Saturday, September 11, 2004
posted by Irdial , 9:47 AM Þ 

22mins and 38 seconds into this MP3 you will die!

I couldn't make it more than a couple of minutes through this abysmal, sourced-in-irony nonsense. And I was skipping around!

Am I missing something?
posted by Ken , 4:16 AM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 1:28 AM Þ 

The image “http://www.american-amusements.com/am/home.nsf/public/A77C0ED5FF64875D85256DEA0054940F/$file/Complete.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

THAT is what I am talking about.
If only you could DIE with me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THEN YOU WOULD SEE!

posted by Irdial , 1:25 AM Þ 
Friday, September 10, 2004

And after I died ELO reanimated me - who would have thought that!
posted by Claus Eggers , 10:38 PM Þ 

I dont know if any of you saw the BBC "News" item on the MMR report; If you did, you had to pick yourself off of the floor after it was over. They pumped out a completely biased, propaganda piece declaring unreservedly that "the MMR vaccine is safe and all children should have it" as the first lines of the item.

No wonder no one trusts BBC journalists, of course, WE know that The Dame On High is pulling the strings and in this case, the trigger in the propaganda war. She may of course, want a positoin on the board of Merck or GSK.

Once again, this is disgusting because everyone in the UK PAYS for the BBC, whose mandate is to serve the public. They BETRAY the public when they broadcast this vile propaganda.
posted by Irdial , 9:29 PM Þ 

It is also very interesting how The Guardian equates "legal" with money. Look at the "where to download music legally" link above. All the sites listed there are pay sites.

Maybe someone at the NYTimes was paying attention. They mention the Internet Archive as well as The American Memory Project, Micromusic, etree and others...

posted by Josh Carr , 7:59 PM Þ 

22mins and 38 seconds into this MP3 you will die!

From http://www.733kru.org/~sbindon/ which may or may not be the "sbindon" from Micromusic, whose track "tingeling 2k" just floored me today. And, to top it off, this dude does ANSI art, which means that he is a Transcendent Arkanoid, very very close to Doh.

I also got the new Role Model track, "One Note Samba" as you see below, which is superb.

I feel gooooood!
posted by Irdial , 7:46 PM Þ 

What exactly would you like to see?

Everyone getting the choice to select either MMR or single jabs on the NHS.

independent, non-industry funded, non-industry staffed, extremely detailed...

and irrelevant. No one wants it, and no one should be forced to choose it over no innoculations.

Where is the problem?

We have no choice. I do not want to take the risk that they are offering. I do not trust anything thta they say about this product. In any other situation where I am consuming something, I would simply say "I want one each of the other kind", and get what I want. This should be no different. The fact that they are trying so hard to force everyone to take it instead of giving them what they want and protecting the health of the community in the process is astonishing. They would rather the pool of immune people be reduced rather than spend a little extra money and give people choice. THAT is the problem. They care more about their argument than they do about the health of the nation. That is bad medicine.

The only way he could ever prove it...

No one cares about proof, or studies or anything else like that. This is about risk, and no one can force you to make you take a risk with your child. What they are doing is wrong because HMG is putting parents in a terrible position of being forced to take risks with their children, a reprehinsible, undemocratic, eveil, yes eveil, thing to do. The NHS should serve the needs of the people. It is not a school headmaster there to chastize naughty students. If people want separate jabs, then they should get them. The result is the same - immunity - which is the main goal of this programme...or at least it should be. Clearly they dont give a toss about any child, and are only intersted in saving time and money. Thats why Pediarix is selling itself as giving just those benefits.

Disgusting.

And there are no two ways about it.

posted by Irdial , 6:03 PM Þ 

Translation: we could not find any evidence. This of course means that vaccines can cause autism, and these "researchers" have failed to find the causal link.

Maybe there is no causal link. That's the point.

What exactly would you like to see?
The latest study is independent, non-industry funded, non-industry staffed, extremely detailed...

[...] The research team, based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, analysed the medical records of children registered with hundreds of general practices across England and Wales to find out whether those with autism, or other pervasive development disorders (PDDs)*, were more likely to have received MMR. They compared the vaccination histories of 1294 children diagnosed with these disorders between 1987 and 2001 with 4469 'control' children of the same sex and similar age who were registered with the same practices but who did not have a recorded diagnosis of autism.

The authors were unable to find any evidence to support an association between MMR vaccination and autism or other PDDs.

They tested this conclusion by carrying out further analyses which looked only at children who received MMR before their third birthday (autism is not normally diagnosed before age three), and at children vaccinated in the period before reporting of the theory that MMR might be linked with autism. They also compared children who joined the practices before their first birthday with those joining after this age. The conclusion - that there is no link between MMR and autism - remained unchanged following these extensive analyses.

