Saturday, June 08, 2002

chris, cheers to the Norman article! Very interesting!
posted by Barrie , 11:51 PM Þ 

"A remarkable new study by Katherine Keats-Rohan has shown that the gulf between the 1.5 million Anglo-Saxons and the 20 or 30 thousand or so Normans was far greater than historians ever suspected. Surprisingly, in the hundred years or so after the conquest, there was virtually no intermarriage between the Norman aristocracy and the English. In the top ten Norman families there was no intermarriage at all for over two centeries. Among a further 2,000 Norman families, the intermarriage rate was less than 5% for four generations. This stands on its head the old assumption that from the start there was substantial intermarriage between the conquerors and the conquered. In reality, it would appear that the Normans considered themselfs to be socially and ethically superior, and practiced a form social seperation which Dr Keats-Rohan considers 'a medieval forerunner of apartied'
'In search of England' Michael Wood

The above passage demonstrates that history repeats itself time and time again with a different face but the words remain the same. 11th century England, 20th century Germany, 21st century Denmark. There has always been 'unspoken laws' about intermarriage as well. Catholic/Protestant in Northern Ireland, Jewish and Arabic, the list goes on......

Been listening to lots of MuslimGauze lately..........cheers for that one!!
posted by chriszanf , 9:08 PM Þ 

Mikkel: that marriage law in INSANE! And I think you translated that document while DRUNK.

Monarchy:
Indeed I am hotheaded and young, though I am not dumb enough to not take note of everything that has been said... it has been cheerfully added to my memory banks for further processing. Things that are not in agreement, I find, are not to be ignored, but to be considered carefully.
I hope no one got the impression that I was for destroying the monarchy and then forgetting thousands of years of history, ala "Cultural Revolution." The past must NEVER be forgotten. History is the only ways humans can learn. We are taught history in schools for this very reason, yet most kids I talk to think it's pointless. I wish they'd realize it's importance.

Something I don't understand. If the monarchs are now realized that they do not have Divine Right, what is letting them still sit on a throne? How can they be the "ruler" without any justification for it? I don't understand how that would work. That is my main concern here, and why I think they're no longer needed.
Though I do understand the "unbroken line of history." The entire history of Europe can be traced through the backbone of what, five families? I do think that is pretty cool.

Interesting reversal: My dad had traced by our name back until around 1066, where Sutcliffe was a knight with William the Bastard. The name then was noble - now most Sutcliffes are lower/working class (mostly in England, there might be some baronies in Normandy still). What does this say about the cyclic nature of things? How noble blood can then become peasant?

alex tea said: "bonnie prince billie, uh charlie,"
I say: Will Oldham rules.
posted by Barrie , 7:05 PM Þ 
posted by a hymn in g to nann , 6:12 PM Þ 

"color the debate"

very funny!
posted by Irdial , 6:12 PM Þ 

http://www.securityedition.com/

What is the "Security Edition" ?

The First Ten Amendments to the constitution of the United States printed on sturdy, pocket-sized, pieces of metal.

The next time you travel by air, take the Security Edition of the Bill of Rights along with you. When asked to empty your pockets, proudly toss the Bill of Rights in the plastic bin.

You need to get used to offering up the bill of rights for inspection and government workers need to get used to deciding if you'll be allowed to keep the Bill of Rights with you when you travel.
posted by Mikkel , 4:10 PM Þ 

I had some things to say about monarchy, but I forgot. I think Denmark is better off with than without.
posted by Mikkel , 1:30 PM Þ 

posted by mary13 , 12:21 PM Þ 
posted by Mess Noone , 8:25 AM Þ 

Fuck, so much stuff to read up on! AHHH, *translates an article on the fly*

British holocaust-researcher: The Danes are flirting with fascism.
Racism: The new immigrationlaw in Denmark awakes memories of Germany in the 1930ies, the british holocaustresearcher Stephen Smith writes in a commentary in the british newspaper The Guardian.
By Lone Theils.
LONDON
As cofounder of the first britsh center for holocaustresearch, Beth Shalom, it does not come easy for Stephen Smith to draw parallels to Germany in the nazi-period. But that is the comarpision he uses when he characterizes Denmark's new immigrationlaw.
"It's normally something from which I distance myself, for you should not throw these accusations around. But in this case it's certainly called for," says Stephen Smith to Berlingske Tidende.
In reality, the Danish laws prohibit danes from marrying with foreigners, which is exactly what happened in Germany in the early 1930ies, when the germans were prohibited from marrying jews, says Stephen Smith.
In spite of these laws, britain elected to participated in the 1936 olympics in munich and as such legimimated that kind of law.
"We all know what that later went on to cause for euopE", as stephen smmith has formulated in a commenteary in yesterdays the guardian. the warning is also the reason that he pushes the red alarmbuttons toward denmark now.
"I can seehow they rationalized themselves towards this conclusion, but the government as crossed a line, where they are stopping basic human rights. therefore, the rest of europe must take a stand", says stephen smith.
WORSE THAN FRANCE.
He thinsk that the danish attitude is worse than the rightturned france, because its the offical policy among the more mid-dish parties.
"It is not my point that denmark has become nationalsocialist. But when you buikld laws on the exlusion of certain groups of people, and when its commonly accepted, its deeply deeply worrying. Not least because denmark are about to take leadership (trans, i forget what its called) over EU, and thereby come to color the debate about asyle-applicants in the coming six months".
Stephen Smith underlines in his commentary that he does not think history will repet, and not in the form of a certian german corporal with a small moustache. He thinks it will mutate and return in new clothes.
"wNormally we have very high thoughts about denmark, but th law shows a development that can spread to the rest of europe.
On the same day as the harsh commentary against demark, the british tabloid the sun was full of readers letters praising denmark for their stacnce against asylum-applicants.
"in a way it is a form of self-defence. For we have the same problems in GB. But to undferminehumanrights on the grounds of populism is not hte solutim. Even if all the formalities are allriighjt in comparison with the human rights. the solution has to be way more ocmples" says Stephen Smith.
posted by Mikkel , 3:04 AM Þ 
Friday, June 07, 2002

posted by Irdial , 11:19 PM Þ 

"it just makes me feel like everything i do is futile because it has been done before.".......yeah, it might be the same but do it better!



