Good Irdial Has
Danish Written All Over It. The Advertising Slogan Generator
Danish Written All Over It. The Advertising Slogan Generator
Circle the wagons boys!
WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) - Attorneys for the Bush Administration asked a federal court on Monday to order that documents on hundreds of cases of autism allegedly caused by childhood vaccines be kept from the public. Department of Justice (news - web sites) lawyers asked a special master in the US Court of Federal Claims to seal the documents, arguing that allowing their automatic disclosure would take away the right of federal agencies to decide when and how the material should be released. Attorneys for the families of hundreds of autistic children charged that the government was trying to keep the information out of civil courts, where juries might be convinced to award large judgments against vaccine manufacturers. The court is currently hearing approximately 1,000 claims brought by the families of autistic children. The suits charge that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which until recently included a mercury-containing preservative known as thimerosal, can cause neurological damage leading to autism. [...] Yahoo News
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thank you davros!
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
Holy Shiat!
"Suddenly we were electrified by the most awesome, incredible sight we had seen in our entire lives."
"The old web was that to which the limited men distribute the limited information by the limited method."
Ya
"Finland proposes extensive data retention while the country's largest Telco executives arrested for data misuse."
EFFI
Monday, November 25, 2002
Easily shocked? Well if you shop regularly with Boys Stuff, probably not. But Dolly, the very latest in inflatable "comfort", could shock anyone (well, apart from the odd Welshman.) This is the last sexual taboo - and we're going to help you break it.
Rum, Sodomy, The Lash, and "Piracy"!
Academy seizes computers from nearly 100 mids By JESSICA R. TOWHEY, Staff Writer Officials at the Naval Academy have seized nearly 100 midshipmen's computers that allegedly contained illegally downloaded music and movies, sources said. The raid occurred Thursday while students were in class, and a source familiar with the investigation said the computers were being held by the administration. Cmdr. Bill Spann, academy spokesman, confirmed that an investigation into what material is on the computers is under way, but declined further comment. He did say punishment for illegally possessing copyrighted material ranges from a court-martial to loss of leave and other restrictions. Computers are given to each midshipman upon entering the academy. During their four years at the school, mids pay back the value of the computers through deductions from their monthly paychecks. Amanda Collins, a spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America, said yesterday that the Naval Academy was among the colleges and universities around the country that were sent two letters from entertainment industry and educational associations asking them to address Internet piracy and establish policies against it. [...] http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/live/11_23-19/NAV
Friday, November 22, 2002
Karma!
Record industry attempts to stop the swapping of pop music on online networks such as Kazaa will never work. So says a research paper prepared by computer scientists working for software giant Microsoft. The four researchers believe that the steady spread of file-swapping systems and improvements in their organisation will eventually make them impossible to shut down. They also conclude that the gradual spread of CD and DVD burners will help thwart any attempts to control what the public can do with the music they buy. Doomed disks The paper was prepared for a workshop on Digital Rights Management, (DRM), at the US Association for Computing Machinery's annual conference on Computer and Communications Security. Digital Rights Management describes attempts to stop people copying music from CDs and sharing the tracks via peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa and Madster. To stop this piracy some music makers are starting to produce CDs that will not play on computers. Websites such as the Campaign for Digital Rights are documenting which CDs will and will not play on home computers. The music industry as a whole is also using the courts to shut down file-swapping systems and so far has enjoyed some successes. Alicia Keys, AP CDs by artists such as Alicia Keys are copy protected But Peter Biddle, Paul England, Marcus Peinado and Bryan Willman write that ultimately these attempts at control will fail. The success that the music industry has had in stopping file-swapping on systems such as Napster was due entirely to the fact that many of them rely on a few people to provide most of the material being swapped. By targeting these super-swappers the record industry could severely restrict how much music is available to the majority of members who take without sharing. The researchers point out that the growth of consumer broadband and cheap data storage will mean the numbers of people willing to swap is growing and will soon outstrip attempts to shut them down. The growth of instant messaging systems will also contribute to this gradual loss of control. The rising numbers of recordable CD and DVD drives are also making it much easier for consumers to create their own music compilations and share them with friends which could also stymie anti-piracy work. Price fix The paper also pointed out the technical flaws in DRM systems and said that, so far, all of them have been defeated. In one case the CD protection system designed to stop people playing the disks on a computer was foiled by using a marker pen to cover the outer ring of a disk. The authors reserve strongest criticism for watermarking systems which put invisible markers in music that stops tracks being passed around and shared. But the "severe" commercial and social problems inherent in such schemes plus their technical shortcomings mean that they are "doomed to failure", warn the authors. The paper's researchers emphasise that it represents their opinions rather than those of Microsoft, but their conclusions are likely to make uncomfortable reading for music industry executives. In essence, say the researchers, file-swapping systems have already won. The only way for music companies to compete is on the same terms by making music easy to get hold of and cheap to buy. Evidence gathered by critics of the music industry has shown that CD prices have steadily risen over the past few years and may have contributed to the slump in sales as much as the rise of file-swapping systems. In late September five music companies and three music retailers were fined more than $143million after being found guilty of fixing CD prices too high. So says the BBC
You can listen to some of those Daniel Quinn Antarctica field recordings on this radio show, which just happens to be Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel Fame. I wish I could stay awake to hear his show on the radio, but it is on from 3-6 AM. Perfect hours to listen to this stuff, but scheduled as sleep time for me. Alas, the wonders of archived radio on WFMU!
You scored 100 out of 100 possible points -- 100%.
Click here to view your results.
Congratulations! You put the liberty in civil liberties!
Your help is needed to keep America safe and free. Tell Attorney General Ashcroft that civil liberties must be protected! Take Action Now!
Compare your score to your friends and family by letting them know about the quiz with this easy link:
http://www.aclu.org/Quizzes/QuizIntro.cfm?ID=4
The Lifeboat Project is interesting:
This is clearly wrong:
"The Fermi Paradox refers to the question mark that hovers over the data point that we have seen no signs of extraterrestrial life. This tells us that it is not the case that life evolves on a significant fraction of Earth-like planets and proceeds to develop advanced technology, using it to colonize the universe in ways that would have been detected with our current instrumentation. There must be (at least) one Great Filter � an evolutionary step that is extremely improbable � somewhere on the line between Earth-like planet and colonizing-in-detectable-ways civilization. If the Great Filter isn't in our past, we must fear it in our (near) future. Maybe nearly every civilization that develops a certain level of technology causes its own extinction."
This is correct:
"'Plants' with 'leaves' no more efficient than today's solar cells could out-compete real plants, crowding the biosphere with an inedible foliage. Tough omnivorous 'bacteria' could out-compete real bacteria: They could spread like blowing pollen, replicate swiftly, and reduce the biosphere to dust in a matter of days. Dangerous replicators could easily be too tough, small, and rapidly spreading to stop - at least if we make no preparation. We have trouble enough controlling viruses and fruit flies.
Among the cognoscenti of nanotechnology, this threat has become known as the 'gray goo problem.' Though masses of uncontrolled replicators need not be gray or gooey, the term 'gray goo' emphasizes that replicators able to obliterate life might be less inspiring than a single species of crabgrass. They might be superior in an evolutionary sense, but this need not make them valuable.
The gray goo threat makes one thing perfectly clear: We cannot afford certain kinds of accidents with replicating assemblers.
Gray goo would surely be a depressing ending to our human adventure on Earth, far worse than mere fire or ice, and one that could stem from a simple laboratory accident."
The rest is frightening/fascinating. Man without Earth is a hard thing to accept, and for certain, there will be some that say that there is no "true Man" without Earth.
Ive said it before, these experimenters must be stopped. There are at best, a few thousand people with the ability to destroy everything permanently. Better that they be "prohibited" rather than everything be destroyed.
The idea that a modified plant could spread and out compete every other living plant is not hard to imagine, even for the lowest dullard. Still, modified plants are released into the wild week after week. It is nothing less than criminal negligence.