The research team also carried out a systematic review of previously reported studies that examined the possibility of a link. None of these studies - taken alone or in combination with the current MRC study - showed any increased risk of autism associated with MMR. This combined result increases the strength of the assessment that there is no evidence of a link between MMR and autism.[...]

...and, as you see, is also non-experimental i.e. statistics-led, based on known FACTS:
Child X; MMR yes/no Autism yes/no

That's it.

Where is the problem?
And from this, why should we (British taxpayers) pay for a court case that can never be won? Never. Read out the above study summary and the case flies out the window.


A causal link is what Wakefield is after, and it's a useless search. The only way he could ever prove it is by proper experimentation; give us 10,000 healthy newborns and we'll give half MMR and half nothing. We then keep them in isolated experimental conditions and monitor frequency of onset of autism.

And in the end we already know the outcome.
But then who could we blame...?
posted by Alun , 4:52 PM Þ 

so Josh Ludwig Carr is still alive and out there somewhere.
i wonder if he received my parcel...
posted by Mess Noone , 4:25 PM Þ 

the new SMiLE

<1967>
"I don't have to do a big scary fire like that," he later said. "I can do a candle and it's still a fire. That would have been a really bad vibration to let out on the world, that Chicago fire. The next one is going to be a candle."
</1967>

Out on September 28th. Live in NYC on October 12th.
posted by Josh Carr , 3:53 PM Þ 

posted by meau meau , 3:47 PM Þ 

Not only do all these gmail goodies show people's programming skills, it shows how much goodwill is propogated from being a Good Company ®. If this were hotmail either noone would bother writing these scripts/apps or hotmail would(!) be a minefield of viruses and things to make all your mail disappear.
posted by meau meau , 3:20 PM Þ 

This is what you need...
posted by Irdial , 3:12 PM Þ 

Al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda No. 2, Says America Will Be Defeated

Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Ayman al-Zawahiri, top lieutenant to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, said that the U.S. will be defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan and should expect more attacks.

Americans in those two countries are caught ``between two fires, if they continue, they will bleed to death, and if they withdraw, they will lose everything,'' the al-Qaeda lieutenant said in a videotaped message broadcast on the Arabic language television network Al-Jazeera.

Al-Zawahiri was shown wearing glasses and a white turban; an assault rifle was leaning against a wall behind him. He referred to the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, indicating that the message was taped recently. Al-Jazeera said it received footage exclusively and didn't give any more details. It began broadcasting the tape late yesterday and continued broadcasting excerpts today. [...]

``East and South Afghanistan have become an open space for the Mujahadeen,'' Al-Zawahiri said. ``The Americans are hiding in their trenches and refuse to come out to meet the mujahadeen,'' he said.

The U.S. has 17,000 troops in Afghanistan. It is fighting to eliminate the Taliban, the radical Islamic militia that ruled Afghanistan before the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001, and remnants of the al-Qaeda network that used the country as a base to launch the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington three years ago.

As for Iraq, its government is weak and America is loosing ground there too as it sees its ``plans'' for the country ``turned upside down'' by the Mujahdeen, Al-Zawahiri said.

``The defeat of America in Iraq and Afghanistan has become just a matter of time,'' Al-Zawahiri said ``In Kabul, the Americans and peacekeeping forces are hiding from the shells of the mujahedeen and expect martyrdom attacks at every moment,'' he said. [...]

Bloomberg

posted by Irdial , 3:01 PM Þ 

title: one note samba
author: joão kotlinski
posted by Irdial , 1:42 PM Þ 

From Simon Hoggart
But the main topic of the day was fox-hunting, and the government's extraordinary decision that the bill to ban it is so urgent that it has to be pushed through all stages in a single day next Wednesday.

After this, the House of Lords will be told to rubberstamp the bill, and if they don't the last hereditary peer will be hanged immediately with the guts of the last life peer. Or something along those lines.

After which, the urgency will suddenly disappear, and the bill won't come into force for two whole years.


Help help! I can't see the Iraq Survey Group report for all this smoke!
posted by Alun , 1:41 PM Þ 

There is no evidence

Translation: we could not find any evidence. This of course means that vaccines can cause autism, and these "researchers" have failed to find the causal link.

This is the sort of news that needs to be spread to balance and demolish that PR:

MMR - Triple Trouble

>From Private Eye (UK), 9 July - 22 July 2004, not available online. Thanks
to Nigel Thomas.

The 300 families seeking to sue manufacturers of the MMR vaccine over
a range of disabling conditions other than autism - they include epilepsy,
encephalitis, the paralysing Guillian-Barre syndrome and childhood
arthritis - have, like other MMR parents, been thwarted by having their
legal aid cancelled (Eyes passim).