I read some of what everyone had written and had a few things to say about the monarchy but travelling home on the train and reading "Broken Rails- how privatisation wrecked Britains railways" by Christian Wolmar, I got VERY distracted! And today, it emerges that the DTLR instigated a smear campaign against Pam Warren and other campaigners of rail safety.


"They 're good for tourism", -the one I hate the most that people use for maintaining the social security payments to the royals.

I fully agree with the point that removing the royals will leave a gap that would quickly be filled by the likes of 'El Presidenti' Tony Blair (doesn't he already act like one?) but this is only symptomatic of the immaturaty of democracy in this country. Yes, we've had 'democracy' for 250 years but this model of it has grown from only landowners and the aristocracy having the vote, to present day where the majority of people have the vote. But we get only get 5 minutes of democracy every 5 years and the democratic right to choose between the biggest bunch of corrupt )(*&^%%^&* in society.(the last person who should be a politician is someone who wants to be one). Sorry, the point was that the choice presented is between the devil and the deep blue sea and as me ol' ma use to say, gawd bless 'er, "better the devil you know". (for the time being!!!!).

John, the mess up was my fault as i was distracted laughing at 'Jerry Falwell', sorry!
posted by chriszanf , 8:31 PM Þ 

brian wilson

yes, i caught that bit too ...... an eloquent example of the dangers of excess chemical intake, methinks ..... but he can still sing ; a zombie in all else but voice, very odd, and yes, very sad, but oh what chord changes !!

seriously, politcally what influence do they have.

one way of answering that is by relating it to your father's situation alex ...... i live on dartmoor : large areas of the western quarter fall just inside the duchy of cornwall's boundary, and as a consequence are owned by prince charles, which means that those that farm his land are his tenants .... i helped run a small hotel ( leased from the duchy ) in this area until a year or so ago, and so have become good friends with a number of people ( farmers, who are often the most politically aware, and other hoteliers, etc ) who have direct contact either with him ( he stops off occasionally for informal visits ) or his staff : no-one that i know has a bad word to say about how he manages his estate ; quite the contrary, in fact, all are very positive ..... this is an example of politics in the old, real sense of the word : it's not party politics, it's not the politics of news management, it's politics in the sense of governing with grace, and this is where those that do have influence ..... we all know how it is to be shat upon by those that have the power to do so : we are influenced in the sense that our lives are made more miserable than they need be .... conversely, if we have the good fortune to work with / for people who treat us with dignity and good humour, our lives are enriched : in this sense, we are all politically influencial, because every action that we take affects those that surround us, and will be reflected back upon us at some point ......... how a person gets to be in a position of power is secondary, in a practical, everyday sense, to how that person acts once they are in that position
posted by a hymn in g to nann , 7:10 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 3:05 PM Þ 

i am hotheaded and young and yeah i understand i'm not the first or the last, which makes me feel even less, i don't know, not important, that's not what i mean. it just makes me feel like everything i do is futile because it has been done before.

Worry not - being young is cool. One of the coolest things! Trust me - I'm 31, going to Reading Festival this year to see Slipknot and the Prodigy and feel ancient since I'm wondering what to wear!!!!

It can always be said that everything has been done before, but everyone's advantage is that (if you want) you can make things relevant to your generation/age group/neighbourhood/bedroom/life. That's a reason to keep doing what ever it is you do, or to want to do something, or even to stop doing something. Shakespeare may have written Romeo and Juliet but it didn't stop Leonard Bernstein making West Side Story alongside it and kicking off a whole new groove.

Even more so not being the first or last doesn't matter as long as you realise you are the NOW!
posted by captain davros , 2:12 PM Þ 

Rock on Alex T!!
posted by Irdial , 2:08 PM Þ 

you said somethingvery similar to my mother, last night she phoned nad asked me if i'd had a nice monarchy. i told her i'm an anti royalist, and she got upset, not angry just disappointed i think and she tried to explain to me about why the queen/monarchy is good. i told her i have no problem with the queen, or any of the royal family as people, i just think the institution is wrong. outdated. silly infact. and she said the queen does a lot of good for the country. so i argued about the amount we spend in tax on her. she said without the queen the country wouldn't be what it is today. what is this country? i don't understand. she also said who would you prefer: el presidente tony blair or the queen. i said i'd rather have someone i voted for in power, and i wouldn't vote for blair. and she then everything would be about politics, and i wouldn't understand until i've grown up a bit and had children, etc, etc... i watched a bit of monday nights celebrations, brian wilson and ozzy both looking, "paranoid". brian bearing more than a passing resemblence to odo from DS9. quite sad really...

it's interesting to see what you've said akin. i am hotheaded and young and yeah i understand i'm not the first or the last, which makes me feel even less, i don't know, not important, that's not what i mean. it just makes me feel like everything i do is futile because it has been done before. bonnie prince billie, uh charlie, said that his mother had given us all stability. i understand how important that is, i've moved house about 12 times in my life, i don't have a bedroom to call my own filled with childhood memories like most of my friends do. the one thing that's stayed stable are my grandparents and my father's farm. well it's not his, but he's the farmer... these things make me feel safe. i know they will always be there... i just feel stupid now, i don't know what to think. thinking about th queen/monarchy makes me angry. i think it's because i don't understand. what do they do? seriously, politcally what influence do they have. to me it seems they visit all the poor countries with darkies and people with slitty eyes and wave politely...
posted by alex_tea , 1:04 PM Þ 

What an eloquent response, giving us deep insight into what you think.

