This is the perfect way to view the Bush platform, more fake war, more fake consent.
Friday, October 29, 2004
fake troops
Bush/Cheney admit to doctoring ad, make fake troops
This is the perfect way to view the Bush platform, more fake war, more fake consent.
This is the perfect way to view the Bush platform, more fake war, more fake consent.
Lost in the Supermarket
"The song starts cold. Two guitar chords ring on the downbeats, locked in step with the drums, marching forward with no dynamic variation. A second guitar introduces difference, coming toward us like an ambulance Dopplering into range. The bass guitar, sounding like someone’s voice, heralds everybody over the hill and into the song. If you can listen to it without getting a chilly burst of immortality, there is a layer between you and the world." Sasha Frere-Jones on the legacy of The Clash.
friendly
........ friendly ........ http://66.225.223.75/furv/ http://www.imaginary-soundscapes.net http://www.helenscarsdale.com/published/toniutti/index.htm http://www.mdx.ac.uk/www/CRMEP/events/noise.htm http://www.apo33.org http://www.khm.de/flusser/archiv.html http://www.flattime.net/ http://www.le-souffleur.nl/ http://kunst.no/alias/origami/tore/ http://kunst.no/alias/origami/tore/13051826/1.2.3-surviving2.html http://www.blacksoap.org/Arsenic/ http://www.groeschmetzger.de/musik.html http://www.difficultfun.org/ http://www.ffss.info/ http://www.tochnit-aleph.com/asshole/ http://www.tochnit-aleph.com/davephillips/ http://www.ms-wrk.com/ http://www.costes.org/ http://www.prism-escape.com/ http://www.irdial.com/blogger.html http://www.hypnagogia.org.uk/DSM%20-%20Casual%20Praise.htm http://www.japanimprov.com/takiyama/ http://www.kokeko.net
Thursday, October 28, 2004
Ogrish Outrage
The judge of the Audiencia Nacional, Juan del Olmo, the judge in the criminal cases of the March 11 bombing , today ordered the Judicial Police to take whatever action necessary to halt the activities of the web site www.ogrish.com, whose servers are located in the US, which is displaying images of the victims of March 11, and is notable for its crudeness.
While these images had been incorporated for some time the indictments against the criminals, the judge has nonetheless started an investigation to determine who has permitted them to be seen by any person on the internet.
The magistrate knew of the existence of this web page as a result of a communication received by the Audiencia Nacional from an anonymous citizen, who denounced the sites activities. The same source requested that Del Olmo, who appreciated the assistance of the citizen, respond in any fashion necessary to safeguard the pain of the victims of the massacre.
<>In a judicial decree, Del Olmo, based his decision on Article 579 of the Law of Criminal Judging, which indicated the judge could take action pertaining to telephone communications (the Internet arrives via telephone lines), in relation to Article 18 of the Spanish Constitution, which guarantees the right of honor, privacy, and appropriate use of peoples' images.On www.ogrish.com, one can see 34 high-quality exclusive images, as advertised by those responsible for the site, which included images of mutilated bodies and people destroyed by the bombs of the past March 11. Additionally, the web site includes a video with images of the victims of the criminals.
The objective of the measure taken by Del Olmo is that they cease the activities that are hurting the honor of the victims, according to sources close the court. [...]
That's all very "interesting", but did you know that Ogrish is hosting a video of Kenneth Bigley being beheaded? No, I didnt know that either, and its fascinating, because you would have imagined some moral outrage on demand spilling out into the newspapers at this video being available. Either the newspapers know about it and are collectively not saying anything, OR they dont know about it and so hence no reaction, OR I missed it in the newspapers.
Which one is it? YOU Decide!
Interrupt Media Group
If anyone is interested, I recently redesigned/restarted my blog, Interrupt Media Group. Have a look if you'd like, and send me offlist feedback at jkmeier at uchicago dot edu. Thank you.
Towards a Cultural Heritage RTD Roadmap. will
Dear Expert
The DigiCULT project is currently preparing a roadmap on the challenges
and possible achievements in research and technological development
(RTD) over the next 10 to 15 years that are likely to lead to advanced
applications for the cultural heritage sector.
The roadmap is a navigation tool that will provide essential
understanding and direction in the strategic planning of research
agenda, guiding investment in and funding of innovative RTD.
We invite you to participate in this roadmapping exercise, helping
DigiCULT to define and qualify the challenges and approaches ahead. The
roadmap will be published in Thematic Issue 7 that will be available in
December 2004.
Starting from the current IST programme's vision of "anywhere, anytime,
natural and enjoyable access to IST services for all" the roadmap
concentrates on the following five themes:
* Theme 1: Intelligent & Contextual [MEANING]
* Theme 2: Natural & Enjoyable Interaction [EXPERIENCES]
* Theme 3: Create / Re-create [3D/AR/VR]
* Theme 4: Large Scale & Distributed [AUTOMATION]
* Theme 5: Persistent & Perpetual Access [PRESERVATION]
Click here to start
http://www.digicult.info/pages/drr_themes.php
c) DigiCULT Forum 2002-2004
http://www.digicult.info
Three "Trinities" set loose deliberately
Before Trinity: The 100 Ton Test
May 7, 1945:
To help in preparing the instrumentation for the Trinity shot the "100 Ton Test" was fired on 7 May 1945. This test detonated 108 tons of TNT stacked on a wooden platform 800 yards from Trinity ground zero. The pile of high explosive was threaded with tubes containing 1000 curies of reactor fission products. This is the largest instrumented explosion conducted up to this date. The test allowed the calibration of instruments to measure the blast wave, and gave some indication of how fission products might be distributed by the explosion.
This image was provided by Peter Kuran, director of Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie (available on video). Footage of the 100 ton shot can be seen in the movie.
The pile of 108 tons of Composition B (a TNT/RDX mixture) prior to being blown up in the 100 Ton Test (46 K).| The 100 Ton Test | ||
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Thirty legions!
You are VOLAC, high-president of hell; he appears
in the form of a child with the wings of an
angel, mounted on a two-headed dragon. He knows
the position of the planets and the lurking
places of serpents. Thirty legions obey him.
Which Infernal Being Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Orobas!
You are OROBAS, high prince of the somber empire.
One sees him in the form of a beautiful horse.
When he appears in the form of a man, he speaks
of the divine essence. Consulted, he gives
responses on the past, the present, and the
future. He discovers falsehoods, grants favors
and help, reconciles enemies, and has twenty
legions under his orders.
Which Infernal Being Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Drop Copy
networked applications
IP Scanner and its companion app, IP Broadcaster, are the first installments of a suite of tools that leverages rendezvous to facilitate communication and transfer of data between computers and wireless devices on a dynamic LAN.