Prohibition might not be enough:
"Biotechnology is advancing rapidly, and by 2020 there will be thousands � even millions � of people with the capability to cause a catastrophic biological disaster. My concern is not only organized terrorist groups, but individual weirdos with the mindset of the people who now design computer viruses. Even if all nations impose effective regulations on potentially dangerous technologies, the chance of an active enforcement seems to me as small as in the case of the drug laws."
And so we must stop developing the tools before we reach this point. This is doable, because the people making the tools are numbered in the tens.
Thursday, November 21, 2002
E - PLURIBUS - UNUM
(Alafia Pudim) Selfish desires are burning like fires among those who horde the gold, As they continue to keep the people asleep and the truth from being told. Racism and greed keep the people in need from getting what's rightfully theirs, Cheating, Stealing and Double Dealing as they exploit the people's fears. Now Dow Jones owns the people's homes and all the surrounding land, buying and selling their humble dwelling in the name of the master plan. Cause paper money is like a bee without honey with no stinger to back him up, And those who stole people's gold are definitely corrupt. Credit Cards, Master Charge, Legacies of Wills, Real Estate, Stocks and Bonds on coupons, paper bills. Now the U.S. Mints on paper prints, millions every day, and use the Eagle for their Symbol, 'cause it's a bird of prey. Now the laurels of peace and the arrows of wars, are clutched very tightly in the eagle's claws, filled with greed and lust, and on the back of the dollar bill is the words "In God We Trust". But the Dollar bill is their only God and they don't even trust each other; and for a few dollars more they'd start a war to exploit some brother's mother. Then there's the Pyramid that stands by itself, created by Black people's knowledge and wealth, and over the Pyramid hands the Devil's eye, that stole from the truth and created the lie. Now Annuit means an endless amount stolen over the years, and Coeptis means a New Empire of Vampire millionaires, and Novus is a latin word meaning something new, and Ordo means a way of life chosen by a few. Seclorum is a word that means to take from another, knowledge, wisdom and understanding stolen from the brother. Roman numerals on the base of the Pyramid's face tell the date they began to exist, when they established this branch of hell in 1776. Now they are thirteen layers of stone on the Pyramid alone an unfinished work of art For 33 1/3 is how high as a Mason can go without falling apart. Thirteen stars in the original flag, 13 demons from the Devil's bag! 13 berries and 13 leaves! 13 colonies of land grabbing thieves! 13 arrows in the Eagle's claws, 67 corporations wage the Devil's wars, 13 stripes on the Eagle's shield, and these are the symbols on the U.S. Seal. Now on the front of the Dollar Bill to the Right of Washington's head, is a small seal in the shape of a wheel with a secret that's been left unsaid. The symbols in the middle represent the riddle of the scales, the ruler and the key, The Square rule is a symbol from the craft of Masonry. The scales represent Libra, the balance of the seventh sign, they also represent the just-us which you and I know is blind. The key unlocks the mysteries of the secrets of the seal, so that only the Govern-U-Men will know what they reveal. The four words above from the last parts of, the secrets of the seal, and tells how they fooled the people into thinking paper money was real. Now Theasaur means the treasuries, where they store the gold they stole, and Amer means to punish like the slaves they bought and sold. Then Septent means seven, like 1776 when the thirteen devils gathered to unleash their bag of tricks. Then Sigil means the images they've created to fool the world, like the colors on old Glory the flag they unfurled. Now Red's for the color of the Indian Man, White's for the devils who stole the land, Blue's for the eyes that hypnotized with the tricks and traps they've sprung and even to this very same day they all speak with forked tongue. And so the power's in the hands of the ruling classes, playing God with the fate of all the masses, so the people don't get any in the land of the plenty CAUSE E PLURIBUS UNUM MEANS "ONE OUT OF MANY". "One Out Of Many" by The Last Poets
Wednesday, November 20, 2002
BUSTED
Please (!) do NOT listen to internet music streams (radio stations) on work computers. Our internet lines pretty decent but they really can't handle the load of various people downloading or listening to music. The result is, at best, slow access for others trying to do their work. At worst, various business processes that rely on the lines working normally encounter problems.
packet-sniffing bastards. grrrrrrrrrr.
"Gotta, gonna gonna"
�The thing you�ve gotta remember,� says Berryman, �is that even if you record to analog tape, it�s gonna get bumped to a CD anyway � it�s gonna get digitized at some point down the line.�
For their analog-to-digital conversion, Coldplay relies on Apogee and Prism audio interfaces. �We try to keep the conversion rate as high as possible, really, just to keep all the definition and clarity,� he explains.
Alun, there is a tranquil Mac Shop on Kensington High Street:
Tasha Computers Ltd., 290 Kensington High Street, London, W14 8NZ 0171 602 9444
Old number obviously...
Peter Jones at Sloane Square (who will beat any price that you find for equipment)
then there is always:
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore
Go for Peter Jones first...you can have lunch there if you dont buy your Mac!
Tuesday, November 19, 2002
i love joel veitch. his punk rock kittens are fantastic too.
i am enjoying last fm, it can stream here at work, and i am in heaven. does anyone know of other sites like this? right now, brian eno, dance #1, i think its in time with the rain outside... it is pouring rain here. for two weeks now. i almost drown coming to work this morning. thanks for all of your words lately, i have been busy (finding a new house, top floor!, new car, never had one before) in the soup so to speak.
http://www.submute.net/~wells/ginandjuice.mp3
Just in case there was any doubt, this will dispell it completely. Gangsta Rap is the direct relation of the earliest blues. Awesome.
Gosh, this is so much fun. Especially while listening to Fennesz or Pita or other clickity clackety pings bleeps and pangs.
Miracle workers
Jack Schofield
The Guardian, 17/10/02
Not many people would have bet on South Korea becoming he world's leading nation for broadband internet use, but it is. Comparisons with the UK are embarrassing.
Some 67% of Korean households now have broadband: the UK figure is about 4%. What's more, their broadband is better than ours. Koreans typically get 2Mbps connections, which are four times faster than BT Openworld's standard
512kbps. Korea's "pro" service is 16 times faster than that...
http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,7496,813459,00.html
Caplan stands firm against ID cards
By JEFF SALLOT
Monday, November 18, 2002
OTTAWA -- Canadians don't need national identification cards, Revenue
Minister Elinor Caplan says, flatly rejecting an idea being floated by one
of her cabinet colleagues...
http://globeandmail.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/TGAM/20021118/UCAPLN/nati
onal/national/nationalTheNationHeadline_temp/8/8/13/
Monday, November 18, 2002
> Also - ive had realy short notice for this , but ive got to deliver a
> three hour seminar for contextual studies at work - as its something i
> think about quite a bit i thought i'd discuss how music / sounds effects
> our emotions ,how does music conjour up different visual images in our
> imagination , how is this affected by the listeners experience's - im
> gonna use examples from old orchestral stuff up to modern electronic
> music, as well as sound effects from films/video games - but was just
> wondering if you'd ever written any thing in this area - im gathering
> lots of peoples thoughts on this , and any ideas you may have had would
> be greatly appreciated - it sounds like quite a lot but just any thing
> you may have posted on the blogdial site or written in the past .
The short version is this:
The way music affects humans is largely dependent on how their ears have been trained. The Gamelan sounds strange to us, but perfectly normal to the Balinese; this is a perfect example of how the ear and the emotional response of listeners is malleable, and not set at birth.
You can be trained to love any form of music. Merzbow is identical to Bach in this way, though arguably the range of emotions expressed by Merzbow is limited by the limited grammar of that particular music.
The western scale in music has great power precisely because its "alphabet" is huge, it has spread all over the world, and there are many different works written in this language from which comes a rich context for everyone to feed from, work with and against and draw from.