This is exactly what I am always talking about; cheap, superficial nonsense, adding nothing, thats not even interesting to read or funny...just nothing. A perfect example of this generations potency; negligible, useless and dull. Given the choice between people who say "Bollocks" and just about anything else ill take the "anything else" thank you very much, at least its a thing.

These are the words of the people who complain much, but do nothing, and have no solutions even theoreitical, for the sake of discussion..

Pathetic. Empty. Useless. I would cry out "Die Republican Die" but does saying "Bollocks" by itself mean that you are a Republican? Republicanism is "Bollocks" of course, but it doesnt work in reverse to figure out just what it is that you actually think.
posted by Irdial , 11:25 AM Þ 

dude, i'm sorry, but that's some serious bollox right there.
posted by Ken , 10:56 AM Þ 

Well said Anthony.

Monarchy. People who hate it, and who dislike individuals in it don't understand the history of England. There have always been "bad" apples in every family, so when people say that some need to be "removed" this is simply nonsense. Also, those saying that the Queen should abdicate for Bonnie Prince Charlie also understand nothing about Monarchy, sucession and primogeniture.

The Monarchy is an unbroken spine of time, that stretches from the past into the present, holding the body of the UK, and more recently, the Commonwealth together. They are the physical embodiment of continuity and the long term stability of this nation.

Those that focus on the wealth of the Monarchy are jealous, petty and stupid. They have no imagination, and little self belief. They probably don't have children, and if they do, don't yet understand that they are going to die, and that their children are going to be left behind, alone. Anyone who grasps that, immediately understands what sucession, trans-generational stability and primogeniture are all about, because its personal.

The French, having a revolutionary government, have outlawed primogeniture; it is illegal to pass your wealth on to your first child, or any of your children singly. They have done this because they understand that this is how power is preserved across generations. Thier aim is to systematically destroy the power of the sucessful, and turn the whole nation into an army of equal slaves.

The Monarchy, especially the British Monarchy, by its very existence does infinitely more good than harm, and I submit to you that there are very few prime ministers that the public would select to rule them over any of the monarchs since absolute rule was thrown out. They are simply more trustworthy, slower to anger and truly have the interests of this country at heart.

Think about it; if you could choose, would you rather have Tony Blair or The Queen as your absolute ruler?

The Canadians, Australians and all the other Commonwealth countries are getting the Monarchy for free. They get to key into that line of time, feed on that stability and experience, they are brought together because of it, and the world of the commonwealth has goo d relations because of it. I submit to you that if every nation on earth was part of the Commonwealth, we would be far better off than if we had a world government controlled from New York by the United Nations. We would also be better off in an EEC that was lead by Monarchy, instead of the banana squeezing, tomato sizing, metric enforcing, unelected, grey beaurocrats that now command everyone with absolute power.

Monarchy is a reasonable institution; its influence, and wisdom honed by centuries of history and decades of experience. GW Bush became president of the most powerful nation on earth, without ever having visited another country. Who is more fit to bind the world together, and ease the tensions between squabbling nations: Queen Elizabeth, or George Bush?

Believe it or not, you are not the first generatinon of young men and women. There have been millions of people just like you, hot headded, ignorant, eager to question and destroy; hell, I was just like that myself! The fact of the matter is, human life is trans-generational. There will be people who will live after you have gone. We should not try and re invent the wheel every generation, especially at the behest of hot headed young bucks, who would throw away a thousand years of building for an ill founded idea. Change must be incremental if it is to be safe in the long run.

When we try and start from "year zero" we get terrible mistakes like "The Cultural Revolution" which destroyed much of the past of China, in a misguided attempt to replace an old system with something foreign and new. They have all woken up now, but its too late; thier ancient temples and books have been irretrievably lost, thanks to one hot headed generation that thought that it had the answers to everything. What can they say now to the rootless generation that followed? "It was an error". These are the actual words used by the Chinese government. No apology can suffice for this crime, and the people who are still alive that participated in that crime can only cower in shame at what they did.

I say to you, stop and think. Calm down. Dont let petty thoughts and jealousy rule your thinking. Try and think about the long run, about stability and longevity, because your offspring will have to live in the mess that you make today. Its your responsibility to keep the place tidy for those that will follow you.

It also has to be said that the ability to put yourself in the position of another person is a crucial life skill. If you can do that, you cannot hate Monarchy, because it could just as easily have been you who can trace thier family back one thousand years, including all the property that they have ever owned.

It amazes me that people think that time started with them, that the world came into being just for them, and that they came from nowhere. This is what we call "rootlessness" an absence of knowledge of ones place in the stream of history.

Ah yes, the early morning Blog!!!!!
posted by Irdial , 10:15 AM Þ 

with Captain Davros as head of the Civil Service ; ]
posted by a hymn in g to nann , 10:08 AM Þ 

That's what the people are really there to see, not some conceited shitrag who thinks that since he's better than everyone else, his country should pay all his living expenses (parties and all).
I could go on and on...

But there's no need. Living with the Monarchy in Britain is like living with the weather - annoying most of the time, and there's nothing you can do about it. If we removed the monarch we wouldn't see the money go to worthy causes - who knows where it'd go. Change is a long time overdue here of course, and there's potential for a lot of pruning, but the crowds that gathered on the Queen's walkabout tours do suggest that a lot of people do want to see her. This, like The Sun being a popular newspaper and Radio 2 being a popular radio station, is just one of those things that happen©.

As for the "thinking they're better than anyone else" line that I've heard quite a lot recently, I don't know if I believe that. Yes, they can be uppity and seem conceited, but these people are SO OUT OF IT that they just can't possibly even know what it's like to be worse off than them, so I don't believe they think they're any better really. They just wander around thinking "hey, I'm me" and have no idea (I mean if we'd all been brought up from day one dressing up in weird clothes and always being told what to do and say whilst being kept away from regular stuff, we'd all come across as pretty weird too - the Queen's face at the end of her pop concert was not one of "Ugh, the masses" but more "Shitting crikey, what the faaaaaaark is this?").