We are reaching a point where almost anything can “talk” to anything else. If you need something specific built to your specifications - let us know; our java and c++ gurus can help you create an elegant solution.
http://10base-t.com/applications.html
if only there was one for windows...machine to machine copying without setup.
Drop Copy
http://10base-t.com/applications.html
if only there was one for windows...machine to machine copying without setup.
Ahhh yes, its all true!
"False Christian"
John Kerry wants churchgoing Americans to think he's a legitimate Christian. But what's the REAL story? Watch the latest in our Godly campaign's ongoing series of wholly accurate, non-distorting political ads to find out: Watch It Now:
High Bandwidth
Low Bandwidth
Quicktime Download (2.5MB)
More thoughts on John Peel
he was utterly unique and there was no-one else playing that stuff on MAINSTREAM NATIONAL radio
Thank you for saying that Andrew. Back then, the Radio One DJs were a cowardly and disgusting bunch of idiots, who basically played whatever was handed to them. John Peel however, played exactly what he liked, including strange promotional records like "Energy For Northampton" which was something given away to promote Electricity. This may seem terribly quaint and deliberately oddball, but what it illustrates is that he really did play anything that he liked that came his way.
Back to the systemic problems at Radio One; you need to try and imagine what sort of clamped down time that was. You can get an idea of what it was like by taking note of how the BBC today, when it eulogises John Peel, deliberately fails to mention the actual names of the PIRATE STATIONS that gave him his first airtime in the UK, years BEFORE there was a Radio One the bastard child of Radio Caroline and Radio London.
<>There used to be a meeting every Monday at Radio One where a group of corrupt people would sit down and listen to the single releases from the major labels. They would then decide, by committee, which records would be played to the entire nation. Yes. Just like Stalinist airbrushing Russia, The BBC did this every week; it brutally controlled and corralled its captive audience, and if you did not get your single into that room, and if one of your cronies was not in there, your record could not be played on the radio, full stop. <>
John Peel short circuited all of that. He played records from labels that could not afford to bribe this committee, and thus, we got to hear about groups like , well, you name it. I say bribe deliberately, not as a provocation, but because this was literally true. Only major label releases were considered in this meeting room, and the same groups, literally and figuratively, The Status Quo, kept being given heavy rotation over and over again. This was at a time of the greatest flowering of new music ever in pop, and it was all being systematically ignored by the BBC.
John Peel's death is a tragedy, because, really, he was not that old, and I always imagined that he should be made the controller of BBC Radio One, and that, as a knight in shining armor, he would repurpose all the bad DJs there, and replace them with people that actually liked playing records and that actually liked music. It was not to be. Had it happened however, Radio One would actually have meant something again, and we would have had an ecosystem within which we could all live and thrive.
I remember John Peel playing all sorts of simply great records, and saying out loud, "I gave this record to 'Tony Bannekburn' because I think its that good...I just dont understand why they wont play this!". It was clear to everyone that listened to him that he was right, and not only right, but had a track record of being correct; why then, did not the other DJs play great music from groups like, well, you name them. Once these groups had been played on The John Peel show, they (and not inevitably) picked up some fans, and were enjoyed by someone somewhere; why not play these records to everyone? There was nothing wrong with the records or the songs, it was just that they didn’t have the payola pounds to get into that room, and that was a great injustice, not only to the bands and labels, but to the public, who we all felt would for sure, fall in love with, shall we say,....well, you name the group. There were so many. So very many.
And then, there was the stuff that no one would like, except the likes of me and the THESE boys and the other tens of thousands "like us". We got played to us, things that we simply didn’t think could exist, but which inspired us and enthralled us and, like THESE says, made us dream of the possibilities of 'what could be next'.
He also played old music. That show was an education, of the most gentle and brilliant kind. It made you want to explore older music, it made you aware of the continuity in popular music, and it blew your mind. All of my early exposure to the original blues men came via John Peel. That is a great debt to have to pay back. Also, much of the Dub Reggae that I heard came from John Peel's show. Impossible to repay. So many music’s, so faithfully and enthusiastically played, with an equal admiration for all the music under his stylus, all given equal weight, (unless he wasn’t sure about something - he often played things he wasn’t sure of, giving them a chance to grow on him and us) - and this way of selecting music didn’t have a name, it was just right and you could trust it and you knew that at 10:00 when that guitar started playing, that some magic was about to be unleashed upon you.
The sessions, groups that no one had heard of before, more often than not, classic and talented groups, rarely failed to surprise and inspire. And on the small occasions where a session didnt work out, I remember John Peel actually saying, "hmmm I thought they sounded better than this when I saw them live, which is why we booked them". But this didn’t mean that the more established groups didn’t get return sessions either. Often, and indeed very often, groups would be invited back again and again to record sessions, to “see what they were up to now", to see how they had progressed, and if you look back over the sessions of an oft invited group chronologically, you can see them develop, improve, innovate and exceed themselves...or fall apart. Many of these sessions contained versions of songs that were better than the ones that subsequently appeared on the "official" releases. There are many examples of this, where the definitive versions were the Peel Session versions. Bob "Serpent" Sergeant was one of my favorite producers. The versions of songs he produced were almost always better than the ones that got released.
Like THESE said, there was no internet then; you had to listen to the show and record it yourself on cassette, or someone had to "do you a tape" of it if you missed it, or you could, much later, get a compilation tape of many sessions from "Eddie Wolfram" or one of his contemporaries. You could not just get this music easily, it was hard to track down, and if you lived outside of London
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Whatever the US equivalent of 'gutted' is
I'll never forget seeing Regis and Surgeon on the Peel show live at the Medicine Bar in Birmingham. When John introduced Regis' set I thought I was hallucinating. I could never have imagined someone of his grace, stature, and tenure championing such thoroughly confrontational, underground music. Such a huge loss to the entire community -- even in a part of the world his show wasn't broadcast in. He will be sorely missed.
John Peel: a great man passes away.
 |  | Veteran BBC broadcaster John Peel dies from a heart attack at the age of 65 while on holiday in Peru. |
Its so Obvious!
ReAir Refillable Duster
This is more efficient and less wasteful than the conventional disposable air dusters. According Adam Fields, who tested the product (see Cool Tools), ReAir doesn't last as long as a Dust-Off can or provide quite as much pressure, but it does work well.
Available from: Instaoffice ($12) or many other office supply stores
I recommend you all take care descending the stairs
Cuba bans US dollar transactions
Dollars were made legal tender in 1993 following an economic crisis sparked by the collapse of the Soviet Union.
But dollars will no longer be accepted in shops and other businesses, and tourists and Cubans exchanging dollars will have to pay a 10% commission.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro appeared on TV to endorse the measure, despite suffering a bad fall last Wednesday.
"The empire is determined to create more difficulties for us," he said, referring to the US.