Even though some of the conditions complained of are acknowledged as
rare side-effects of the vaccine, and others were associated with an early
MMR vaccine that was withdrawn in 1992 by the government because it caused
mumps-meningitis, it seems the legal services commission (LSC) has made a
generalised ruling not to continue to support any of these cases either.

Each family has responded in detail to the LSC's requests to "show
cause" why their child's case should continue, but their legal aid
certificates were nevertheless cancelled at the end of last month because
LSC claimed "there was no reasonable prospect of success".

The LSC seems to want it both ways. A statement from the commission
said that as the non-autism and bowel disease cases were part of the MMR
litigation group, they were linked to the success or failure of the group as
a whole. While on the other hand it maintained that "all the responses
received were considered individually".

When some of the families sought written reasons in order to appeal,
they were told that a general decision had been taken by the multi-party
action committee and no written reasons were available, making something of
a mockery of the entire process.

Withdrawal of legal aid leaves the families in a precarious position.
Next month there is a progress hearing in the high court into the stalled
legal action. Not only do the families no longer have legal representation
and face the costs of appearing at court in person, but they are also now at
risk of having to pay the drug companies' court costs too. As Eye readers
will recall, Lovells, the solicitors acting for Merck, one of the three
defendant vaccine manufacturers, have already been accused of wrongly
forcing parents to sign away any future rights to sue by threatening them
with a huge bill for costs.

While the stalling of the legal action has muted debate over MMR in
Britain, in the US vaccine safety is high on both political and news agenda.
A new US study, published in the Journal of American Physicians and
Surgeons, is the latest in a series from Andrew Wakefield, the
gastroenterologist at the centre of the MMR controversy. It shows measles
virus in the spinal fluid, as well as in the guts of children with autism.
He and fellow author Dr Jeff Bradstreet argue that the presence of the virus
at two sites suggests evidence of active replication of virus and they are
calling for more research into any relationship between persistent measles
virus infection and regressive autism.


* * *
Did you read that? "Families have to pay the drug companies court costs". First they pay the taxes to have these poisons injected into their children, the money going straght to Merck, and then, they have to pay Merck's court costs because their own government wont defend their legal rights when the vaccines they paid for damage their children!!!!

"acknowledged as rare side effects". No one in their right mind is going to enter that particular lottery. Whatever new is said about MMR, the debate is over. MMR is poison. People should be able to choose the vaccines that they want to protect their children with, if at all.

This is a disgusting and completely disgraceful affair.
posted by Irdial , 1:37 PM Þ 

Doctors rule out link between vaccine and autism

Press Association
Friday September 10, 2004

There is no evidence to support a link between the controversial MMR jab and the development of autism in children, researchers said today.

The researchers, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine...[...]
posted by Alun , 1:02 PM Þ 

The image “http://www.micromusic.net/new_shop/micromusic/images/picture_disc_m003_A.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Keep, On, Rockin. Keeponrockin...

http://www.micromusic.net/
posted by Irdial , 1:01 PM Þ 

I was thinking that Dav is locked out of Blogger by his asswipe employers but he should be able to post via email...hmmmm its true!
posted by Irdial , 11:41 AM Þ 


posted by meau meau , 11:22 AM Þ 

http://www.electrokin.com/news/general/

A very beautiful website; check out their popup player - with an ASCII progress indicator!
posted by Irdial , 10:58 AM Þ 

http://gabba.cc/pod/

Nice looking, well behaving.
posted by Irdial , 10:42 AM Þ 

Look at this amazing image:

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2004/27/image/a

And to think, they want to END Hubble's life.
posted by Irdial , 10:32 AM Þ 

cite meau

Er... I don't recall what I've premonition-ise-ificated. Just following the trails to their tails.

It's the hafler trio what improves my neural networks, as I repeat. (I *heard* Ceromancy in it's full glory on wednesday evening - JOY)

-

Google

10.10
Kostof, Spiro. "The Street."

In Kostof Spiro’s essay, “The Street,” he discusses the history of what he believes to be the integral part of every city, the street. His essay covers the life of the street from it’s early beginnings as a hiker’s path all the way up to Germany’s autobahn. What is best about streets is that they are public space, therefore their formation has been laid out by the culture of the people who use it and the government who usually owns and preserves it.