If there had been 14 notes instead of 12, the emotions expressed by western music may or may not have formed differently. Certainly, no less music would have been created.
Indian classical music is another example of a rich music coming from a completely different theoretical underpinning, which to the uneducated ear, sounds like "a bunch of notes all over the place" but which is in fact, an absolutely coherent and structured musical art form.
why?
I never ask "why"
you're perspectivating - I am the one asking why? Guess you dont answer on why?'s either...
That question is actually "Why not 'why' ", which I do answer.
Quick answer for Americans:
Q: "Mr Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the center of a totsie pop?"
A: "Lets find out..."
Long answer for Non-Americans:
If I have something to do, I simply do it. I never debate with myself (or anyone else) from the frame of reference that starts with "why" it is always; "This is doable, do we have time?"
I have a particular dislike for the "Why Bother Brigade", of which there are many in the UK. While you live, you must do. Its pointless to stand with something in your hands and ponder it when you should simply do it, especially if its a doable thing, like eating a lollypop. How STUPID people are to stand gazing at it saying, "I wonder what this tastes like?"
Lick it®.
Antarctica
"In the world of sound recordists, those specializing in natural sound form the smallest group. Among that tiny group, very few professionals stand out. And most of these will acknowledge in a heartbeat that of all the places in the world to record creature life, the Antarctic is the most problematical. Where animal life is the least dense on the planet and the weather is generally awful, this polar region provides a test that only the best recordists will survive physically, creatively, and technically. Doug Quin is one of the rare few who has mastered the elements, the equipment and the poetic sense it takes to generate the fine sound art represented here. The only way to hear the other-worldly voices of Weddell, leopard seals, and penguins underwater is with a hydrophone (underwater microphone). Previously, these creatures had been recorded many times. But it takes that special gift of creative imagination, combined with a knowledge of the technology to put together the multi-headed array of hydrophones that produced the stereo/surround events heard on this album. It didn't hurt that the weather gods smiled for Quin while on site. Just remember though, no one has used this type of stereo array in this manner before. And to create this kind of magic with natural sound takes time, enormous patience, perserverance, and a keen compositional sense to make lyrical the material heard on this album. Sounds from the Antarctic present the ultimate test."
-Bernie Krause
Quin
Sunday, November 17, 2002
Saturday, November 16, 2002
Hornet Probs?
"Myself enjoying a pupa of the giant hornets. The bugs were fried not too crisp, but rather soft still."
Time of photo: November 5, 1999. Place: Guangzhou city, Guangdong Province, China.
http://eat.bees.net/
"Myself enjoying a pupa of the giant hornets. The bugs were fried not too crisp, but rather soft still."
Time of photo: November 5, 1999. Place: Guangzhou city, Guangdong Province, China.
http://eat.bees.net/
Giant hornets regularly attack beehives. Typically, an attack begins when a single hornet captures a lone bee nearby the hive. After several of these perimeter skirmishes, one hornet leaves a marking pheromone at the hive's entrance. This pheromone attracts the other hornets, who arrive en masse and attack the beehive. The bees' stingers can't penetrate the hornets' armor, so it's a one-sided slaughter; something like 30,000 bees can be killed in a few hours by 30-40 hornets.
Japanese honeybees, however, have evolved an interesting defensive strategy. When a hornet marks the hive's entrance, the bees guarding the entrance return to the hive and wait for the attacking hornets. This has the effect of luring the first attacking hornets into the hive, rather than allowing them to start their attack outside. Simultaneously, over 1000 worker bees in the hive leave the combs and mass just inside the hive's entrance. When a hornet tries to enter the hive, the workers surround it, forming a ball of bodies, and cook it to death with their body heat. The bees also release a pheromone that draws ever more bees from the hive's interior to come to the entrance and defend the nest.
This strategy must be perfect in order to be successful. If the bees fail in killing the first hornet attackers, then the hornet pheromone gets stronger, and more hornets arrive to reinforce their attack. By sheer numbers, the hornets can overpower the bees.
Source: Bernd Heinrich, "The Thermal Warriors: Strategies of Insect Survival," Harvard University Press, 1996.
Space Weather News for Nov. 15, 2002
http://www.spaceweather.com
The Leonid meteor storm peaks this year on Tuesday morning, Nov. 19th. Are
you ready? Visit spaceweather.com for observing tips, a new Leonid
animation, meteor-counting software, and a recipe for "Falling Star French
Toast" -- the perfect meteor watching snack.
Friday, November 15, 2002
I saw Ladytron last night.
Ladytron do everything that I like.
And do nothing that I don't like.
Synthetic perfection in motion.
Priceless.
Fresh.
Beautiful.
The first Ladytron that I ever heard was "Playgirl" on a German sattelite TV programme...It was like being in a dream about hearing beautiful music, of the type that you can never remember after you have woken up.
Only I was AWAKE.
Simply unbelievable. Ladytron; a clean beautiful spark in the middle of a long, dark and sad starless night. At last....
Ladytron!
You MORON!
Gary McKinnon, the Briton indicted this week for hacking into scores of U.S. military computers, left behind few clues on the compromised systems of his victims. But download log files from a Wisconsin software firm may have led investigators straight to his London door.
In an apparent effort to avoid detection, McKinnon, 36, installed copies of a commercial remote-access utility called RemotelyAnywhere on Navy and other military systems he allegedly hacked last year.
The unusual strategy almost worked. Unlike underground "backdoor" utilities like NetBus or Back Orifice, the popular RemotelyAnywhere program doesn't trigger antivirus software. For nearly a year, McKinnon was able to control a vast network of defense computers without detection, authorities said.
But McKinnon's choice of RemotelyAnywhere ultimately may have been his undoing.
Using a personal computer connected to an ISP in England, McKinnon downloaded a trial copy of RemotelyAnywhere in March 2001 from a server maintained by Binary Research, the Milwaukee-based distributor of RemotelyAnywhere. To obtain a special code to unlock the demonstration software, McKinnon also provided his girlfriend's e-mail address, Binary officials said.
The Internet protocol address left in Binary's server log files from McKinnon's download, along with the e-mail address, gave investigators two "very critical" pieces of evidence, said Binary vice president Jim Szopinski.
"Not only were his finger prints on military computers, they were on ours as well," said Szopinski, who also noted in an affidavit that the version of RemotelyAnywhere McKinnon downloaded matched the one installed on the hacked military systems. [...]
Its all her fault!
Many Iraqis voluntarily chose to vote with their blood, chanting "with our soul and with our blood, we sacrifice ourselves to you, oh Saddam".
Radio Netherlands
Thursday, November 14, 2002
in response to Akin's "Hardcore" post of the video synthesizer:
I spent some time in upstate NY at a conference on the history of video, and i got to meet the engineers and imagineers of early video manipulation. i played on the earliest of moving image manipulators and on handmade video synthesizers (patchbays and tangled cables everywhere) that took up whole rooms to make the most psychedelic of times. and these were machines from the late 60s early 70s!
i met people from the Experimental Television Center who invited me to do a residency at their facility with tons of this old equipment. Check out the site, and if inclined, think about heading out there to do a residency. Super nice Left-y Art for the Revolution-type people.