In May, the US announced it was tightening its embargo on Cuba, with measures including capping the remittances sent to the island by Cubans in the US.
In response, said the Cuban central bank in a statement, dollars would no longer be accepted in shops and businesses.
They will have to be exchanged for "convertible pesos" - a local currency that can be used in special shops on the island but has no value internationally - for a 10% charge.
Following the economic crash of the 1990s, and the legalisation of the dollar, many Cubans have become dependant on dollars for many goods, including some basic necessities.
The Cuban government closed down so-called dollar stores in immediate response to the US measures in May, but most reopened two weeks later.
Remittances hit
Mr Castro said the measure did not signal the outlawing of the dollar. Cubans will still be allowed to hold an unlimited amount of dollars, and they will be able to exchange them without charge until the new law comes into effect in two weeks.
But it will mean an additional burden on Cubans abroad who send remittances in dollars - pumping up to $1bn into the Cuban economy each year.
In his message, Mr Castro urged Cubans to tell relatives to send money in other currencies, such as euros, British pounds or Swiss francs. [...]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3953291.stm
My emphasis.
Monday, October 25, 2004
if you don't know me by now
if you don't know me by now
finally saw this over the weekend...took a year for the special to get shown over here. amazing!!
Saturday, October 23, 2004
False Evidence Appearing Real: FEAR
False Evidence Appearing Real: FEAR
More FEAR from the Mayo Clinic
The "Lost" TV Show promotes TCP
Living is Easy with Eyes Closed
Like many other mindless monkeys, my wife and I are completely addicted to the television show "Lost". This is an important event because I don't think I've been addicted to a network show for a long time.
Basically, a plane crashes and the survivors are stranded on a remote island where strange things happen. Groovy.
I was talking with a friend and I decided to make a CD "soundtrack" for the show. All songs that were about the basic emotions and story points on the show. What I've put together works pretty well, I think. You start in the plane, get stranded, encounter monsters, misunderstood people, violence and finally lose all hope.
It's an uplifting disc, really.
The only thing I was missing was an attempted message to the outside world. A message that would go unheard. Nothing really worked that well. So, I enlisted the help of the Conet Project, which is a haunting recording of short wave numbers stations filled with oblique phrases, static, strange noises and other wonderfully musical, aural treats.
But it wasn't enough. There was no melody. So I took the Belle & Sebastian song "Freak" from their Storytelling soundtrack and overlayed pieces of the Conet Project. All done and said I mixed together about five different Conet pieces that I felt were frightening, haunting and desperate. I enjoyed playing around with the stereo channels in the opening bit. My intention was to give a sense that a message was being lost. To close out the CD with a complete sense of hopelessness wrapped inside an attempt at hope.
I think it works. I kind of like it. I used the most cliched piece of Conet in the middle because I figured it would be easily recognizable to my intended audience and they might hang around throughout the song, until the end, so that they would get the final effect I was going for. So, don't hold it against me that I used it. Okay? I'm fragile. Be gentle.
Anyway, here's the track list. Copies are available upon request, of course. I'm also including the song I mashed together for download. God knows how many people could sue me over it. However, I'm sure both of my loyal readers, who are probably both related to me, won't turn me in.
1. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
2. Beach Boys - Sail Plane Song
3. Pavement - Hit The Plane Down
4. Wondermints - Porpoise Song
5. Joe Henry - Ohio Air Show Plane Crash
6. Death Cab For Cutie - President Of What
7. The Kinks - I'm on an Island
8. Rasputina - Thimble Island
9. Radio 4 - Start A Fire
10. AGK - Neon Dog
11. Aimee Mann - Real Bad News
12. The Roswells - Monsters from the Id
13. Les Savy Fav - Tragic Monsters
14. Wilco - Misunderstood
15. Jim White - Static On The Radio
16. Wilco - Be Not So Fearful
17. Destroyer - It's Gonna Take an Airplane
18. Great Lakes - Become the Ship
19. Tom Waits - Lost In The Harbour
20. Golden Smog - Please Tell My Brother
21. Joe Purdy - Wash Away
22. The Conet Project/Belle & Sebastian - Call For Help (Gary Mix) (2.5 MB)
[...]
http://www.sciencefictiontwin.com/blog/2004/10/living-is-easy-with-eyes-closed.asp
The ripples spread outward; this is the TV programme responsible. Fascinating.
Friday, October 22, 2004
Play no pay
I was kind of excited about this when I saw it. I love the functionality:
Imagination Cubed
Until I read the Terms of Use:
5. You acknowledge that the Drawings created on the site will be the property of GE, and you agree that all copyrights and other intellectual propoerty rights in the drawings are assigned to GE. GE will have rights of such ownership, including the perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote these Drawings in any medium. You waive all rights of publicity and privacy with respect to such Drawings. ... etc etc etc
edit
I am still excited about this, so much fun. And the teaching capabilities are endless. Just bummed about the legalise, it's sad that it has to be so controlled.
Color (Now and Then)
From DKS List
A list of antiquated colors from the 1970 edition of the late Ralph Mayer's 700 page plus opus "The Artist's Handbook Of Materials And Techniques", (third edition, the first edition being 1940):
ASPHALTUM. Not a true pigment color. A
blackish-brown solution of asphalt in oil or turpentine. At one period
it was extensively used as a glazing color. Dries badly, causes
wrinkling, and cracking, and develops almost every fault of oil colors,
particularly if mixed with other oils and colors. Used for scumbling and
decorative work to stimulate age, but not for permanent painting. (But
extremely well deployed by Julian Schnabel to affix broken plates to
canvass in the early 1980s, or maybe that was roofing tar?)
BONE BLACK. Made by charring bones. It should not be used in fresco or
for mortar or cement coloring, as it causes efflorescence. Probably
dates from Roman times. Not permanent.
EGYPTIAN BROWN. Mummy.
MUMMY. Bone ash and asphaltum, obtained by grinding up Egyptian mummies.
Not permanent. Its use was suddenly discontinued in the 19th century
when its grisly composition became generally known to artists.
PLUMBAGO. Graphite.
Plumbago (graphite) is not antiquated or obsolete in any way (I just
like the way it sounds) In fact it is the very ground on which the noted
the New York painter Ena Swansea works.
In fact "Ertude in Plumbago" is how I would describe some of her finest
works.
CAPUT MORTUUM (Death's head?) Obsolete name for a very bluish or read
oxide of iron.
DUTCH PINK. A fugitive yellow Lake made from thornberries; never
intended to be used for permanent painting.
ESHEL. A variety of smalt. (Don't ask.)
GALLSTONE. A variety of Dutch Pink, said to obeyed been made from
oxgall; more often it was yellow light compared from quercitron.
GAMBOGE. A native yellow gum from Thailand. Transparent. Not a true
pigment color. Not reliably permanent. In use from medieval times to the
19th century. Superseded by cobalt yellow for a permanent painting.