And that, really, is why I think lots of people like them.

Anyway, the true solution is easy - John Burke for Prime Minister, Irdial Discs as leaders of the opposition, Mikkel as speaker of the house.
posted by captain davros , 10:04 AM Þ 

" ... knock his bloated house down! That's what the people are really there to see, not some conceited shitrag who thinks that since he's better than everyone else ... "

I would have thought that a large part of the appeal of going to these houses is what they were associated with, whether people consciously recognise that or not : if it's ok to go & view the properties that could have come about only as a consequence of these people having once been in existence, why is it not ok that some of these people still are in existence ? Again, one of the reasons why a few key members of the family are held in reasonably high regard is because they do not have the attitude that you outline above : they are aware of the position they hold, and act in a way that belies the fact that they know that theirs is not a god-given right, merely an accident of birth ...... you surely know from experience in the everyday workplace that a manager who has an air about him/her that suggests they think that no-one but themselves would be suited for their job will never be able to command true respect ......

i agree that the subsidisation of the institution is absurd, especially when you have the likes of edward as an example of what we partially pay for : do away with the subsidisation and runts like him will certainly sink in accordance with natural law .... those of substance will always be around
posted by a hymn in g to nann , 9:47 AM Þ 

The sadies are the second generation of a musical family. The generation before them is the Good Brothers, i think.

I think the macos 10.1.5 update fux0red my gpg. I can no longer encrypt things because the key dialog to choose from can no longer show up...
posted by Barrie , 5:10 AM Þ 

hey chris how did that happen?? i posted the skitter
graph link and it ended up imbedded in your post but only
here in the blogger interface. on the site it's fine.

posted by john , 3:09 AM Þ 

-....formally sign all bills to make them law.
eeerch! that's whackinstein! does anyone know the allotment
provided the royals by the english population? how is that
determined year to year? a % of gnp?

btw: barrie_sutcliffe++ into what club? can i go too?

and the beatles. well, what can one say. not many write
songs of that caliber. very very few. songs complete in
emotion and substance. they are at alot of peoples #1
all time slot for sure. remember the desert island top five.
i still can't do that btw. and i think about it often. basically
i guess i would get sick of anything after a while and would
have to start banging on fallen coconuts and empty conch
shells. and again the sadies. geez they can play. like
dick dale meets the minutemen vs high planes drifter the
movie +. MAX_GEL = the sadies and that v/vm
stuff is out there man. way out.

longevity cannot be forseen i am convinced of that.
posted by john , 2:43 AM Þ 

Well, by comparing v/vm to Blake I meant about the rabidly independent mindsets they both have. They don't want anyone tampering with their work. As for art though, of course v/vm has nothing on Blake.
I think the only music that has the kind of longevity visual arts has is "classical" music. I wonder why music doesn't last as long? Perhaps things are changing as we speak, since now we have actual recordings that last a very very long time. We all know how long the Beatles' music has lasted (and is respected as well). I think many more bands will attain the same status in the future. Maybe I'm optimistic?

My thoughts on the monarchy: why the hell is there one when there's a democracy running alongside it? It's a complete paradox.
Let me explain ("you" is general): Monarchy, or "Royalty," stems from the fact that the blood running through these people is by God better than everyone else in the world. This goes against every concept of equal rights in the book.
Now people will say, "oh, we are concerned about equal rights." Then why the FUCK do you still have a bunch of snobbish idiots getting paid by TAX DOLLARS that would be better paid for education, YOU GIT?! Or is Elizabeth's dinner more important than some new textbooks? I don't fucking understand why they're still around.
"But it's tourism!"
FUCK THAT. France's king has been dead since 1792, and look how much tourism Versailles still gets (and even that is just a small FRACTION of what the rest of the country gets in tourism)! Just because a pomp-ass fuckhead monarch dies or is booted out of "office" doesn't mean you have to knock his bloated house down! That's what the people are really there to see, not some conceited shitrag who thinks that since he's better than everyone else, his country should pay all his living expenses (parties and all).
I could go on and on...

Oh, and about the Queen in Canada... she's the symbolic head of state. She really does, or means, shit here, though her representative the Governor General does have to formally sign all bills to make them law. No one in Canada, unless they're over-patriotic blowhards, cares a lick about the queen. She's across the Atlantic, and does fuck all for us.
posted by Barrie , 2:11 AM Þ 

From citizen.orgnewsletter


The Rev. Jerry Falwell today lost his bid to silence a critic who created
a Web site that uses Falwell's name in its address and parodies the reverend's statements.
At issue is a noncommercial Web site established by Illinois resident Gary Cohn that mocks Falwell
for blaming the September 11 attacks on the supposed moral decline of America and parodies the
way Falwell cites Bible verses to make moral judgments. The site can be found under the domain
names jerryfalwell.com and
posted by chriszanf , 1:47 AM Þ 

point taken anthony. it wouldn't would it?


current skitter graph
posted by john , 12:04 AM Þ 

>> some of us are conciously making things of ephemeral value, and accepting this

all of us?
posted by Mess Noone , 12:01 AM Þ 
Thursday, June 06, 2002

interesting thoughts on the monarchy anthony - more or less what I think too.

The jubilee was much more marvellous that I'd imagined it to be. I wasn't planning on watching it on teevee on Monday night, having got back from a splendid weekend in the Malverns, but the very concept of Brian May standing on top of Buckingham Palace and playing God Save The Queen on his handmade electric guitar was SO Chris Morris (let alone OZZY and CLIFF RICHARD on the same stage) that I felt duty bound to watch the rest. Of course much of it was CACK, but that made slagging it off even more fun. In the end McCartney was brilliant, and the video projections on Buckingham Palace during the fireworks were something else. I generally don't see myself as much of a patriot, but seeing the Union Jack projected over the entire Palace sent shivers of emotion up my spine.