"Talking" California gorilla puts out a CD
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Koko, California's famous "talking" gorilla, is breaking into song. The 31-year-old lowland gorilla, who is said to have mastered some 1,000 terms in American sign language, has "written" lyrics for a new album which should be available by the end of the week, her keepers said Tuesday. "The songs show a real depth of emotion. She's a complex person, just like we are," said Jennifer Patterson, a spokeswoman for the California-based Gorilla Foundation near San Francisco that has been Koko's home for some three decades. The album, entitled "Fine Animal Gorilla" after Koko's term for herself, runs the gamut of musical styles from low intensity rap and reggae to lullabies. While Koko herself does not sing on the album -- that is left to human vocalists -- she did sign off on the song lyrics and delivery. "We pretty much run all our lyrics by Koko," album producer Skip Haynes told KCBS radio. "Now, she's getting to the point where she actually listens to different mixes and tells us what mix she likes." Patterson said the CD would be available through the foundation's Web site (http://www.koko.org), and was expected to cost about $14. Koko is one of several gorillas which reputedly learned the basics of American Sign Language, and has frequently been pressed into service as an ambassador for her species. Lowland gorillas like Koko are threatened by logging and poaching in their native habitats in central Africa, while their cousins, the mountain gorillas, now number fewer than 500 in the wild.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/bushbook.htm
"Real? Manipulated? We can't say for sure, but either way these photographs demonstrate nothing beyond the trivial. As much as we may enjoy poking fun at our politicians, they aren't so clueless that they don't know binoculars don't work with the lens caps in place, or would stand confusedly staring through capped binoculars at total blackness for several minutes at a time. The Presidents in these pictures might be looking through night-vision scopes (which would be capped but still usable during daylight), or they may have been handed capped binoculars which they briefly raised their eyes before realizing the caps were still in place while a photographer or two managed to snap pictures during those brief instances."
Ummmm like we dont know this?
That voice is the typica skeptics voice, disseminating the truth from an imaginary above position, in a smug, condescending, "there there pat on the head" voice.
These people, (and that is an insult to people) are the rabid humanists, atheists and flat worlders that would have all of mankind draped in grey bowing to thier logic and science.
I cordially invite them to DIE.
Thanks for that link "a.t."!
| "God will not suffer man to have the knowledge of things to come; for if he had prescience
of his prosperity he would be careless; and understanding of his adversity he would be senseless."
|
| You are Augustine! You love to study tough issues and don't mind it if you lose sleep over them. Everyone loves you and wants to talk to you and hear your views, you even get things like "nice debating with you." Yep, you are super smart, even if you are still trying to figure it all out. You're also very honest, something people admire, even when you do stupid things. |
What theologian are you?
A creation of Henderson
Sucks to be you
WASHINGTON � If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you: Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend � all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database." To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you � passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance � and you have the supersnoop's dream: a "Total Information Awareness" about every U.S. citizen. This is not some far-out Orwellian scenario. It is what will happen to your personal freedom in the next few weeks if John Poindexter gets the unprecedented power he seeks. Remember Poindexter? Brilliant man, first in his class at the Naval Academy, later earned a doctorate in physics, rose to national security adviser under President Ronald Reagan. He had this brilliant idea of secretly selling missiles to Iran to pay ransom for hostages, and with the illicit proceeds to illegally support contras in Nicaragua. A jury convicted Poindexter in 1990 on five felony counts of misleading Congress and making false statements, but an appeals court overturned the verdict because Congress had given him immunity for his testimony. He famously asserted, "The buck stops here," arguing that the White House staff, and not the president, was responsible for fateful decisions that might prove embarrassing. NYT
Wednesday, November 13, 2002
Amazing! Film Gimp
About a year ago, I and another person began to flesh out the spec for a sound tool, to beat SoundForge in performance and features.
This was going to be developed in conjunction with a University computer science lab, but it / we got side tracked.
If anyone doesnt believe that Linux/OSX is the future, they are smoking Crack®
Putin tells reporter to 'get circumcised'
Russia's media expressed has shock over a remark by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Russia-EU summit in which he urged a Western reporter asking about the war in Chechnya to come to Moscow and "get circumcised". [...]
[...]
Mr Putin is known for his tough talk that at times becomes interlaced with slang used by criminals and the military. [...]
ABC
Breath of Heaven
> Older, but not wiser > > Older ID and document systems have their own problems. Credit card theft is a perennial, and apparently growing, problem. Even smart credit cards, such as the American Express Blue card, can be hacked, as two researchers in the United Kingdom recently proved. And in New Jersey, an investigation by the Bergen County Record found that, among other things, security failings allow driver's licenses to be issued despite the presentation of inadequate identifying documents. New Jersey was home to at least four of the 11 September hijackers, two of whom reportedly had valid state driver's licenses. > > Even with valid documents, problems arise. In recent years, the U.S. Social Security Administration routinely issued tens of thousands of Social Security numbers to noncitizens who presented insufficient or counterfeit identification. > > Adding biometric information to driver's licenses may not be enough. Researchers at Yokohama National University in Japan have found they were able to replicate fingerprints with a cheap artificial "skin." They photographed a fingerprint left on a drinking glass, enhanced it with photo-editing software, and then used a photosensitive sheet to transfer it three-dimensionally to a sheet of copper. From there they could move the image onto a highly elastic food-based gelatin. The fingerprint was recognized by a variety of security systems about 80 percent of the time. > > That may be more work than is really needed. A recent book by three German researchers told how they defeated a fingerprint scanning system by breathing "gently upon the sensor's surface." They reported that on the screen of the biometrically protected computer, "we were able to see the contours of an old fingerprint slowly reemerge." In all, the team tested 11 biometric security systems and, by a variety of means, defeated each of them. IEEE
American Ideals: Dead
TRAFFIC CHECKS: Random stops begin today in Michigan November 12, 2002 BY TAMARA AUDI FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER Federal agents will begin randomly stopping traffic today, looking for illegal immigrants, terrorists and drug or weapon smugglers. Cars will be stopped at unannounced, rotating checkpoints within Michigan, including metro Detroit. U.S. Border Patrol agents at the checkpoints will ask passengers their citizenship and will have leeway to ask a host of follow-up questions. The effort is part of President George W. Bush's attempt to increase security along the northern border, said Immigration and Naturalization spokeswoman Karen Kraushaar. [...] www.freep.com
Permanent State of Emergency for USA
THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release November 12, 2002 TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES: Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. In accordance with this provision, I have sent the enclosed notice, stating that the emergency posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems declared by Executive Order 12938 on November 14, 1994, as amended, is to continue in effect beyond November 14, 2002, to the Federal Register for publication. The most recent notice continuing this emergency was published in the Federal Register on November 13, 2001 (66 FR 56965). The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivering them continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. Therefore, I have determined the national emergency previously declared must continue in effect beyond November 14, 2002. GEORGE W. BUSH THE WHITE HOUSE, November 6, 2002.
We Get Results
- James Taranto, Best of the Web, Wall Street Journal
Bloggers have their accomplishments. Some have taken on the hard job of preventing our nations� academics from making complete and utter asses out of themselves.
Two universities have invited known supporters of terrorism to address and mentor their students. Lynne Stewart, who formerly represented and worshipped Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman (involved in the first World Trade Center bombing) is currently being charged with two counts of aiding his terrorist organization. In an article in the New York times, Stewart stated that she doesn�t know why people object to terrorist attacks:
Stewart is a moral imbecile and Stanford Law invited her to be a mentor for their students. Either they agree with Stewart, or they are entirely clueless about her ideas. Both options are proof that they are idiots.
Blogger Euenge Volokh reported on this and Taranto reported it. They got resuts � Stanford is no longer calling Stewart a mentor.
Taranto also reported that Harvard was inviting Irish poet Tom Paulin to speak at the Morris Gray Lecture.
Tom Paulin was the man who said, in an interview with the Egyptian Newspaper, Al Ahram weekly, that Israel has no right to exist. He also said of the Brooklyn-born Jewish settlers:
"They should be shot dead..I think they are Nazis, racists, I feel nothing but hatred for them."
Obviously, when the news of this invitation spread, Harvard got some letters � in fact, they received �widespread consternation�. Taranto linked to the webpage promoting the speech, but by this morning the page had disappeared. Paulin is not going to speak on Thursday, and Harvard�s English department posted this information:
How�s that for a lame excuse? �We made this appointment a year ago, and..and he�s really famous and all..it�s not our fault!� They�re opting for the clueless defense. Idiots.
In America, we call these idiots intellectuals - and Europeans wonder why we have no respect for intellectuals.
Can you smell the froth?