INDIAN YELLOW. An obsolete lake of euxanthic acid made in India by
heating the urine of cows fed on mango leaves. It was a fairly bright,
transparent yellow of average tinctorial power, non-poisonous, and was
approved by most 19th century investigators as a permanent pigment.
Because few of the Indian yellows were genuine and many of the
semi-permanent aniline colors were sold under this name, it had,
however, and fallen into disrepute. The color as long history in India.
It seems to have appeared in England about the beginning of the 19th
century as a material of unknown origin, and it's curious method of
production did not become known in until the 80's. (1880's) Although its
chemical composition was known before that, the pigment was never been
reproduced or synthesized on a commercial scale. (I wonder why?)
MAUVE. A fugitive synthetic organic lake pigment. A variety of brilliant
mauve pigments is made in two types, reddish and bluish.
MINERAL TURBITH. Turbith mineral (whatever that is?)
MAGENTA. A fugitive lake made from one of the earliest synthetic dyes,
named for the site of a battle in Italy in 1859. Also the standard color
name for deep violet red.
SOLFERINO. A fugitive red-mauve lake made from magenta and, like it,
named for the site of a battle in Italy in 1859.
(As far as I'm concerned you can go wrong with any battle related
Italian items from 1859?)
LAKES. For the uninitiated - lakes are pigments which have been made by
precipitating or fixing a dye upon an inert pigment or lake base. The
process may be compared to that of dying cloth and a high degree of
skill is required to produce good results. (If you say so?)
Esther Venrooy
Esther Venrooy is teh r0x0rz.
-----------------------------------------------
27.11.2004:KRIKRI 2004
Tinnenpot, Gent, Belgium
The much anticipated third edition of the KRIKRI festival. Breaking the borders between speech, music, poetry and sound. More info at http://www.krikri.be
-----------------------------------------------
04.12.2004:Klara in het Paleis
Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels, Belgium
Solo performance with new material and new visuals. At 18:00h and 20:00h
-----------------------------------------------
Thursday, October 21, 2004
The Power of Nightmares
The power of nightmares
did you see it yesterday?
The Power of Nightmares Wed 20 Oct, 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm 60mins
Baby It's Cold Outside In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares. The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But just as the dreams weren't true, neither are these nightmares. This series shows dramatically how the idea that we are threatened by a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion. It is a myth that has spread unquestioned through politics, the security services and the international media. At the heart of the story are two groups: the American neoconservatives and the radical Islamists. Both were idealists who were born out of the failure of the liberal dream to build a better world. These two groups have changed the world but not in the way either intended. Together they created today's nightmare vision of an organised terror network. A fantasy that politicians then found restored their power and authority in a disillusioned age. Those with the darkest fears became the most powerful. The rise of the Politics of Fear begins in 1949 with two men whose radical ideas would inspire the attack of 9/11 and influence the neoconservative movement that dominates Washington. Both these men believed that modern liberal freedoms were eroding the bonds that held society together. The two movements they inspired set out, in their different ways, to rescue their societies from this decay. But in an age of growing disillusion with politics, the neoconservatives turned to fear in order to pursue their vision. They would create a hidden network of evil run by the Soviet Union that only they could see. The Islamists were faced by the refusal of the masses to follow their dream and began to turn to terror to force the people to 'see the truth'.
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Finds wireless networks instantly
|  |
|
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Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Operation Clark County: Mission Accomplished
I don't think it's surprising that some Americans are so angry about outsiders trying to influence who is in power in their country. However, if this is how they react to a few emails, just think how they would feel if someone invaded their country and then decided who was in power. What if a friend or someone in their family was killed, they would probably turn into homicidal, gun weilding maniacs or should I say terrorists? Those Americans who dislike outsiders interfering in their business should look at what their government has been doing in other countries for far too long. Who do you think created the terrorists in the first place? Come on America if you want to be the world leader, then lead by example, clean up your own act rather than bullying the rest of the world into submission or eventually terrorism. [...]
I'm so sorry about the clearly ignorant responses you received from some American voters in your Operation Clark County effort. Personally, I thought it to be a marvelous idea, and with you, hoped for the best.
My family history in this country goes back to the Early 1700's. Many times, I look around this country and ask, "What the hell happened?" I respect my English and French heritage and find myself frequently looking to "the homeland" for ideas of how to live.
America and many Americans, are SO VERY immature, politically, socially and educationally. It is oft times, embarrassing on the world scene.
Please, be certain that you don't think we are all such neanderthals.
Jenny M [...]
Reading all of this bile and adolescent hatred coming from my fellow Americans is actually making me feel sick. I am a dual citizen of the US/UK, and have lived in the UK for ten years. This spring I am returning to live in the US, together with my British husband and two young sons, and reading this all makes me wonder if we've made the right decision. (like I was saying!!!! ./a) Thank god it's to Madison, Wisconsin, which has a long history of being tolerant, and (dare I say the 'l' word?) liberal. The Guardian was indeed silly to take on this campaign, and as a writer in Seattle said, it showed a serious lack of understanding of the US electorate. They hate being told what to do, especially by foreigners. They've also misjudged the general anger and jingoism of the Bush supporter (what they have to be so angry about I don't know - as they 'won' and their leader has managed to do all the destructive things he's planned for years to do). My parents and myself all voted for Bush last time, and all of us are voting Kerry this time. Even my dad, who is usually very much against the Democratic agenda, and prefers Indepedents in most cases. We all recognise the arrogance, the fiscal disaster and appalling warmongering of this man and his cabinet.
I myself signed up to write in this campaign but decided against it. In the end, though the world has so much to lose if Bush gets back in, it's none of their business.
Many of my British friends have told me they don't discuss who they're going to vote for with their partners, let alone strangers. Maybe that's not true for hyper-political types in journalism. I do fear that, in the end, this will only do irreprable damage to the Kerry campaign. My family, the US, and the world has so much to lose if Bush gets back in again.
Guardian The voting campaign has gone ballistic; it is the top two links at Blogdex. Everyone is buzzing about it. A complete sucess, and most excellent. Mission Accomplished!
Solidarity Statements: another waste of time
Solidarity Statements are a total waste of time. They are just like demonstrating; they put all the enemies into an easy to harvest place / shit list for later surveillance / processing.
This 20th century thinking is why the Indymedia servers got taken away in the first place; they are bilssfully unaware that they are playing with the most dangerous people on this planet. They havent even got the common sense to move all of their stuff to an isp like Xs4all which has a history of not knuckling under to flimsy demands from the state. They havent got the sense to have a panic button that overwrites their drives with 00000s or encrypts the volumes in case a writ is served. All of thesse things are doable, cost nothing and could have prevented this violation from taking place. Welcome to the real world Indymedia, and a soon to be welcome to the idiots who put themselvs on that useless list.