When streets in Europe first became actual constructed roadways, they were simply following beaten paths connecting homes and towns used for traveling people and wagons. Gradually, as streets became the roots of a city or town, they became centers of social and economic activity. Eventually, stores and markets developed around these crowded paths and were both serviced by and gave services to the street and the people in them. Over time, streets have changed with the culture and society they exist within. Example being after the Revolution of 1848, when Napoleon III had to devise a way to limit the rioting in the streets of Paris. To do this, he had Baron Haussmann design the new Paris with wide streets, popularly known as boulevards and avenues. This decreased the blockage of city roads and allowed the military to easily march through them. Gradually, the street began to be seen as symbols of many other things besides travel. They even represented segregation. The layout and condition of streets often helped segregate the races and different classes existing in the close proximity of a small town and even in large cities many times.

Eventually, streets became symbols of the government ruling over them. Clean streets were symbols of a good European government. The Westminster Act of 1726 was a huge progress for street development. The act required that new streets be built with large stones instead of the awkwardly uneven and loud plebes. Also gutters were required on every street to control the large amount of human waste and runoff pumped into them each day. The act also fed the development of further techniques for paving such as tar-covered wood and eventually asphalt. The sidewalk was another very important development to the modern street. The sidewalk provided a place for pedestrian traffic away from the busy street in an effort to keep people safe and separated from larger traffic. Also, the “portico” or a covered structure originating from Europe was introduced to cover the streets and sidewalks to keep pedestrians safe from bad weather and the harsh sun. This “portico” has developed into what is today the American “front porch,” in an effort to further separate private homes from the public street.

Today, zoning laws and public safety have regulated streets into their current forms. Most, if not all roads have gone through many major changes since they were first laid by villagers and tradesmen. As long as there is a constantly evolving society and culture, streets will continue to change with the times.

posted by meau meau , 10:01 AM Þ 

I strongly suggest that you head over to Woebot where if you click on the Woebot logo, you can hear a recording of a pirate radio station.

This recording features the strange, rough sounding, brutal and very VERY interesting new music that can be heard on the pirate radio stations in London.

I'm not going to try and further describe what it sounds like, (thankfully I dont have to, its the internet after all) I will say this however, its got something "going on", especially the more "abstract" ones. Where each one begins and ends is another question.

I heard some station play this stuff a little while ago, and it really surprised me...which as you know, is a sensation that I like when it comes to music.
posted by Irdial , 8:48 AM Þ 

Take a seat, and look back at the future. Microsoft is spelling out E-V-I-L. Either you are against them, or you are for E-V-I-L. The American Republicans are running on the politics of fear, and Microsoft is running a business of fear related products for a business controlled world of fear. Microsoft is bringing corporate security home, with finger scanning technology and the ability to limit portable storage. This is their future of corporate control. I wonder if these products will leave the company further away from the home user mindset, and further away from usability -- how can anything this company does be good for the regular person?


From Seattle Times

Fingerprint recognition a first in biometric field for Microsoft

Fingerprint recognition, which falls under a technology called biometrics, has been used for years in the corporate environment. Some companies use the technology to allow employees access into certain offices, for example, or to log on to computers.

From ZD Net

Windows makes it easy to quickly download files to iPods and other portable storage devices

In the next version of Windows, Microsoft will give big companies an easy way to block use of such devices, while making it easier for consumers to connect their home systems to them, a company representative told CNET News.com.

posted by telle goode , 4:54 AM Þ 

From: 	xxxx@dsl.pipex.com
Subject: RE: Hello
Date: 6 September 2004 16:02:00 BST
To: alex_tea@R107.co.uk


Don't have a scanner so recipe below.
[...]
Here's the recipe:-

Prep time 20 mins
Cooking time 40 mins
Serves 4

Ingredients
Juice and grated rind of 1 orange (I use 2 or add some juice from a carton)
3 tbspoons honey
12 tasty sausages none of your cheap sawdust models!
4 tbspoon olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
2 crushed cloves of garlic
650g butternut squash peeled deseeded and diced
1 pack of thyme fresh preferably or 2 teaspoons dried if not
250g pack cherry toms

1. Preheat oven to 180C. mix HALF orange juice and rind with honey in a bowl and season well.

2. Place sausages in a roasting tin lined with baking parchment and bake in oven for 20mins. Spoon honey and orange mixture over top. Increase oven temp to 200c and cook for 20mins more or until sausages golden brown and cooked through, basting(remember what that means?) occasionally.

3. To make the ratatouille heat oil in large saucepan and brown the onion and garlic. Add thyme and squash and cook stirring all the time for 5 mins or until the squash starts to soften and brown.

4. Add remaining orange juice and tomatoes. Mix well, cover and simmer over low heat for 10 mins stirring occasionally, or until the squash is tender. Adjust the seasoning and remove thyme stalks.