And then they let the Queen set off a rocket that shot down the Mall and blew something else up! MAGIC!
posted by captain davros , 11:10 PM Þ 

oh yes ...... sitting pink at the moment ..... spent most of yesterday laying out on the rocks down by the river ; saw a sea trout leap, the first live one i've seen, just a few yards away ...... i'm going fly fishing for them the night of the 22nd ( first time ) with a friend who's well practised : called the gillie who's taking us out tonight, and he's manically ecstatic, having caught a 10lb 4oz creature last night, his personal best ( only 3 have ever been caught over 10lb on the river ) ... I can't quite imagine the size of it, 4lb or so being the largest i've bought from him, and that fed us for 3 days

monarchy certain members of the family are offensive, in the same way that anyone who enjoys privileged status but doesn't know how to behave accordingly is ... one reason i can see for the whole hooplah is that large numbers of people would like to be in the queen's position, and they recognise and wish to celebrate dignity ... the whole extended tree could do with very thorough pruning in order to be rid of the members who have no sense of decorum, but you know that once you begin entering into that kind of thinking, it'd have to be applied to the whole of society ....... theirs isn't really a case of being in a position of influencing policy directly ; their power comes from the same source as anyone with extreme wealth & connections .... doing away with the notion of 'monarchy' won't eradicate the fact that these people exist
posted by a hymn in g to nann , 8:18 PM Þ 

i just don't get the monarchy thing. isn't it offensive to
have a lame duck royal family parading around spolied
beyond belief? i just don't get the queen's jubilee hooplah.
are people that bored with their own lives? well then again
i am from america so.........

what influence does the royal family actually have on
policy anyway? from what i know the answer would be
ZERO but i would love to hear your guys' thoughts on it.
i mean what's the use? couldn't that money be better
spent not laying off/re-educating miners or fixing this or that?

the opiate of the blah class.

addendum: then again canada has the queen on it's
money. totally bizarre! i just don't get it. can someone
please explain it to me in simple "i used to live in the u.s.a
terms"??
posted by john , 8:08 PM Þ 

You know your stuff Anthony!
posted by Irdial , 6:59 PM Þ 

->
posted by a hymn in g to nann , 6:48 PM Þ 

more from rhizome:

Are Those Bubbles in My Gnutella?

Minitasking, by the artist known as Schoenerwissen, searches Gnutella via a
graphical interface. Once you connect to the Gnutella network, Minitasking
acts as a representative for what it encounters: depending on the amount of
content in a file, it is presented in a metaphorical "bubble" that differs
in size and color based on what the file contains. Queries are color-coded,
and Minitasking pairs that bubbles via this system. You can track others'
queries on-screen. Minitasking is a free download, but not if you have a
Mac (but check periodically, as this version should be revealed
momentarily).

http://minitasking.com
posted by alex_tea , 5:46 PM Þ 


Breakups are the Best Love Stories





Breaking up is hard to do. And artist Chris Bassett feels your pain. His site "The Lost Love Project" proves that breakups provide "the most interesting love stories." His site serves as an anthology of such stories. Log on with your tale of heartbreak, which will be linked by the an official "lostlove engine" to create a metanarrative of a relationship. You'll soon see that you're not alone, even if your girlfriend's dumped you.




http://lostlove.robot138.com
posted by alex_tea , 5:37 PM Þ 

U.S. Will Seek to Fingerprint Visas' Holders

Wed Jun 5, 3:09 PM ET

By ERIC SCHMITT The New York Times

WASHINGTON, June 4 The Justice Department (news - web sites) will propose new regulations this week requiring tens of thousands of Muslim and Middle Eastern visa holders to register with the government and be fingerprinted, administration officials said today.

The initiative, the subject of intense debate within the administration, is designed for "individuals from countries who pose the highest risk to our security," including most visa holders from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and many other Muslim nations, officials said. More than 100,000 foreigners, including students, workers, researchers and tourists, all foreigners from designated countries who do not hold green cards, would probably be covered by the plan, an official said.

Antiterrorism teams made up of federal, state and local officers that have been formed in most larger cities since the Sept. 11 attacks would help immigration officials register visa holders already living here, using procedures similar to those employed to find 5,000 mainly Middle Eastern men who were sought for interviews after the attacks.

New arrivals from the designated countries would be fingerprinted at airports or seaports and be required to register with the Immigration and Naturalization Service after 30 days in the country, officials said.

Violators could be fined, refused re-entry into the United States or possibly deported, officials said [...]
posted by Irdial , 4:35 PM Þ 

for all blogger's faults it just rescued a post that had gone missing for me...

anyway from whitedot/interview with steve allan:

As for situation comedies, children watching them must get the impression that there’s nothing the least bit questionable about having sex with casual acquaintances, making endless jokes about flatulence and masturbation or using coarse language.

what???
posted by alex_tea , 1:59 PM Þ 

posted by alex_tea , 1:58 PM Þ 

"as for william blake, i find it hard to believe that anything created these days will last for 10 years let alone 100. people are saying that praystation.com is the new art, that laptops have created a new folk music. and as much as i'd love to believe that these things i love and cherish will become historical, pillars of a new society i can't imagine anyone knowing or caring or the fuck v/vm was 10/20 years from now... imagine kids at school learning about v/vm.. i don't think he has the romantiscism of blake..."

I cant believe you just said that. I just said the same thing to someone not ten minutes ago.

What this means is that some of us are conciously making things of ephemerl value, and accepting this, deliberately, knowing that its not up to scratch.