Did you ever eat at Pharmacy?
Hirst's "Pharmacy" in record sale
Tue 19 October, 2004 10:29
LONDON (Reuters) - British artist Damien Hirst -- known for using dead animals in his works -- has sold the contents of his iconic London restaurant "Pharmacy" for 11.1 million pounds on a record-breaking night for the artist.
More than 160 items from the restaurant, which combined food with modern art in London's trendy Notting Hill, went under the hammer at Sotheby's late on Monday, more than doubling its estimates of about 4 million pounds.
A giant medicine cabinet called The Fragile Truth sold for 1.24 million pounds -- a record for a Hirst work -- while another cabinet titled The Sleep of Reason went for 1.1 million pounds, both way above top estimates of 600,000 pounds.
"Suddenly my restaurant venture seems to be a success," said Hirst in a statement.
Skeletons, apothecary jars and aspirin-shaped bar stools from the once ultra-hip eatery were other lots, while even simple items such as ash trays sold for more than 10 times Sotheby's pre-sale estimates.
Two Martini glasses, estimated at just 50-70 pounds were sold for 4,800 pounds.
"Tonight's sensational results are the culmination of months of hard work and the vindication of Damien's enduring appeal," said Oliver Barker, Senior Director of Sotheby's Contemporary Art department.
Pharmacy opened in 1997, looking so much like a chemist's shop from the outside that some unwary shoppers were walking in with prescriptions. It shut last year.
Hirst won Britain's top modern art award, the Turner Prize, in 1995 for "Mother and Child, Divided," which featured an adult cow and a baby calf, each split in half, pickled in formaldehyde and displayed in glass tanks. [...]
I ate there once, and only once; the wallpaper was silver, with many many different pills printed on it. I had grilled salmon, which was as unadventurous as the interior was fantastic.
Wired News: Inventor Rejoices as TVs Go Dark
Wired News: Inventor Rejoices as TVs Go Dark [also via boingboing]
Declaration
Declarationin Support of the Indymedia Network and Against the Seizure of its Servers
Sign the Indymedia Solidarity Statement
Dame Pauline NJ Quits BBC!
Dyke's 'posh lady' quits BBC
Jason Deans, broadcasting editor
Tuesday October 19, 2004
Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, one of the "posh ladies" on the BBC board of governors former director general Greg Dyke blamed for getting him fired, is quitting her job at the corporation a year before the end of her contract.
 | 
Dame Pauline Neville-Jones
|
The former diplomat and head of the joint intelligence committee, who clashed with Mr Dyke and former BBC chairman Gavyn Davies about the corporation's strategy during last year's Iraq dossier row with the government, is to step down from the board of governors at the end of this year.
Dame Pauline said she was leaving the BBC 12 months before the end of her current term as a governor because otherwise it would mean retiring "at what will be a crucial period of discussions and decisions" about BBC charter renewal at the end of 2005.
"As the BBC approaches the final phase of decisions about its future, it will be important for those involved to be established in post and ready to take responsibility for implementation of the outcome," she said.
"I therefore believe the BBC would be better served to have a new international governor in place well in advance of December 2005 to provide continuity throughout the final phase of the charter renewal process."
The BBC chairman, Michael Grade, praised Dame Pauline's contribution to the corporation during her seven years as a governor.
"The BBC has benefited from Pauline's vast intellect and deep wisdom on a whole range of important issues, including governance, the BBC's independence and ensuring the BBC provides value for money to licence payers," he said.
Mr Grade also praised her for championing the cause of the World Service.
Despite these achievements, however, Dame Pauline's time at the BBC is likely to be remembered mainly for her controversial role during the Iraq dossier affair.
Posh lady who 'led revolt' against Dyke
In his recently published biography, Inside Story, Mr Dyke accused Dame Pauline and fellow governor Sarah Hogg - who left the BBC earlier this year - for heading the boardroom revolt that led to his departure from the corporation following publication of the Hutton report in January.
However, the suspicion that she has left under pressure will linger, given Mr Grade's determination to separate the governors from BBC management.
Mr Dyke, who advised Mr Grade to reform the governors, initially got on well with Dame Pauline but felt that she betrayed him in the 24 hours following the publication of the Hutton report, claiming she gave him her support but when the crunch came she withdrew it.
Mr Dyke said he never trusted Dame Pauline because she was "incredibly ambitious". He nicknamed her and Ms Hogg the "posh ladies".
He claimed the board behaved like "rabbits caught in car headlights" and called for the departure of the governors who voted against him.
"I hope the six current governors who voted against me - Dermot Gleeson, Merfyn Jones, Fabian Monds, Pauline Neville-Jones, Robert Smith and Ranjit Sondhi - will realise they bowed to pressure from a political thug called Alastair Campbell. They got it seriously wrong and they should accept that. They should resign. The BBC deserves better," Mr Dyke wrote in Inside Story.
She told Gavyn Davies he was wrong
However, others will remember Dame Pauline for her rigour and independence from management.
She was one of the only governors to tell Mr Davies he had got it wrong when he rushed out a statement last July following an emergency governors' meeting giving support to Andrew Gilligan.
In no uncertain terms she told him he was wrong to have produced a statement and said the governors should have launched an investigation into Mr Campbell's complaint before acting. Some believe had the governors followed her instincts the Hutton inquiry would never have been necessary.
BBC documents released to the Hutton inquiry revealed that Dame Pauline urged Mr Davies for "a full review" of "the question of systematic bias on war coverage", ahead of the July 6 board meeting.
But Mr Davies said a review "could greatly damage the BBC" and would allow Mr Campbell to "drive a wedge between governors and the executive [of the BBC]".
However, Dame Pauline stood her ground and insisted the BBC needed to demonstrate its independence from management.
"We are in a tight corner and the best route forward is certainly not obvious... [we] have somehow to maintain the confidence of management while not looking its patsy to the outside world," she wrote in an email to Mr Davies.
In the days before the July 6 meeting, Dame Pauline argued against a "kneejerk reaction" to Mr Campbell's allegations of bias and instead urged a considered approach, even though it may have caused the governors to alter their previous backing of the BBC's coverage.
Dame Pauline joined the BBC board of governors in January 1998. She later applied unsuccessfully for the vice-chairmanship, losing out to Lord Richard Ryder, and chairman's job, which went to Mr Davies.
Before joining the corporation, Dame Pauline spent 33 years in the diplomatic service, becoming one of its most senior female diplomats, including three years as political director of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and five years on secondment in Brussels. She was leader of the British delegation at the Dayton peace conference on Bosnia in 1995.
Born in 1939, Dame Pauline entered the diplomatic service in 1963, aged 24, and remained until 1996, when she quit, accusing it of sexism after being snubbed for the job of ambassador to France.