Tuesday, November 12, 2002
Presenting for your enjoyment the latest source of controversy which is going to arise between Europe and the US. This is actually something that's been going on for a long time, but it's about to get more intense.
The subject in question is freedom of expression. We believe in it. Europe doesn't. The Council of Europe just outlawed it.
The essential test of free expression is the extent to which it tolerates unpopular opinions, even ones most people find vile and despicable. As soon as government gets involved in deciding what is acceptable and what is not based on content, then the fox is in the henhouse and people's ability to express themselves will be more and more restricted. The ultimate danger is the eventual tyranny of the majority, where opinions survive or are suppressed based solely on how popular they are.
The North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) is a perfect example of this principle. Pederasty should be, and is, a serious crime. (It's statutory rape.) But thinking about it, and talking about it approvingly, should not be. And though I find what they advocate revolting, I fully support their right to make their case.
The only way we can truly prove our commitment to freedom of expression is by defending that freedom for people whose opinions we despise. It is therefore necessary to protect the ability of vanishingly small groups to express opinions that others find loathsome. Only when such speech is protected can we be sure that our own speech is also protected.
http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2002/11/HateSpeech.shtml
THE troubled music industry faces at least another two years of recession as internet pirates become more sophisticated and the threat of economic slowdown deters potential buyers, a new survey says.
Sales of singles and albums will fall by more than 7 per cent this year to just over $31 billion (�19.6 billion) � the third fall in a row, the report, published by Informa Media, cautions. [...]
The Times
"The UK had at least two choices under the Directive -- put the burden of protecting consumer rights on the global media companies (where it belongs) or put the burden on consumers. The Patent Office has made its choice � and is putting the burden squarely on consumers. Under proposed provision XXX, if you buy a CD which is copy-protected, and it doesn't play in your computer disc drive, or won't download to your MP3 player, your only remedy will be to send a letter of complaint to the Secretary of State.
If Mr. Blunkett in his magnaminity (and spare time) decides that you actually should be allowed to exercise your legal right to play the disc you bought, he will then send a letter to the offending media giant instructing it to ensure that you (and probably only you) are able to play the bloody disc. If Bertelsmann tells him (and you) to take a long walk off a short pier, only then will you (but no one else who may have experienced the same problem, but failed to contact the Secretary of State) have the right to hire a lawyer and sue Bertlesmann. How many people do you think are actually going to go through the bother?"
UK Patent office's proposed implimentation of the dastardly directive.
I'm a half dane and half afghani/pakistani
Which half, the top half or the bottom half?
The difference between Human beings is not the same as the difference between Horses and donkeys; there is only one type of human being, no matter what your parents look like. CERTAINLY one should never measure amounts of nationality "that are in your blood" because the idea of different nationalities being different types of Homo Sapien is just total nonsense.
Now, of course the Frankenstiens and the Fascists will tell you that there are different "races" of human being but then they both have an evil agenda, so dont even go there.
The anthem to Utopia should, of course, be "Utopia" by Goldfrapp.
Monday, November 11, 2002
Some things are going to happen because of this.
Russia and China are going to instantly become the pre-eminent crackers / reverse engineers of the world.
Tens of Millions of criminals will be instantly created all over europe.
Europe will be further discredited.
P2P software will improve.
The thrill will double. :]
Because we did not authorize the invasion of Iraq.
We did not authorize the invasion of Iran.
We did not authorize the invasion of North Korea.
We did not authorize the bombing of civilians in Afghanistan.
We did not authorize permanent detainees in Guantanamo Bay.
We did not authorize the withdrawal from the Geneva Convention.
We did not authorize military tribunals suspending due process and habeas corpus.
We did not authorize assassination squads.
We did not authorize the resurrection of COINTELPRO.
We did not authorize the repeal of the Bill of Rights.
We did not authorize the revocation of the Constitution.
We did not authorize national identity cards.
We did not authorize the eye of Big Brother to peer from cameras throughout our cities.
We did not authorize an eye for an eye.
Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who perished on September 11, be avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in Afghanistan.
We did not authorize the administration to wage war anytime, anywhere, anyhow it pleases.
We did not authorize war without end.
We did not authorize a permanent war economy.
http://www.thespiritoffreedom.com/
m/e It is DESIGNED in part to make you tired; to wear you down and ultimately destroy your good and free human spirit.
The register article is excellent, but doesnt ask the pertinent questions; "who and where are the people who wrote / proposed this, so that we may find them, and kill them?".
I fear that this is the ONLY way that we will be able to live free; the enemies of freedom have to be PERMANENTLY ELIMINATED, one way or the other, so that we do not have to keep having these discussions over and over ad nauseum.
If the threat comes from Germany, then let them be burned at the stake. If it be France, then let them be torn limb from limb. If it be Belgian, let them be boiled alive in a vat of chocoloate. One way or another, we must be RID of these rats.
Explanation of the 24 hour viewing period.
"The movie is available to watch as many times as you like in a 24 hour period. The 24 hour period begins when you have successfully downloaded the movie and clicked Play Movie in your Movielink Manager to watch the movie for the first time. Movielink Manager shows you the remaining time to watch each movie you have downloaded in the Watch By column. The 24 hour period includes the time that you pause or rewind a movie. At the end of the 24 hour period, the movie is automatically deleted from your computer."
So says http://www.movielink.com/
You cant get into the site unless you are coming from a USA IP, so get proxied up to see the site.
"Automatically deleted"? The crack on Hollywood buggelawd must be SMOKIN!
How long do you think it will be before this is 100% 0wn3d?
"Still, Movielink aims to present consumers with a legal option for watching movies on the PC, rather than turning to file-trading communities that contain stolen copies of films or unsanctioned movie-rental sites operating overseas. The entertainment industry has been haunted by digital piracy through file-swapping sites like now-defunct Napster and Morpheus. As a result, the industry seeks to preempt the troubles that hit the music industry through peer-to-peer communities." News.com Can you spot the "irrational phrase"?
"Still, Movielink aims to present consumers with a legal option for watching movies on the PC, rather than turning to file-trading communities that contain stolen copies of films or unsanctioned movie-rental sites operating overseas. The entertainment industry has been haunted by digital piracy through file-swapping sites like now-defunct Napster and Morpheus. As a result, the industry seeks to preempt the troubles that hit the music industry through peer-to-peer communities." News.com Can you spot the "irrational phrase"?
NO BLOOD FOR EUNUCHS!