5. Divide ratatouille between 4 plates top with the sausages and serve accompanied with asparagus or a green salad. (personally i'd serve it with loadsa mashed potatoes bodger)

The smaller you dice the squash the quicker it will cook but if you start doing the ratatouille as soon as you put the sausages in they will be ready at the same time. If you keep a few cherry toms back you can pop them in for the last 5 minutes so you've got some whole ones to look at

GOOD LUCK
Dad


--

Dad's are the best. Cooked this Saturday night for some friends. A nice way to enjoy the September sun.
posted by alex_tea , 2:44 AM Þ 

I can catch a glimpse of the Monument from the top deck of the 8 as it passes through Threadneedle street and onto Cheapside. When I was on the Warp/Rephlex boat party last month I saw the shimmering gold crescent rising above the city like a beacon of London past.

Has anyone ever seen the green laser beam that splits the night sky at Greenwich, arching across the Prime Meridian? A sight for pilled-up sore eyes if I ever saw one. Possibly one of my most romantic moments in London. Alone and yet so close to everything.

The Gerkin/Swiss Re/30 St Mary's Axe is such an amazing sight/site. Positioned so perfectly that it is almost always at the centre of some divine, Parisian* cross road &emdash; from Whitechapel Road, my bedroom window in E3, Liverpool Street/Bishopsgate, Curtain Road/Old Street, Shoreditch High Street, City Road, High Holborn, Threadneedle Street/Cheapside it's always there, directly in front of you. It's one of the few/many things my girlfriend and I agree one. I really hope we get it together and go an see it. She arrives back from 2 months in Singapore/Tokyo/Sydney (lucky bitch) 0600 Saturday so I think it's possible. We have friends from Paris arriving 1300. I have to get rid of my brother and friend who are currently staying at mine before then (don't worry, they already know they have to leave &emdash; I just have to convince them) and then we must also visit the Saul Bass exhibition and I must purchase the DVD of his work because I have heard so much about it.

*Paris is built on some ancient axis, most visible from either L'Arch du Trimomphe ou Le Grand Arche ou Le Tour Efielle.
posted by alex_tea , 2:28 AM Þ 

Geocaching...This is the current state of the geocache that my girlfriend and I left in Majorca last year (picture taken by a recent visitor). Since we published the co-ordinates here last year, 36 people have tried to find it.  I have visited many geocaches both here and abroad; it's great fun.
posted by captain davros , 1:05 AM Þ 
Thursday, September 09, 2004

how could you possibly know) that I came ][ this close to renaming BLOGDIAL "The Knights of 30 St. Mary Axe?".

We.
Are.
The.
Best.

Are we not?

(I could cite meau's premonitions as further evidence that Blogdial improves your neural networks)


See you at the top...

Have you been there yet?

I'll be queueing, 9.30am, Saturday.

I WANT that view.
A full English breakfast for the eyes©®.
posted by Alun , 8:44 PM Þ 

The image “http://www.ourdisco.com/upload/200496_152910/DOWNTOWNsmall.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
posted by Irdial , 8:32 PM Þ 

Did you know (indeed, how could you possibly know) that I came ][ this close to renaming BLOGDIAL "The Knights of 30 St. Mary Axe?".


The image “http://www.bedetheque.com/Planches/dieuxjalouxpl.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Seriously.


and there is a "new" Jodo Mœbo tome out!!!


posted by Irdial , 6:10 PM Þ 

No wonder Cassinni is sending back so many images of the moons of Saturn as little dots; its orbit is wildly eccentric! Look at it:

The image “http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/images/cassini_today4.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Looks like we are going to get periodic bouts of spectacular closeups mixed with days and days of blobs of light. Worth the wait clearly, some of the results have been fantastic so far.

Check this out; its the poor man's Celestia.
posted by Irdial , 5:31 PM Þ 

Address 30 St Mary Axe EC3

Opening Times Sat 10am - 5pm
Sun 10am - 5pm
First come basis, queuing if necessary.
Last entry 4.30pm.
Key

Description Affectionately known as the 'Gherkin', this is a landmark curvilinear 40-storey office building in the heart of London's financial centre and is unlike any ever conceived. With distinctive tapering form that minimises its footprint and effect on the London skyline and ecofriendly glazed skin with lightwells, the building also has a glazed dome at the top with spectacular 360 degree views across the city. RIBA award winner 2004.


See you at the top...
posted by Alun , 5:30 PM Þ 

I of course, have copies of the etchings described below. If you ever get the chance to go to The Monument, and I strongly reccomend that you do, you will ask yourself, "where the hell are they going to put the piazza??? There is no space around that great and and profoundly beautiful thing; it is encroached upon on every side by hideous modern office blocks. Also, there is a steep hill behind it, that will have to be cut away to make a flat piazza.