From 1996 to 2000, she worked as managing director of NatWest markets. [...]
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1330967,00.html
Well I never!
My HTMLized links to governor names obviously.
Fire in a fireworks factory
Fire in a fireworks factory: what it looks like:
http://www.ifilm.com/viralvideo?ifilmid=2481839
unreal!
The penny drops again
http://comment.silicon.com/0,39024711,39125057,00.htm Devil's Advocate: Does the UK need ID cards? October 19 2004 by Martin Brampton Or is there some greater goal here? Whether or not you believe in the benefits of ID cards, the campaign for them in the UK may well be a cover-up for deeper seated agendas such as a national database - and a redefinition of all public sector services, says Martin Brampton. UK Home Secretary David Blunkett figures in this year's silicon.com Agenda Setters poll because of his advocacy for schemes such as ID cards for all. A question worth asking is whether the ID card is driving the need for a database of all citizens, or vice versa. Usually, the assumption is that ID cards are justified and that to make them practical, a huge database has to be built. IT people then run around thinking about the practical issues. Ian Watmore, recently appointed head of the new e-government unit, thinks there should be an end to information silo culture in government. Is the ID card justified? If the construction of a huge national database is required solely to support ID cards, then there is certainly a very large cost at stake. There are also considerable concerns about personal privacy and community relations. The cited benefits are tenuous. The favourite justification for almost any government scheme nowadays is that it combats terrorism. Yet the recent bombing in Madrid that caused serious loss of life was actually carried out by Spanish citizens, who had perfectly genuine Spanish ID cards. Other justifications include cutting fraud and crime. What is ignored is that ID cards create a whole new business for organised crime through the sale of forged cards. In countries where cards are in use, this has happened, sometimes on a massive scale. Only the most sophisticated, and therefore costly, cards would be proof against forgery. Indeed in countries that have ID cards, nobody has ever offered proof that the cited benefits can be realised. And there are proven drawbacks, with minority ethnic groups being required to produce ID card disproportionately often. Without proven benefits, what can be the justification for the cards? Now suppose the real goal is the database and the ID cards merely a political ploy to justify the cost of a huge IT project that would never be accepted on its own merits. Then we would need to ask about the real reasons for building an all-embracing database of personal information. Is a desire to eliminate a silo culture an end in itself or is there another political goal behind the enthusiasm? For comparison, we can look at the rules as they are applied to commercial businesses by the information commissioner, who has been severely critical of government plans. To some degree the individual is protected by the fragmented nature of the business sector. The data protection rules then restrict each business, requiring it to gather only information that is needed for its immediate business and demanding that it ask permission. In the past, government has been somewhat similar, in that each part of government has kept its own records and the records have related only to the relevant aspect of the individual's life. So the NHS has records on just about everybody but the information has been confined to strictly health-related matters and has mostly been kept confidential. Achieving this has led to considerable complexities as the NHS attempts to share data with outside organisations that have a legitimate interest in health matters. But if government policy is reflected by Watmore's statements, it seems a new view is prevalent. No longer is the public sector to be seen as a bundle of services and enterprises, each of which exists to provide some public good. Instead, the public sector is to be seen on the model of a conglomerate, with Watmore as group CIO. The consequences of such a view have implications far beyond the confines of mere IT efficiency. It is one thing to suggest that different arms of government should avoid inconsistency and undue overlap. It is quite another to see the public sector as a monolith. Without far more genuine public accountability than is presently available, it risks creating a system where huge power is concentrated in the hands of an unresponsive executive. Does government need to have extensive information on every individual? Or is the citizen entitled to live independently of government, revealing only what information is needed in particular circumstances? That is the real question, even if government is reluctant to ask it.??? The last lines are the only flaw in this piece; the government doesn't want to ask that question, obviously, and each citizen is "entitled to live independently of government revealing only what they choose in any particular circumstance". There. Much better. Otherwise, a breath of fresh air on a Tuesday morning!
Monday, October 18, 2004
White teeth, white heat!
I laughed my ass off reading those responses - "circle the wagons boys and break out the toothpaste! dont fire untile (yes of course, "untile") you see the wihi...ummm...just kill em all!"
And lest we forget, we have been here before...more politely:
http://www.irdial.com/blogger/archive/2004_07_25_blarchive.html#109104477901463914
Real Americans aren't interested in your pansy-ass, tea-sipping opinions. If you want to save the world, begin with your own worthless corner of it. Texas, USAFor the record, the UK needs to sever its dog-like ties with the US Government. All US bases in the UK should be shuttered, and their staff sent home. People in the UK have been trying to achieve this for decades. And are still trying. The British have many problems that they need to fix. They know this. And that is the difference.
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Blinded by the light
Jon Stewart on Crossfire
I keep watching this download of The Daily Show's Jon Stewart on Crossfire. I've watched it five times now, and the more I watch it the more surreal and weird it gets. I know Jon Stewart is every straight feminist's boyfriend, and admittedly I am no exception, but the implications of the Crossfire segment were so incredibly bizarre that it blew away any celebrity crush factor I may have had going on - and you'll have to take my word for it, but for me that's really saying something.
Stewart's purpose in going on Crossfire was to tell the hosts why he disliked their program. Crossfire, he said, was "painful to watch" because it was theatre masquerading as debate, using any number of dishonest arguments to support their candidate of choice. It was not that he didn't believe that Bush's people or Kerry's people, (or, for that matter, the hosts themselves) did not believe their candidate was the best person for the presidency. Rather, it was that the arguments they used to support their candidate or discredit the opposition were disingenuous.
Okay, so, that isn't a surprise to anyone who has ever seen Crossfire.
What was astonishing to me was Tucker Carlson's insistance on rebutting Stewart's charges with "Yeah? Well, what about you? Look at the questions you asked John Kerry when he was on your show! You're a partisan suck-up, too!"
Over and over, Stewart kept pointing out that he was a stand-up comic, not a political journalist, and that there should not be any comparison between what he does and what Crossfire was purporting to do. And Carlson kept on ignoring him and insisting that Stewart admit that he was also a "partison hack". I can't believe I was watching someone who claimed to be a legitimate political analyst treat a comedian as if their jobs were equal, while simultaneously insisting that what he was doing was legitimate political news.
By about the third viewing, I was shouting out loud at the monitor, "Jesus God, how can you not see what you're saying?!"
Watching Carlson simultaneously purport that
1.) Crossfire is a legitimate news program, and
2.) Crossfire is not obligated to have higher standards than a comedy show whose headlines are virtually identical to the news report on Saturday Night Live
said more about the shape of American news media than anything I have seen so far.
Most of the people who are passing around the link are cheering Jon on, and rightfully so, I suppose, but it's kind of freaking me out, to be honest.