OK, so something Citizen Beaker said in a comment to this post about Florence got me all worked up over the friggin' feckless EUnuch assmunchers and I thought that it would be a horrible thing to let a perfectly good rant wither away in a comments box, so here goes... What Beaker brought up was basically asking what the fuck is WRONG with those nutsos on the other side of the pond? First they get their asses burned when their idiot royalty have at each other and we send our doughboys over to save them from themselves... OK, good, problem solved, right? WRONG! Just over two decades later, they decide to try fascism and nazism on for size, get their shrivelled nuts caught in the wringer again and hey presto, off go our GIs to save the fucknuts from themselves once a-fucking-GAIN! OK, THAT settled it, right? Surely you asswipes have had it with totalitarian regimes now, haven't you? Can we leave you home alone now for a while without worrying about you setting the house on fire while we're gone? Wait, what's that? The Soviets, you say? Well alright then, let's station our boys over there indefinitely then, paying for your defense while you pump all the money you save by refusing to defend yourselves into welfare for your lazy, no-good citizens. At least we'll save the cost of having to ferry our boys over the next time. Five decades later the Soviets finally realize that they're no match for us and hoist the French white flag. Yay! It's over! We can go home now and start spending trillions of American tax dollars on actual Americans, right? WRONG!!! Now the terminally screwed up EUrofucks decide to split up into 735 nation states the size of my backyard and fight among themselves. Well, surely you EUrinals can take care of shitholes the size of your average Texan ranch with the combined military budgets of Liechtenstein without us 'Murkins getting involved, right? WRONG!!! The stupid fucks sit impotently in Brussels and debate the curvature of cucumbers while the people of the Balkans are systematically wiped out by madmen... OK, here we go a-fucking-GAIN!!! In go the GIs, out go the shitheads. Finally it looks like some semblance of peace is about to erupt in that rotten backwater of civilization that calls itself "Europe" when WHAM! The US of A finds itself under attack. Well, surely you guys remember all that we've done for you and will line up to lend a hand, right? WRONG!!! Oh no, now all you do is piss, moan and whine, while you try to obstruct every single fucking move we make to defend ourselves while your unwashed masses congregate in all of your major cities to protest OUR aggressiveness and all the while you're busy building a totalitarian bureaucrapcy that would've made Josef Fuckin' STALIN blush!!! Listen, you castrated numbnuts: It's time for you to step up to the fucking plate just for ONCE in your irrelevant, miserable little lives, K? And I don't really give a good shit anyway, it's not like you can contribute with anything useful, considering that your combined military spending is on par with fucking Ecuador, I just want you to know one little thing: When you get your asses caught in a sling again and come crying to us, begging for help, and it WILL happen, you assclowns just can't HELP yourselves, I'm gonna whip out the smallest violin I can find in all of our 50 states and play you the saddest song in the fucking Universe on it while your cities burn, for I'll be three times fucking DAMNED if I'll ever lift a fucking FINGER to help your sorry asses again! Am I making myself absolutely fucking clear here, you worthless stinking pissants? Good! Now go to HELL! I forgot, you're already there... Well enjoy, then... [Insert usual disclaimer about not all EUropeons being ingrate Islamofascist nutsack lickers etc. etc. We all know that. The ones of you that my rant is directed at know who you are, the rest of you can just ignore what I said or, better still, go take a Clue Bat� to the pointed skulls of your Idiotarian compatriots. You'll be doing all of us a favor] nicedoggie.net
ONE person can be a weapon.
Only monkeys keep doing something that doesnt work. When it rains, monkeys dont seek cover. REAL PEOPLE however, run for shelter.
People who vote cannot complain when they are bombed, because they have explicitly endorsed the insane policies that spawn bombers.
Democracy is hopelessly broken. This information is now in the mainstream; even "The Times" published an article on it. Its ok to vote in a place like Switzerland or Canada that doesnt get involved in messy garbage, but in otther, insanely active countries, participating in Democracy is actually immoral.
In Australia, voting is COMPULSORY ie, it is ILLEGAL not to participate in Democracy. Astounding.
There is a new type of light bulb that uses 60% less electricity for the same amount of light.
This, coupled with high temperature superconducting transmission lines will reduce the waste of electricty drastically. It means replacing every power line and light bulb, but it really needs to be done.
This is the sort of thing the BILLIONS of $ being spent on war should really be spent on, dont you think?
as found on Ebay!
Red Army Faction
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion) was a German radical leftist terror organisation active from the 1970s to 1998. The name was inspired by that of The Red Army, a Japanese leftist terrorist group. The word faction was thrown in to illustrate the connection leftist organisations felt with a large, international Marxist struggle. The group is mostly known under the name Baader-Meinhof Gang, but this name is misleading, for, although Andreas Baader was one of the leaders of the group, Ulrike Meinhof was not. She was not second-in-command and she was not Baader's lover, as some think. Gudrun Ensslin was the second-in-command (and Baader's lover, by the way), but it is believed she was actually the brains behind the whole group. Most of the leaders of the Baader-Meinhof Gang were captured as early as 1972, both Baader and Meinhof in June of that year. As they went to trial in 1975-76 their followers would hold hostages a number of times over the next five years in an effort to secure the release of their leaders from jail. Meinhof committed suicide in May 1976. While in June 1976 following the famous Entebbe hi-jacking a number of terrorists including members of the Baader-Meinhof gang were freed. In 1977 another kidnapping and airplane hi-jacking failed to gain the release of the three leaders of the gang. Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe all committed suicide on October 17, 1977. After the deaths of their leaders the so-called third, fourth, and fifth generations of the RAF carried on. Another organisation, the Movement 2 June, dissolved in 1980 and its remnants joined forces with the RAF. In the early 1980s the RAF allied with the French group Action Directe. The collapse of Communism and the Soviet Union was a serious blow to left-wing terrorist groups and by 1990 only the RAF remained. The RAF was financially and logistically supported by the STASI, the security and intelligence organization of East Germany. A bomb that destroyed a prison in Wieterstadt in 1993 would prove to be the RAF's last gasp. But it was not until April 1998 that a letter was sent to Reuters stating that the RAF was officially disbanded. http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction
Britain has become an utter fucking joke.
1. Politicians, who are payed almost 3 times their salary, are refusing to give a pay increase to the firefighters. The firefighters are poised to go on strike, leaving Britain protected against fire by the army, who have no firefighting training, and "Green Goddess" fire engines that were built in the 50's, do not have ladders, and have a top speed of 50mph (25mph around corners).
2. The British government issued, and quickly retracted, a statement warning the population of a "real and credible" threat of a terrorist attack on the UK mainland, consisting of either a chemical or biological attack, a bomb at a nuclear facility, or a "dirty bomb". This statement was retracted to prevent "widespread panic".
3. Two days later the government accidently let slip that the first troops of an Iraq invasion force are being shipped to Kuwait, despite all signs indicating that Saddam Hussein will concede to UN demands, and that there will be no legal grounds for a war on Iraq.
4. The national rail infrastructure has collapsed, resulting in thousands of deaths, and an unsuable rail service, all due to privatisation. The government has ignored public sentiment and the wishes of our elected mayor, and is now privatising the Tube, London's subway system. The last two serious incidents on the Tube (The Kings Cross fire and the Moorgate crash) were catastrophic, and are still in the memory of Londoners, despite decades having passed. People will die, but the government have pushed this through to line their own pockets.
5. Our government cannot be stopped. We no longer have a credible opposition party, and the 2nd house, the House of Lords, has been all but dissolved. The Conservatives, our supposed opposition party, have become nothing more than a "lunatic fringe party", with no hope of attaining power within the next decade.
6. Our government is nothing but a willing lapdog of US foreign policy. We are inviting untold terror and destruction to be wrought on our country by gleefully and blindly following the US' wishes, no matter how insane and destructive they may be to international relations and our own position in the world.
And what are the main stories that the UK media, both print and broadcast, are concentrating on?
1. Princess Dianas butler and his alleged theft of her trinkets and Phil Collins CDs.
2. The Queens status in our legal system.
3. Alleged gay rape at the palace, and our old friend Michael Barrymore's involvement.
4. Ulrika Jonsson's sex life.
5. Allegations of rape against John Leslie.
6. Who is the greater Briton - Princess Diana, Charles Darwin or William Shakespeare?
7. The pubs might get to open a couple of hours later.
This is utterly fucked. Our country is falling apart, we're under immediate danger of terrorist attack, and our government is fucking us sideways - and all we care about is what a couple of washed-up TV celebrities are up to, and the goings-on inside Britains most irrelevant and pointless family.
I'm out of here. I don't want to live in a country like this anymore.
The question is - where to go?
The US is out, obviously, as I believe in freedom of speech, freedom in general, and honesty and transparency in government. I also don't want to get shot or executed.
Are there any sane and socially responsible governments left in the world?
Canada?
Denmark?
Holland?
Sweden?
Where?
from alex's yayhooray post.
Where indeed? Personally, i like to chew gum so singapore is OUT :]
Antartica is free.
So is the moon.
One is too cold.
The other too far.
there is a group of people in the USA who are gathering together to form a new state, which will then break away from the federal government...cant find the link...
hmmmmmm
Sunday, November 10, 2002
"Our youth is turning on us!" -- in the summer of 1971, German authorities printed up millions of these and similar wanted posters. With an almost equal number of women as men, the Baader-Meinhof Gang was threatening beyond their bombs and guns. They threatened the patriarchal backbone of the German state.