As for that astonishing quip that, "...we walk by it every day and don’t even notice it." I dont know what sort of ZoMbiE he is, but WHENEVER I am near The Monument I can feel its prescence. Whenever I am on a boat on the river, I turn to catch a glimpse of it. Ideally, one building to the left and right The Monument and all buildingse between it and the Thames that are less than 50 years old should be destroyed so that it can be seen from the river for more than 120°.

If you ever see a panorama of London from the time of The Monuments completion you will get a sense of what this object meant to the skyline of this, the greatest of cities. It was a marvellous thing, gold shining out over the huddled masses, reminding all...don't play with fire. Or... Down with papists!:


These were plots ascribed to the Catholics, but really plots against them. Even the great fire in London, which took place during this reign, was ascribed to them, and there is the charge to this day going round the base of “the monument,” which Pope justly compares to a big, lying bully:–


“Where London's column, pointing to the skies,

Like a tall bully, lifts its head and lies.”


The words are these: “This monument is erected in memory of the burning of this Protestant city by the Popish faction, in September, A.D. 1666, for the destruction of the Protestant religion and of old English liberty, and for the introduction of Popery and slavery. But the fury of the Papists is not yet satisfied.”
From here


posted by Irdial , 5:18 PM Þ 

the chutney won't be ready for a few months yet captain ( it's still simmering !! ), and we may well need it all for a possible b&b business that may be ready for next spring ... so if you fancy it as an accompaniment to coarse pork terrine, book a room early to avoid disappointment ;]
posted by a hymn in g to nann , 5:01 PM Þ 

News

Face-lift for Wren’s Monument
03 September 2004

Sir Christopher Wren’s Monument in the City of London is to be restored to its former glory under bold new plans to reinstate the original piazza around the icon.

By Will Hurst

The classically proportioned piazza around the Monument, which was built to commemorate the Great Fire of 1666, was destroyed in the Victorian era by a new road that cuts through the public space, leaving the tower isolated and inaccessible.

But now the Corporation of London, advised by landscape architect Gross Max, has revealed plans to resurrect the piazza on Monument Street.

Etchings of the 1,500 sq m space made 20 years after construction will inform the plans, which include £1 million worth of landscaping, public toilets and a new pavilion, the subject of a competition between three unnamed architectural practices.

Victor Callister, street scene manager at the Corporation of London, said the restoration project was a major initiative for the City. “It’s a scheme we have wanted to do for a long time,” he said. “It’s a Wren memorial, and it’s providing a public space in the densest part of the city.”

Architectural historian and Wren specialist, Adrian Tinniswood, welcomed the move.

“It is time we reclaimed the Monument,” he said. “The fact that it is simply called the Monument says quite a lot about how deeply embedded it is in the national consciousness. But we walk by it every day and don’t even notice it. So anything that improves its setting, I’m all for.”

The project, also funded by the Pool of London Partnership, which supports public regeneration schemes in central London, is due to start in spring next year. It aims to boost visitor numbers from the current 285,000 a year to the 350,000 it received at its peak.

A project to clean and repair the Monument once the piazza is completed in 2006 is planned by Julian Harrap Architects.

Gross Max (whose site is not firefox friendly)worked up preliminary sketches for a public consultation that revealed 90% support for the public square’s resurrection.

Gross Max partner Eelco Hooftman told [http://www.bdonline.co.uk/] : “It’s all about creating a very neutral space for the setting. It doesn’t need to compete with the Monument. We did quite a lot of historical research, and you can see there was always the intention to have a piazza around the Monument.”

Hooftman added that the plans are part of a wider effort to pedestrianise the City and reconnect historic buildings. “After all these years, London is starting to reconsider its urban fabric, and the Monument could be the jewel in the crown,” he said.

posted by meau meau , 3:10 PM Þ 

In a secret Paris cavern, the real underground cinema

Jon Henley in Paris
Wednesday September 8, 2004
The Guardian


The catacombs in Paris
Them bones, them bones: Les Catacombes, part of the miles of tunnels underlying Paris. Photo: AP


Police in Paris have discovered a fully equipped cinema-cum-restaurant in a large and previously uncharted cavern underneath the capital's chic 16th arrondissement.

Officers admit they are at a loss to know who built or used one of Paris's most intriguing recent discoveries.

"We have no idea whatsoever," a police spokesman said.

"There were two swastikas painted on the ceiling, but also celtic crosses and several stars of David, so we don't think it's extremists. Some sect or secret society, maybe. There are any number of possibilities."