I think I'm going to start watching BBC news from now on.
Sorry I didn't have any stories about porn or potty training today. [...]
http://newgenfilms.com/drupal/node/1870
When people in that shrouded nation, submerged in perpetual night get exposed to a sliver of light caused by someone with a sharp knife it... blinds them.
The rest...
Cold bones and hot tea
An American scapegoat in London
In Britain, America-bashing is so bad that I fear for my safety
Carol Gould
Saturday October 16, 2004
The Guardian
Something remarkable has been happening to me in the past 19 days. Wherever I go, no one launches abuse at me. When I open my mouth to speak, I am received with civility and the occasional "Have a good one". I am not attacked or intimidated. Where have I been visiting for the past two and a half weeks? Philadelphia. And where do I live? London.
Here is a scenario from my adopted hometown: a month ago, I was travelling on a double-decker bus. A well-dressed woman boarded with her son, respectable in his school uniform. Ahead of her was an elderly American woman, who said, "I beg your pardon, I didn't mean to bang into you." This prompted a tirade from the Englishwoman - let's call her Lady E. "I rejoice every time I hear of another American soldier dying! You people are destroying the world".
The American - let's call her Mrs A - fought back: "I personally am not destroying the world." This only provoked Lady E more, and she screamed into the American's face: "I wish every one of you would leave this country and not set foot in it ever again." Mrs A began crying. "Thank you for ruining my trip." Lady E lunged at the American and began to shake her. I jumped up and shouted for the driver to stop and for her to leave the woman alone, prompting Lady E to come over and grab me. "Another bloody American! You are scum." Thankfully, the woman next to me pushed her away. I left the bus. Mrs A sat sobbing.
Did I imagine this? No. Was the Englishwoman a crazy? No.
I don't like what is happening in Britain, and am dismayed at the level at which anti-Americanism has peaked in recent months. Does anyone say "George Bush" or "Donald Rumsfeld" or "Dick Cheney" when they fly into these tirades? No. In fact, the visceral, in-your-face America-hatred goes back long before the days of the Bush regime.
When Bill Clinton was president, I attended a human-rights conference at my local synagogue in St John's Wood. During the tea break, I asked a man at one of the booths for a leaflet. He heard my accent and launched into a red-faced screeching session about the evils of American empire and of the "nazism" and "fascism" promulgated by the US. A black man came over and began shouting about America having "invented slavery" and a delicate elderly lady joined the fray to bellow about the Zionists running America and the "genocides" perpetrated by Americans since the days of William Penn. I wondered why I had ventured out on a Sunday to be with like-minded people concerned about human rights, only to be reduced to a gibbering jelly as an ugly, strident crowd grew around me. [...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1328663,00.html If this was a plea for sympathy, It has with absolute certainty fallen on the deaf ears of Guardian readers everywhere. This revolting person is a perfect example of why everyone "hates americans", or at least, a certain kind of unrepentant, strident, loud speaking american. You will no doubt note if you RTFA, how this person engages in that most disgusting of practices, the boxing and arbitrary grouping of people. She does it as second nature, as if its perfectly accepable, and so should be as acceptable to you as it is to her. She says that a "black man"came over to her and began shouting at her; I'm sure the Guardian allowed her to write this as an instance of "give em enough rope" - just what on earth IS a "black man"?! Having lived here for so long, and proudly trumpeting it in the piece, has she no idea at all that describing a human being in this way is at best bad taste? You can take the man out of america but you cant take the american out of the man. It is the hundreds of small subtle backwardnesses like these that mount like sand in an hourglass when you speak to these people which creates a creeping feeling of nausea and distaste, that "oh no not again" feeling, that "what's going to come out of her mouth next" apprehension. This sensation, combined with their universal, concrete posture of unrepentant, stridency, that Niagroid arrogance which makes any decent person recoil, and causes even the usually well mannered and gentle Englishwoman, as described above, go ballistic is what we are talking about. The writer is "dismayed at the level of anti-americanism" she is encountering in the UK. She has lived in the UK, but obviously none of the greatness, the spirit of this country has touched her in the slightest way; the damp cold has not penetrated her skin and entered her bones - she doesn't drink tea. If she did, if even the smallest part of Britishness had touched her soul, she could not have written this awful piece of whining nonsense, for she would understand why her country is now "the skunk of the world". The real question is, how can she have lived for so long in the UK and not understood a thing about the British?. You can take the man out of america, but you cannot take the america out of the man. Perhaps she spent all her time in a coven of americans isolated from the people of this island, which she claims to have adopted but of which she knows nothing. Either that, or she suffers from Autism, a clinical absence of the ability to empathize with other human beings - that is the only way that she could fail to understand the hatred directed at her countrymen after living here for so long. There have been a few of these "nobody loves us" essays floating around in the past year, the best written by expatriate americans whining about their "mistreatment" at the hands of the German, French and British citizenry. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if W is re-elected, you can expect not only more of the same but more of the same at a higher intensity than ever before. If Kerry is elected and does not reverse the policies that have caused your problems, then you can expect the same treatment as before. And you will deserve every bit of it. Each time you read one of these essays, these essayists say that they enter into an argument with some "local" about the suicidal foreign policy of their country. The question we have to ask is, what on earth are you arguing about? As for the writer of this essay, surely she, who "ventured out on a Sunday to be with like-minded people concerned about human rights" should be on the same side as the people who attack her, if not then she is against human rights just like her evil government is, the one that she supports by arguing for it when people take her to task over its insane policies. Everyone knows that there are many americans who are ashamed and disgusted by the behavior of their lawless, immoral and murdering government. If you are arguing with people who are on that side, then you can only be one of the enemy, otherwise, you would understand that when we speak of human beings, there are only men and women on this earth, not "Iraqi men" and "american men", that when people die, there are not "1000 dead and 12 americans" but 1012 people dead. The subtle distinctions. These are what separate americans like the writer of this essay from the moral people. Great Britain is not her "beloved adopted country". Its just a place to live for her. She has no connection with this place; when she leaves here, she will not shed a tear, unlike the americans who have lived here and who actually loved and embraced this country. I personally know a family that has lived in the UK for many years, brought up their children here and who never suffered the attacks that these tiresome expatriate americans suffer. This is because the damp has reached their bones. The mother of this family weptwhen they left these shores, devastated that she was leaving this most civilized of places and very fearful of returning to a country they once called home, but which now, having lived outside of it with open pores and open eyes, seems to be a land that exports only disruption and hate. Then there is the inevitable brainwashing her childeren will suffer. But I digress. These people, the quiet, intelligent americans are the only hope of that beleaguered land. Essayists like the one featured in this piece are a large part of the problem, and of course, they don't believe or understand why that is so, which is part of what makes them so utterly revolting.