The Council of Europe fights against racism and xenophobia on the Internet
Strasbourg, 07.11.2002 - The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers today adopted the Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime. The Protocol requires States to criminalise the dissemination of racist and xenophobic material through computer systems, as well as racist and xenophobic-motivated threat and insult including the denial, gross minimisation, approval or justification of genocide or crimes against humanity, particularly those that occurred during the period 1940-45. It also defines the notion of this category of material and establishes the extent to which its dissemination violates the rights of others and criminalises certain conduct accordingly.[...] I have never believed that these laws are right in any way; in fact, they will encourage and bolster the very voices that they want to silence. I support, without qualification, the absolute right for people to write and read whatever they want, via what ever media they choose. This insane legislation thus makes me a supporter of "the bad guys". So be it. The title of this announcement is wrong; it should read "The Council of Europe fuels racism and xenophobia on the Internet". Believe me, this is only the beginning. When everyone is issued an EEC passport, and each persons own national legislature is nothing more than a toothless vestigial organ housed in a building of historic value, then these dictates will come thick and fast, controlling every aspect of your life, down to the very words that you are allowed to read and the music you are allowed to listen to. This, my friends, is the face of TRUE evil; and frighteningly, it is a faceless face. What are the names and nationalities of the people who wrote this piece of trash? Who are they answerable to? The Germans and many other nations do not accept the idea of absolute rights. No problem, I dont have to live there. Ive spoken about this many times before; now I will spell it out for you. This is the mind set that controls Europe; a mind set that is hungry for total control over every person in Europe, all the way to Russia. Taken straight from the German Constitution Article 9 (Freedom of association). (1) All Germans have the right to form associations and societies. (2) Associations, the objects or activities of which conflict with the criminal laws or which are directed against the constitutional order or the concept of international understanding, are prohibited. The word "rights" means that individuals reserve unto themselves certain freedoms that cannot be circumscribed or constricted by the state. If the state can control, meter, or stop you from doing something, then you no longer have the right to do it. Rights are not privileges they belong to you outside of any organization of control. The German constitution is flawed in this respect, on every issue concerning the rights of Germans. Article 11 (Freedom of movement). (1) All Germans enjoy freedom of movement throughout the Federal territory. (2) This right may be restricted only by or pursuant to a statute, and only in cases in which an adequate basis of existence is lacking and special burdens would arise to the community, or in which the restriction is necessary to avert an imminent danger to the existence or the free democratic basic order of the Federation or a Land, to combat the danger of epidemics, to deal with natural disasters or particularly grave accidents, to protect young people from neglect or to prevent crime. Interesting; "All Germans enjoy freedom of movement throughout the Federal territory." this is a statement, not an assertion of rights. Article 12 (Right to choose an occupation, prohibition of forced labor; amended March 19, 1956.) (1) All Germans have the right freely to choose their trade or profession their place of work and their place of training. The practice of trades and professions may be regulated by law. (2) No one may be compelled to perform a particular work except within the framework of a traditional compulsory public service which applies generally and equally to all. Anyone who refuses on conscientious grounds to render war service involving the use of arms may be required to render an alternative service. The duration of this alternative service shall not exceed the duration of military service. Details shall be regulated by a law which shall not prejudice freedom of conscience and shall provide also for the possibility of an alternative service having no connection with any unit of the Armed Forces. (3) Women shall not be required by law to render service in any unit of the Armed Forces. On no account shall they be employed in any service involving the use of arms. (4) Forced labor may be imposed only in the event that a person is deprived of his freedom by the sentence of a court. Article 12a (Liability to military and other service; added 24 June 1968) (1) Men who have attained the age of 18 years may be required to serve in the Armed Forces, in the Federal Border Guard, or in a civil defense organization. (2) A person who refuses, on grounds of conscience, to render war service involving the sue of arms may be required to render a substitute service. The duration of such substitute service shall not exceed the duration of military service. Details shall be regulated by a statute which shall not interfere with freedom to take a decision based on conscience and shall also provide for the possibility of a substitute service not connected with units of the Armed Forces or of the Federal Border Guard. Pass me the knife bud, so I can cut my dick off. So, in one article, they say that compulsory labour is forbidden, then they have an extension to the same article saying that you can be compelled to serve in the German Army, and then, most absurdly, they EXCLUDE WOMEN. With this language, they give with the right hand, and then take (more than they have given) with the left. It gets better. Article 16 (Deprivation of citizenship, extradition, right of asylum). (1) No one may be deprived of his German citizenship. Loss of citizenship may arise only pursuant to a law, and against the will of the person affected it may arise only if such person does not thereby become stateless. (2) No German may be extradited to a foreign country. Persons persecuted for political reasons enjoy the right of asylum This time, they confer and remove a right in TWO CONSECUTIVE SENTENCES! Now that is what I call efficient use of language. The last two articles are the killers: Article 18 (Forfeiture of basic rights). Whoever abuses freedom of opinion, in particular freedom of the press (Article 5, paragraph 1) freedom of teaching (Article 5, paragraph 3), freedom of assembly (Article 8), freedom of association (Article 9), the secrecy of mail posts and telecommunications (Article 10),property (Article 14), or the right of asylum (Article 16, paragraph 2) in order to attack the free democratic basic order, forfeits these basic rights. The forfeiture and its extent are pronounced by the Federal Constitutional Court. Article 19 (Restriction of Basic Rights). (1) Insofar as under this Basic Law a basic right may be restricted by or pursuant to a law, the law must apply generally and not solely to an individual case. Furthermore the law must name the basic right, indicating the Article. (2) In no case may a basic right be infringed upon in its essential content. (3) The basic rights apply also to corporations established under German Public law to the extent that the nature of such rights permits. (4) Should any person's right be violated by public authority, recourse to the court shall be open to him. If no other court has jurisdiction, recourse shall be to the ordinary courts. Oh dear. These two articles complete the neutering of this absurd document. Freedom of speech is obliterated by phrases like "Whoever abuses freedom of opinion, in particular freedom of the press". The "the free democratic basic order" in Germany is basically a giant prison for Germans, where you are forbidden to say certain things at the whim of whoever has the keys on that day. We already know that there is widespread phone bugging but what I would like to know is, what happens EXACTLY to someone who is stripped of their "basic rights" can they then be tortured, killed imprisoned indefinitely? Certainly its clear from the above that all rights to property (that actually never existed for the sad German who has been stripped of his "basic rights") are up in smoke. There is a glimmer in here, a very dull one that someone saw this document for what it is. This line "In no case may a basic right be infringed upon in its essential content." feels like an attempt to claw something back from the morass of restrictions. Unfortunately, the "essential content" of each basic right simply isn�t there to begin with The business men got their hands in, where corporations are given the same rights as real people (such as they are). More on that another time maybe! "Should any person's right be violated by public authority, recourse to the court shall be open to him." This is astounding; every public authority can cut your "rights" off if they think that they have due cause; the courts will surely go along with them, since they are part of the SAME AUTHORITY. This is why rights must be ABSOLUTE, so that there can be no question of "appropriate action" against a person. It is clear from this, and examples from history that rights cannot be granted or conferred, but must be taken. All of that being said, this is not what I am concerned about. What concerns me is that these people, who are of little interest while they shackle themselves in private, now want to shackle people outside of their borders. This is totally unacceptable, and will (hopefully) cause a large social calamity to put to death FOREVER the idea of a unified Europe. A good friend of mine said that "Germans are another race of beings". We laughed our heads off. If this evil edict comes into force, having blogged an account of this conversation, we are liable to have our blog removed from the net, and I could arrested. That is just bullshit. Many people will "go to war" over this. It is simply "not going to happen". No free person will allow another person in another country tell her what to do with her words. Like I said before, hopefully the weight of all these edicts will break the back of the European goal of total control, and destroy it forever. Bring it on then burn in hell you PIGS.