Members of the force's sports squad, responsible - among other tasks - for policing the 170 miles of tunnels, caves, galleries and catacombs that underlie large parts of Paris, stumbled on the complex while on a training exercise beneath the Palais de Chaillot, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower.

After entering the network through a drain next to the Trocadero, the officers came across a tarpaulin marked: Building site, No access.

Behind that, a tunnel held a desk and a closed-circuit TV camera set to automatically record images of anyone passing. The mechanism also triggered a tape of dogs barking, "clearly designed to frighten people off," the spokesman said.

Further along, the tunnel opened into a vast 400 sq metre cave some 18m underground, "like an underground amphitheatre, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs".

There the police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and tapes of a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers. None of the films were banned or even offensive, the spokesman said.

A smaller cave next door had been turned into an informal restaurant and bar. "There were bottles of whisky and other spirits behind a bar, tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous," the spokesman said.

"The whole thing ran off a professionally installed electricity system and there were at least three phone lines down there."

Three days later, when the police returned accompanied by experts from the French electricity board to see where the power was coming from, the phone and electricity lines had been cut and a note was lying in the middle of the floor: "Do not," it said, "try to find us." [...]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1299444,00.html

posted by Irdial , 2:40 PM Þ 

I'm another one with a gas cooker:

And this is part of what I received inn the post from british gas:

From 20th September 2004 our domestic gas and electricity prices will increase by 12.4% and 9.4% respectively.

Why are energy prices going up?

There are several reasons why energy prices are rising and they're hitting everyone's pockets. The main concern is that the price energy suppliers pay for gas (the wholesale price) has soared. When costs go up, we're unable to cover them all and, like any business, in the end we have to pass some of them on to the customers.

Until recently, the UK was largely self-sufficient in gas. Now though, we will increasingly need to import supplies from countries such as Norway and Russia and tanker LNG (liquefied natural gas) from around the globe.

Around 40% of the UK's electricity is generated in gas-fired power stations, so higher gas prices mean more expensive electricity.

And so it will go on...

Inn? that's where I've been, hmm-ic!
posted by meau meau , 2:35 PM Þ 

posted by meau meau , 1:45 PM Þ 

RICKY!
posted by alex_tea , 12:40 PM Þ 

Gmail

username: blogdial
password: wearethebest

A BLOGDIAL Gmail repository. Post MP3s, videos, etc. Whatever takes your fancy.

Some nice Gmail hacks: gmcp.pl and GMail FS. Both allow you to use GMail as a filesystem.

blogdial@gmail.com
posted by alex_tea , 12:12 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 11:12 AM Þ 


Love my sink! Got any spare chutney Mr Manning? Posted by Hello
posted by captain davros , 10:57 AM Þ 

hq4x Magnification Filter

by Maxim Stepin

Test Case 2:

original image nearest neighbour 4x hq4x



Test Case 3:

original image nearest neighbour 4x hq4x



Files:

Executable hq4x.zip34Kb09.29.2003
Source code (recommended)hq4x_src.zip20Kb09.29.2003

http://www.hiend3d.com/hq4x.html
posted by Irdial , 9:16 AM Þ 
Wednesday, September 08, 2004



plum chutney, the process ...
posted by a hymn in g to nann , 9:57 PM Þ 

German voters last month showed 81 per cent would vote for Mr Kerry, and 8 per cent for Mr Bush. A Sofres Institute poll for Figaro Magazine in July found that 78 per cent of the French wanted Mr Kerry to win, against 9 per cent for Mr Bush. The poll also showed that 55 per cent of the French say that the US plays “a negative role in the area of democracy”. times
posted by Alun , 9:15 PM Þ 

I smallened your picture.
Now I smallen that article:

Homoeopathic treatments should not be viewed as medicines because they were not subject to clinical testing and no proof of their effectiveness was required, it said, adding that it was an aberration for the state to pay 35 per cent of patients’ fees for consultations with homoeopaths.

This is a lie.

Anyone can go and read the hundreds and thousands of trials done over the centuries, yes, centuries that have been used to perfect Homeopathic medicines. This is a typical skeptic trick, to print a lie. This is not only a lie, in fact it is the polar opposite of the truth.

Any doctor who would say this should be banned from practicing medicine, because he has either said something without checking his facts, or he has checked the facts and decided to lie, either way, OUT OUT OUT!!!
posted by Irdial , 9:05 PM Þ 

Nice interstitial....in Russian!

http://familia.hotbox.ru/eng.htm
posted by Irdial , 8:54 PM Þ 

Slide #1: This first heat thermography photograph shows me before I began to make sounds. Please note the color. There is a predominance of red.


Slide #2: This next photo was taken as I began to create vocal harmonics. Notice the immediate changes in the color; especially around the forehead--you'll see the color blue immediately become visible here.