Saturday, October 16, 2004
Friday, October 15, 2004
Democracy: no model for the world
A majority in Britain also believe that US democracy is no longer a model for others.
But perhaps a more startling finding from the Guardian/ICM poll is that a majority of British voters - 51% - say that they believe that American culture is threatening our own culture.
This is a fear shared by the Canadians, Mexicans and South Koreans, but it is more usually associated with the French than the British. Perhaps the endless television reruns of Friends and the Simpsons are beginning to take their toll. [...]
Thursday, October 14, 2004
Optimism vs Fact
your optimism
No optimism, just statements of fact. I said IF they come to get your stuff, IF and only IF. Thats why its potentially scary, and not actually scary. Clarity, precision; we like it. One liners; inefecient, unwarranted...accusation. What is the prosucution doing? Inane inane!
You were in violation.
Defendant used, not destroyed.
Defense rests.
BLOGDIAL : We are the best
This is potentially scary because it unifies your online google searches, your searches on your machine for your personal files and your gmail account.
This potential is all that I am indicating. I, too, appreciate Google, and believe them when they say that their 'Don't be evil' principle won't be tampered with...but, your optimism and their good intentions might not matter one iota when the FBI comes knocking.
Veeep Veeep Veeeeeeeep!
9. What about my privacy? Does Google Desktop Search share my content with anyone?<> From the privacy policy:We treat your privacy with the utmost respect. The Google Desktop Search program does not make your computer's content accessible to Google or anyone else. You can learn more by reading the Desktop Search privacy policy. [...]
<>What information does Google receive?
By default, Google Desktop Search collects a limited amount of non-personal information from your computer and sends it to Google. This includes summary information, such as the number of searches you do and the time it takes for you to see your results, and application reports we'll use to make the program better. You can opt out of sending this information during the installation process or from the application preferences at any time.
Personally identifying information, such as your name or address, will not be sent to Google without your explicit permission. [...]
<>How we use unique application numbers, cookies and related information.Your copy of Google Desktop Search includes a unique application number. When you install Google Desktop Search, this number and a message indicating whether the installation succeeded is sent back to Google so that we can make the software work better. Additionally, when Google Desktop Search automatically checks to see if a new version is available, the current version number and the unique application number are sent to Google. If you choose to send us non-personal information about your use of Google Desktop Search, the unique application number with this non-personal information also helps us understand how you use Google Desktop Search so that we can make it work better. The unique application number is required for Google Desktop Search to work and cannot be disabled.
Google Desktop Search uses the same cookie as Google.com and other Google services. If you send us non-personal information about your Google Desktop Search use, we may be able to make Google services work better by associating this information with other Google services you use and vice versa. You can opt out of sending such non-personal information to Google during the installation process or from the application preferences at any time. [...]
How do I keep Google Desktop Search from indexing or displaying certain files?
If there are any files or other data that you do not want indexed by Google Desktop Search, there are several ways that you can keep this data from being displayed, copied and indexed, as well as ways to remove it from the index after it has been included. You can see specific instructions on removing items in the user guide. [...]
My emphasis.
If you are going to say that something is scary you have to say specifically why.
This is potentially scary because it unifies your online google searches, your searches on your machine for your personal files and your gmail account.
IF you use google to search, IF you use gmail desktop search and IF you have a gmail account.
IF the local police/CIA/MI5/FBI (See Indymedia confiscated server discs scandal) want to tie up all of your data, AND IF you use all of these google services, they can tie all of your stuff together with the cookies, your gmail account and your google desktop index and search history.
O'Reilly Hit With Sex Harass Suit - October 13, 2004
O'Reilly Hit With Sex Harass Suit - October 13, 2004: "O'Reilly Hit With Sex Harass Suit
Female Fox coworker details lewd behavior of cable TV star
OCTOBER 13--Hours after Bill O'Reilly accused her of a multimillion dollar shakedown attempt, a female Fox News producer fired back at the TV star today, filing a lawsuit claiming that he subjected her to repeated instances of sexual harassment and spoke often, and explicitly, to her about phone sex, vibrators, threesomes, masturbation, the loss of his virginity, and sexual fantasies. Below you'll find a copy of Andrea Mackris's complaint, an incredible page-turner that quotes O'Reilly, 55, on all sorts of lewd matters. Based on the extensive quotations cited in the complaint, it appears a safe bet that Mackris, 33, recorded some of O'Reilly's more steamy soliloquies. For example, we direct you to his Caribbean shower fantasies. While we suggest reading the entire document, TSG will point you to interesting sections on a Thailand sex show, Al Franken, and the climax of one August 2004 phone conversation. (22 pages)"
Gaming the aggregators
http://antonyrobert6812.blogspot.com/
http://benrobinson7659.blogspot.com/
Here are two different blogspot blogs with identical posts in them. These are probably updated by a script, so that the owner of this system can inject a URL into them all at once and shoot his clients site into all the aggregators.
Hmmmm what should we call this, it uses the same thinking as a DDOS, but its not denying anything...D...Corruption Of Statistics: DCOS. Catchy?!
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Swing it!
The result of the American election in less than three weeks could have huge consequences for the whole world. Yet those of us outside the 50 states have had no say in it. Until now, that is.
In the spirit of the Declaration of Independence's pledge to show "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind", we have come up with a unique way for non-Americans to express your views on the policies and candidates in this election to some of the people best placed to decide its outcome. It's not quite a vote, but it's a chance to influence how a very important vote will be cast. Or, at the very least, make a new penpal.
It works like this. By typing your email address into the box on this page, you will receive the name and address of a voter in Clark County, Ohio. You may not have heard of it, but it's one of the most marginal areas in one of the most marginal states: at the last election, just 324 votes separated Democrats from Republicans. It's a place where a change of mind among just a few voters could make a real difference.
Writing to a Clark County voter is a chance to explain how US policies effect you personally, and the rest of the world more generally, and who you hope they will send to the White House. It may even persuade someone to use their vote at all.
A few tips about writing to Clark County:
- Be courteous. Remember that it's unusual to receive a lobbying letter from someone in another country. Think about how you would respond if you received a letter from Ohio urging you to vote for Tony Blair - or Michael Howard . . .
- Don't make any assumptions about the voter with whom you have been matched. His or her name comes from the publicly available voters' roll. The voter has not registered any party affiliation. (We don't want individual Clark County voters bombarded with lobbying letters so this site will assign only one name and address to each user - please don't pass yours on to anyone else.)
- Explain why you think they should pay the slightest bit of attention to what you think about their election. Remember, charm will be far more effective than hectoring.
Of course, who you urge your voter to support is entirely up to you. On October 20 we will publish a selection of the most persuasive letters to Clark County in the Guardian. To have yours considered, please email a copy to clark.county@guardian.co.uk.
That, for now, is our part. Over to you.
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