Friday, November 08, 2002
In short, we all may lose our ability to share digital media unless we speak up.
While there are problems with the Directive and its UK implementation which may only be interesting to a copyright lawyer (and I am one), there is one provision in particular which should scare everyone (except a few global media conglomerates). A new section is proposed for the Copyrights, Designs & Patents Act 1988 entitled �XXX.� The XXX provision will virtually eliminate all vestiges of fair dealing, and eventually of file sharing.
Here's why. Music and film companies are doing everything they can to eliminate file sharing (just look at what happened to Napster). One of the weapons in their arsenal is technological measures to protect their files -- encryption, copy protection, etc -- ie, digital locks. Previously, however, it was not entirely clear that fashioning or distributing a key to that lock (ie, a decryption code like DeCSS) without the media company's authority would actually be illegal. The EU's new Copyright Directive mandates that member states make it illegal, but does leave some wiggle room (if you're really interested in some of the background to this and why the Directive might itself be illegal, see the article here).
The UK had at least two choices under the Directive -- put the burden of protecting consumer rights on the global media companies (where it belongs) or put the burden on consumers. The Patent Office has made its choice � and is putting the burden squarely on consumers. Under proposed provision XXX, if you buy a CD which is copy-protected, and it doesn't play in your computer disc drive, or won't download to your MP3 player, your only remedy will be to send a letter of complaint to the Secretary of State.
The Register
"If you plan to continue protesting about future audio media releases with copy protection, forget it; copy protection is a reality, and within a matter of months more or less all audio media worldwide are copy protected. And this is a good thing for the music industry. In order to make this happen we will do anything within our power - whether you like it or not."
The Register
"(U.S. President George W.) Bush: who are you, you little dwarf, to threaten (the prophet) Mohammad and the sons of Mohammad?" "Who are you, perverts of the world? Who are you sons of monkeys and pigs, to threaten the nation of Mohammad?" Sheikh Bakr Abdelrazzak Samaraei at the Mother of All Battles mosque. http://abcnews.go.com
from the Dark Beloved Cloud records website:
DBC236 Fat Day's Fat Day IV CD
Boston's insane art-hardcore veterans Fat Day included an "Order Your Own Fat Day Song!" postcard with their album Burrega! This is the result of the postcards they got back: 21 songs written by 21 Fat Day fans. It's the accomplishment of their career, one of the most alien punk records ever made: they've taken a stylistic leap in all directions at once, and the result is pretty incredible. It took two years to make, culminating in a sewer-pipe rupture that covered their entire studio and all of their equipment in human feces. As they put it, "so Fat Day it hurts." You can see all the original postcards and other "scores" check out the cards here--we recommend it very highly. $10 postpaid.
According to observers of the intelligence community the shortwave network might be home to something more serious than Afghan folk music and reassurances of US goodwill. An unconfirmed, (and presently unconfirmable) report suggests that UK media have been asked to drop reports on the use of so-called 'Numbers Stations'.
These use otherwise incomprehensible strings of code numbers, broadcast by shortwave to agents and special forces in the field.
According to communications from one authoratative source, the British government is using its famous D Notice system to 'persuade' British papers not to report on the numbers' stations use. Under the D Notice system newspaper editors are advised informally that publication of certain information is potentially hazardous to the country's defence (hence the 'D' in D Notice).
Afghanistan: On-air supremacy
"TUNJA, Colombia Nov. 8 � The former head of the cartel that dominated the world's cocaine trade walked free from prison after serving only half his sentence, despite frantic efforts by U.S. and Colombian authorities to find new charges against him to block his release."
No doubt he is now on the [US][CI]A deathlist.
ABC News
Thursday, November 07, 2002
flash crowd
Larry Niven's 1973 SF short story "Flash Crowd" predicted that one consequence of cheap teleportation would be huge crowds materializing almost instantly at the sites of interesting news stories. Twenty years later the term passed into common use on the Internet to describe exponential spikes in website or server usage when one passes a certain threshold of popular interest (what this does to the server may also be called slashdot effect).
http://www.windows1984.com
November 1, 2002.
The aim of this website is to draw attention to issues, particularly those related to personal computer use, which threaten to bring us closer to the dystopian nightmare of George Orwell's novel, 1984.
Kembrew McLeod
Conceptual, 1998
In 1998, Kembrew McLeod trademarked the phrase "Freedom of Expression" and created a zine with that title. He enlisted a friend, Brendan Love, to pose as the publisher of an imaginary punk rock magazine also called Freedom of Expression, whom he then pretended to sue. McLeod hired a lawyer and didn't let her in on the hoax. The lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter to Love:
We represent Kembrew McLeod of Sunderland, Massachusetts, the owner of the federally registered trademark, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ... Your company has been using the mark Freedom of Expression ... Such use creates a likelihood of confusion in the market and also creates a substantial risk of harm to the reputation and goodwill of our client. This letter, therefore, constitutes formal notice of your infringement of our client�s trademark rights and a demand that you refrain from all further use of Freedom of Expression.
Shortly thereafter, the Daily Hampshire Gazette ran an interview with McLeod. He played it straight, telling the paper, "I didn't go to the trouble, the expense and the time of trademarking Freedom of Expression just to have someone else come along and think they can use it whenever they want." Two years later, when McLeod asked to reprint the Gazette article in his book Owning Culture, the paper denied him permission.
Illegal Art
Wednesday, November 06, 2002
That film is made by Bruce Conner, an incredible filmmaker that works almost entirely in found footage. I strongly urge you to seek out his other films if you dug America Is Waiting.
Thomas Paine's admonition that time makes more converts than reason was surely pertinent for the 18th Century and perhaps even the 20th, but in the first decade of this new century time is a luxury we do not have with regard to nuclear power and nuclear weapons. The United States still maintains a first-strike policy against Russia and has a strategy for targeting non-nuclear nations with nuclear weapons. The continuing risk of accidental or planned nuclear war and the depredations to the public health and the environment that nuclear power poses are imminent and unforgiving. The mere passing of months and years will not solve this problem. Instead we must act definitively and with urgency to bring reason - eloquent, focused, well-disseminated - back into public discourse via the mass media.
http://www.nuclearpolicy.org/
Terrorists, 'Repent'
Yemeni leader appeals to al-Qaida THE ASSOCIATED PRESS November 6, 2002 San'a, Yemen - Yemen's president urged al-Qaida members yesterday to "repent" after the weekend attack in which a U.S. Hellfire missile fired from a CIA plane killed the terrorist movement's top operative in the country. "We call on everyone from among our countrymen who have been entangled in membership of the al-Qaida organization to repent ... and renounce all means of violence," President Ali Abdullah Saleh said in a statement read by a cabinet minister on national television. Yemeni analysts said the statement was a signal that al-Qaida members who surrender would be tried in Yemen and not be turned over to U.S. authorities. The president made no attempt to explain the circumstances of Sunday's incident, which killed six al-Qaida members, including Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi. Yemen is keen to shake off its image as a haven for Muslim militants but also reluctant to be seen as cooperating with the United States. Also known as Abu Ali, al-Harethi was a longtime figure in al-Qaida who had eluded capture for months by hiding in the Yemeni desert and remote villages. [...]
Predator Pilot flying a mission
My emphasis. Photo from: http://www.afsouth.nato.int/images/Eagleimages.htm
Lets get this straight; the CIA has killed a man with a missile in Yemen?!
The gloves are off; "Murder Inc." is back in business!
*****************************
"The Swedish foreign minister, Anna Lindh, told the Swedish news agency TT: "If the USA is behind this with Yemen's consent, it is nevertheless a summary execution that violates human rights. If the USA has conducted the attack without Yemen's permission it is even worse. Then it is a question of unauthorised use of force.""
The Guardian
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