That is A Very Bad Thing®

We need to be partially mindful of tomorrow, and let that "feedback from the future" hone our output. We need to make things that last, and this has concerned me for some time. The music that is taking up all of our time do does not have the longevity of modern art. We should be aiming for that kind of longevity as a minimum barrier of entry. If we do not, we are simply wasting our time, and "avvinallarf", which benefits no one and no thing.
posted by Irdial , 1:58 PM Þ 

posted by alex_tea , 1:44 PM Þ 

i slept. i am awake.

v/vm: i think a lot of it is to just wind people up. to use the parlence of our times, flammage, but then i think if you 'get' that then you see there's actually quite an admirable spirit under there... and it's fucking funny.

as for william blake, i find it hard to believe that anything created these days will last for 10 years let alone 100. people are saying that praystation.com is the new art, that laptops have created a new folk music. and as much as i'd love to believe that these things i love and cherish will become historical, pillars of a new society i can't imagine anyone knowing or caring or the fuck v/vm was 10/20 years from now... imagine kids at school learning about v/vm.. i don't think he has the romantiscism of blake...
posted by alex_tea , 1:39 PM Þ 

Stackridge
posted by captain davros , 12:05 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 11:37 AM Þ 

FUCK VVM WORSHIP JOHN BUTCHER
posted by Mess Noone , 10:42 AM Þ 

Barrie_Sutcliffe ++
posted by Irdial , 10:19 AM Þ 

"edited to fuck" yes, it's pr0n!
And go to bed and get some rest!
posted by Irdial , 10:09 AM Þ 
posted by john , 10:05 AM Þ 

V/vm really reminds me of William Blake - hating everything that's "popular" and publishing everything himself, in an almost rabid and fanatical way.
I'm not sure I agree - just because something is popular, it is bad and useless because it's all been used up once it has become popular? Or am I missing something here? Is it humour? I just don't get it.
posted by Barrie , 5:10 AM Þ 

we could try it. i have a pr0n dvd. clockw(erk|ork) orgy. it's crap edited to fuck and keeps jumping around. plus their attempt at nadsat is hilarious...

patchWerk fucked up. i lost all the patches. the unix / linux player adds a load of crap to the xml doc. so flash can't read it. and so it creates a new xml doc and writes over the top. i am creating regexps to get rid of the crap. i like perl, i wanna learn. i haven't slept for over 36 hours. i am hallocianting... shit i can't spell...

anyway, no one says it like v/vm. second only to irdial. or maybe they're on a par.

X-Authentication-Warning: www.hollyfeld.org: majordom set sender to bouncefilter+v-vm=alex_tea=R107.co.uk@hollyfeld.org using -f
From: "V/Vm"
To:
Subject: so we're running just as fast as we can, REVON, REVON REVON.
Date: Thu, 6 Jun 2002 02:27:45 +0100
X-Priority: 3
Sender: owner-v-vm@hollyfeld.org
X-MajordomoSent: owner-v-vm@hollyfeld.org
Reply-To: vvm@v-vm.demon.co.uk

right look out for a big mail from us soon- putting the electronica/ (i)am(d)ense(m)usic/ noise/ the whore magazine/ all new scanner- stairlifts / michael aspel's nephew watch./ and a special report on the state of EURO ducky everywhere-///
oh and hey people we are planning a tour finally, the name of this tour is real special and we hope you can be there to see us <

"fuck london. we're off to lithuania"= /

any offers of shows is welcomed-, particularly in the eastern european vicinity, as we want to GO EAST, where the sky is blue, // //
but anyway more about all of this later- trust us- the next mail is a real cracker-jack special ///

and nowhere on these mailouts will you see what has become the norm. for simillar small labels and i will do an example below, and if your mailout looks like this then hang your heads in shame because it's catching on everywhere- SAFE MAILS FROM SAFE LABELS people that don';t offend- a reflection of the music around right now and all these muppets who are networking with each other like the sad twats they are, just in the hope they get a tour with some sad old hasbeen_ special/

1.news (where i waffle on a bit about a lot of new releases non of which get made because i'm too busy talking about it)
2.name dropping bullshit
3.Live (shows i've blagged off fucking dumb ass promoters under the banner of art.)
4. i've won an ars(E)lectronica award (so now i'm real clever and hey i'm so proud because the fact is anybody that is any good does not enter such bullshit rubbish because they're too busy putting new music out to even acknowledge it exists and does not need some fucking middle aged goat to tell us "hey we think it's worthy of distinction this project"./ ARSe awards which mean fuck all because nobody enters only the desperate to be noticed)
5. new releases (all of which are safe and like the ones just before because they sold well and the reviewers like safe labels)
6.more name dropping and an anouncement of my latest CMN tour with some sad old japanese cunt who was important 10 years ago and now is just milking it
7 more name dropping and a big review from the wire/whore because i placed a big advert in the same said issue./M.P. give us a wave/
8 more waffles than birds eye produced last year about nothing but it sounds good.
9 contact us "and hey we only respond if you can offer us something - otherwise just fuck off because who are you???".
10 we have been doing bootlegs for years- well for the last few months because "it is so cool" - oh shit i missed the boat now it isn't - mmm.
11 a denial of our background and of our famous connections and in some cases relatives. What you see is not what you get.

check it out people, it's everywhere- never has music been so safe, never have label mailouts reached such a sad level of all looking the same-////// - never have musicians so brilliantly all blended into the same pulsating mass of mediocrity.// the sad thing is i know of three labels all run by real people who are calling it day because they refuse to fit in and play the game and look the same as everbody else- so think about who you are buying records and cd's off - it's important right now to think. because a lot of people are throwing in the towel =

remember the famous words of take that "never forget where you are coming from"

///
so this time i have tons to say but not now- - i save it because i'm out of here- with a lighter load.......///
oh and hey some of the queen mum's have gone out- the rest go real soon so if you mailed us recently about them or are waiting for onw then you will be in touch--- and  rest assured i'll be in touch just as soon as i get back from a rendezvous on mainland europe --/ indeed i'll crank up the label again soon.// some nice releases are on the way from some new people - as we do support new artists- not just the same old people you see everywhere else /// it's important to keep the flow coing down the pipes otherwise your label starts to smell of raw sewage.

oh and one thing of note before i go is the FIRST and PROBABLY last CARETAKER show which will be happening in LONDON this friday (yes i have a hundred quid which i will throw on the floor at euston station  when i arrive- because i LOVE LONDON and i love spending money in london on all that is shit- but love throwing money on euston station floor even more- and thank god i'm there only for one day before i go somewhere else - //)- but the good thing about the show is the venue is real small and an old town hall- so it's perfect for the caretaker- and with it being so small only 120 people can get in,, and hopefully there will no cunts who are there to look good because london is full of cunts looking good (apologies to the girls now for the bad language but hey london is full of cunts trying to look good and there is no better way of describing these people- you people know what i'm on about-)-
anyway FRIDAY is the day for the show- it's true THE DAY OF REVON,/.
and you can get tickets at smallfish - or at the door and it's five quid in -
here;s the venue INFO <<<

Hoxton Hall
130 HOXTON STREET
LONDON N1 6SH
7-30 till 12-30am

maybe see you there- remember from the caretaker expect a return to a more serene time, ballroom nostalgia // should be very nice and peaceful i'm sure....../
if you need any further info then mail me- but i'm only around and checking tomorrow-

anyway news on some new releases very soon/
coming
BUTCHER03 7"/(news on the website soon) it's limited- and for the people of america.
GORSE - "let the gorse be with you" CD (cornish pastie fun from our new friends in cornwall)
COCK ESP - CD (a nonsense compilation cd of remixes which all sound the same from our favourite american falco fans)
AN ALL NEW COMPILATION - 2xCD _////
and many many more items you all know you need because they are all really special DUCKY.////

WE ARE back people, but the truth is we never went away even though people like to think we have -

WE LOVE YOU ALL. WE MISS YOU ALL- YOU ARE ALL THE BEST- BIG kisses to all the girls, AND big kisses to all the BOYS-, MISS YOU LOVE YOU-

LET'S ALL raise a glass to OPEN and HONEST label mailouts- and none of the usual fucking business BULLSHIT = //


"LIVE FOR EACH SECOND without hesitation and never forget i'm your man"
elton john
XXXXXXXXXX

www.brainwashed.com/vvm


out <

v/vm - sometimes, good things happen
the caretaker - "a stairway to the stars"
the queen mother is dead 7"'
butcher 03 - 7"
posted by alex_tea , 2:59 AM Þ 

mmmm, 3d streaming pr0n.

A friend of mine actually has a Fleshlight (the one pictured, I think). He says it's very good, though it does require cleaning often because it gets... uh, gooey. Yeah. Is it just me, or did it get horny around here? I can't imagine how many anime fanatics want to buy that doll and forget about real women forever. If only the eyes were movable (and the skin actually looked real).

I think my job is killing my brain. I work in a bindery (bondage?) department at a newspaper. All I do for most of the day is load up stacks of paper to be fed into the machine. I look forward to the times when I can like, move pallettes and cages around. That's sooo fun.
SEE? IT'S KILLING MY BRAIN.
I haven't had a creative thought for weeks... I'm going insane...
posted by Barrie , 12:48 AM Þ 
Wednesday, June 05, 2002

Hmmmmm does that mean that alex_t can stream pr0n to me while he watches it?

That is rather cool; now people in the USA can stream us TV shows to the impoverished EEC drones...or even better the tyson lewis fight!
posted by Irdial , 11:55 PM Þ 
posted by chriszanf , 11:55 PM Þ 

http://www.videolan.org/

OpenSource Video streaming solution for every OS !



VideoLAN is a project of French students from the href="http://www.ecp.fr/">École Centrale Paris and developers
from all over the world. Its main goals is MPEG streaming
on a network, but it also features a standalone multimedia player.
The VideoLAN Server can stream video read from a hard disk, a DVD
player, a satellite card or an MPEG 2 compression card, and unicast
or multicast it on a network. The VideoLAN Client can read the
stream from the network and display it. It can also be used to display
video read locally on the computer : DVDs, VCDs, MPEG and
DivX files and from a satellite card. It is multi-plaform
: Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, BSD, Solaris, QNX, iPaq... The
VideoLAN Client and Server now have a full IPv6 support.
posted by alex_tea , 11:49 PM Þ 

Mozilla 1 is released!
posted by Irdial , 11:24 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 11:14 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 11:08 PM Þ 

You forgot to post THIS alex:
posted by Irdial , 11:00 PM Þ 
posted by alex_tea , 8:39 PM Þ 

ha-ha he he!! oh ok..
posted by john , 7:59 PM Þ 

mary, thank you!

PatchWerk®

it's finally fixed, so you can all add your patches no sweat and if there are any errors / bugs it will email me... je suis la reine de code... so yes please, fill it up and make it pretty... thanks to akin for a little help with the perl... i am going to sleep now. maybe i should eat first...

yeah all i need to do is write the essay to go with it and then hand it in. was supposed to be in @ 4:00pm today... doh... but i'd rather be late and complete than on time and messy.

argh... 26 hours without sleep...

records: my stepdad's cousin is an engineer / masterer / record cutter (what do you call them?) @ metropolis in chiswick... i spoke to him at a relatives funeral about records and things, and he told me about a conference where people were trying to decide on a future proof format for audio archival. he suggested the record as it's data can be retrieved in the most primitive, and hence, accessable way.

interesment, non?
posted by alex_tea , 7:53 PM Þ 

SHUFFLE BOIL
posted by Mess Noone , 2:01 PM Þ 
posted by chriszanf , 1:46 PM Þ 

The prefered football snack this year.
posted by Irdial , 10:29 AM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 9:28 AM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 1:28 AM Þ 

viva la breakdance eddie!

on moz-got the pinball skin and i'm chillin'!
posted by john , 1:11 AM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 12:19 AM Þ 
Tuesday, June 04, 2002

A Fatwa on Piracy

There's a battle being waged to stop the rampant piracy of records, software, movies and books in Egypt, whose 65 million people make up the Middle East's biggest consumer market. In February, the Business Software Alliance signed up an unusual partner -- the grand muftis at Al Azhar in Cairo. And the highest religious authority in Sunni Islam issued a fatwa, or edict, against piracy.

" Many Egyptians believe that it is not wrong to copy tapes, software, movies, or books. The fatwa on piracy may help. The day after it was issued, a major Egyptian business executive phoned Microsoft's Cairo offices and asked the company to review all of his software and to remove any illegal copies, says Ghada Khalifa, antipiracy manager at Microsoft Egypt. "When he [the businessman] was told that it was haram (Arabic for "forbidden"), he called and said 'I'm not going to keep it for one more minute,'" says Khalifa."

Here.
posted by Irdial , 10:54 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 10:35 PM Þ 

If you think the creep of invisible censorship won't affect you, think again. The private control of so many of the tools of communication has made insidious forms of censorship commonplace. Just this week Google took exception to me expressing my personal opinion about a news event and suspended my ad campaign on their site. As of today, when you type in the words "Anita+Roddick" into the Google search engine, you won't find AnitaRoddick.com until the ninth or tenth page of search results. I am virtually invisible.
http://anitaroddick.com/weblog/weblogdetail.jsp?title=null&id=247
posted by Irdial , 10:34 PM Þ 

brilliant and true!! thanks for the tip to bidstrup mikkel.


Egyptian intelligence warned American officials about
a week before Sept. 11 that Osama bin Laden's network
was in the advance stages of executing a significant
operation against an American target, President Hosni
Mubarak said in an interview on Sunday.

..........
A White House spokesman declined to comment on Mr.
Mubarak's remarks. The senior United States intelligence
official, however, said the Central Intelligence Agency had
not received any warnings from Egypt about a possible attack
in the days before Sept. 11.
-the times

can you say/you can say/we already know:
cover up!!!

they are stinky stinky people. boo to them!
posted by john , 7:12 PM Þ 

More brilliant images by the Danish artist Herluf Bidstrup here: http://bidstrup.com.ru/ - In case you were wondering, he was a pronounced communist, drawing for the newspaper Land & Folk (Land & People) in the 50ies to 70ies in Denmark.
posted by Mikkel , 8:26 AM Þ 

posted by Mikkel , 8:20 AM Þ 
Monday, June 03, 2002

alex, i love patchwerk. its beautiful and smart. you're awesome!

here's something soft to listen to.
posted by mary13 , 4:36 PM Þ 

ces-hope you are well and taking care no matter what the weather.

best!
posted by john , 9:04 AM Þ 

Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone.
And yeah, the sadies rule.
posted by Barrie , 12:15 AM Þ 
Sunday, June 02, 2002

Sorry, I'm here. A lot of things have fucked up, but hey - one catastrophy rarely comes alone. I'm tired, I've been on the piss.

Happy brithsday Barrie!
posted by Claus Eggers , 8:54 PM Þ 

i want my Sørensen damnit!! where he be? also there
is are vinyl copies of cameroon massif and in-sync pluto
here in our local record haunt if anyone wants them i'll
get 'em for ya. just let me know.

the sadies are good!
posted by john , 8:12 PM Þ 

Fatal error: No content-type in POST request in Unknown on line 0

odd ....... this appeared again when i placed my patch over the plus sign
posted by a hymn in g to nann , 1:32 PM Þ 

anthony you need flash 5! sorry, i haven't built in all the checking yet... flash four had very limited scripting, five and six are much more advanced.. oh i see you have 6 now... weird... i just realised what was wrong. it should work now (i had commented out the line which calls the PHP save script.. duh)
posted by alex_tea , 11:56 AM Þ 

alex ..... flash version was 4,0,4,0 ( now 6,0,29,0 after visiting your link ) ......... no text being displayed now, but the total number of patches didn't seem to increase after i added mine ( ? )
posted by a hymn in g to nann , 11:30 AM Þ 

word, that's sweet alex.
posted by john , 4:32 AM Þ 

cool... don't worry about the multiple posts, that's a bug i have yet to fix... at least i know it's working, i think it's the unix/linux player that's messing up the xml doc, i've asked the kids on flashkit, so hopefully i'll get a reply...

breaking the colours out of the ip address was the easiest part... here's the code (in actionscript):


// get RGB and alpha values from IP Address
		var ipArray  = eval(thePatch).ip.split(".");

		var red      = Number(ipArray[0]);
		var green    = Number(ipArray[1]);
		var blue     = Number(ipArray[2]);
		var alpha256 = Number(ipArray[3]);

		//turn alpha from 8bit to percentage
		var alpha100 = alpha256 / 2.55;

		// create color object and set patch color
		var patchColor = new Color(thePatch);
		patchColor.setRGB(combineRGB(red,green,blue));


the combineRGB function turns the red, green and blue values into a proper 24bit number... i nicked it from the definitive guide to actionscript by colin moock... his words are: "our custom combineRGB function shifts the red and green numbers into the proper position in a 24-bit number and the combines the red, green and blue values using the bitwise OR operator (|)."
posted by alex_tea , 2:45 AM Þ 

it's working now. dope!! installed flash6(6,0,29,0) but didn't
check before that when we had 5 on. also it kicked me
out to the php page in which my ip was added and we're on
the quilt!!

very curious what type of algorithm you are using to break the octets
into colours. supahkul! i think i'm up there 4x though. sorry!! :(
posted by john , 2:11 AM Þ 

today was glorious. what beautiful weather.

happy birthday barrie! i saw le tigre last night. awesome.

as for the patchwerk thing, it seems to be adding crap to the XML doc, i think this is an error with the flash player, the first build of the flash 5 player sent the data as the wrong content type... anyway, for some reason it's outputting all my functions into the xml doc...

those who tested it / had problems could you let me know what version of the flash player you are using?

thanks.
posted by alex_tea , 12:04 AM Þ 
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