Slide #3: This next photograph was taken as I continued making vocal harmonics. Notice continued changes in the color of the forehead;there is still more blue color.



Slide #4: This last photograph was taken at the conclusion of my creating vocal harmonics. Here you’ll see not only continued changes in the forehead, but also in the sinus cavity and around the cheek area.


Note that the entire process of making sound probably took about one minute. These heat thermography photographs were taken during that time...

http://www.healingsounds.com/research/heat-thermography.asp

posted by telle goode , 8:21 PM Þ 
posted by Alun , 8:19 PM Þ 

Who would the world vote for if they had the choice? We batted this around here earlier, now lets see just how many licks it does take:

http://www.betavote.com/
posted by Irdial , 6:39 PM Þ 

Canada:

OTTAWA — Virtually every newcomer to Canada would be fingerprinted and photographed under ambitious federal security proposals, The Canadian Press has learned.

A newly obtained report shows the government is looking at the collection and use of biometric data of about one million people annually, from visitors and refugee claimants to permanent residents and new citizens.

The personal identification effort could also extend to millions more who are born Canadian, possibly reviving the idea of a national identity card, indicates the report released by Citizenship and Immigration Canada under the Access to Information Act.
...
Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, finds the proposals worrisome.

"It looks to me like a march towards a surveillance society, with the strategy being to start with those members of the society who are already treated with suspicion, and then work up progressively until everyone is under surveillance," she said in an interview[...]

US:

Washington, DC, Sep. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. Homeland Security Tom Ridge said Tuesday that the administration had taken the first steps towards a biometric identity system for all air travelers.

"We think the registered traveler program with frequent flyers is a good place to start," Ridge told journalists at the National Press Club in Washington. "But that could also be a prequel. That could be the first step of enlarging it ... potentially to citizens that travel casually."

The registered traveler program -- being tried at five airports nationwide -- is currently being offered only to frequent flyers. Participants undergo a background check by local and federal law enforcement and provide biometric identifiers in the form of fingerprints and/or iris scans. Thereafter, once they have biometrically identified themselves, they may pass through a special security checkpoint where they are likely to get less screening than other travelers.

Ridge said the aim would be to design a system that balanced "the security concerns we have and the privacy concerns a lot of people have."

Google News: Biometric
posted by meau meau , 5:00 PM Þ 

posted by meau meau , 1:29 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 1:29 PM Þ 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
You have received this message from the "FIPR Alert" mailing list run by
the Foundation for Information Policy Research http://www.fipr.org/
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Policeman admits spying for Saudis

Tip-off put officers on trail of PC being paid to supply secret information on dissidents and cleric

Steven Morris
Wednesday September 8, 2004
The Guardian

A British policeman was hired by a Saudi diplomat to supply confidential information on the radical cleric Abu Hamza, members of an east African political dynasty and a prominent dissident, it was revealed yesterday.

PC Ghazi Kassim gleaned details of his targets from police computers and databases and in some cases interrogated the people he been commissioned to find out about...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/saudi/story/0,11599,1299545,00.html
--
+44 7970 164 526 / http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/I.Brown/

------------------------------------------------------------------------
You have received this message from the "FIPR Alert" mailing list run by
the Foundation for Information Policy Research http://www.fipr.org/

for all administrative matters, including unsubscribing, please visit
https://mailman.aldigital.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/fipr-alerts
or send an explanatory email to
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[...]

Yet another example of why an ID card must be absolutely refused. If a police man can be corrupted like this, anyone can be spied upon or smeard or blackmailed or framed for a small sum of money.

The police will have access to everything you do and every where you go, including the patterns of your behaviour, making it simple for false scenarios to be generated to blame you for crimes that you have not committed.

People will say that these occurances are rare, but this is not the point. Winning the lottery is almost impossible, yet it is played every day by hundreds of millions. Do you REALLY want to be in the police corruption lottery? Of course you do not. The tickets to enter this lottery are ID cards.

Dont buy one, and you cant be in it to win it.
posted by Irdial , 1:07 PM Þ 

posted by meau meau , 11:34 AM Þ 

posted by meau meau , 10:51 AM Þ 

Clarity is a beautiful thing

I'm trying to face the fact that my external cd-rom drive/G3/amp set-up offers better sound quality than going straight from cd to amp.
I MUST get a new cd player, actually I want a DVD player but can't find useful online reviews (they're all about money)
posted by meau meau , 9:47 AM Þ 

British ruling cheers VoIP industry

Published: September 7, 2004, 1:28 PM PDT
By Graeme Wearden
Special to CNET News.com

update British regulatory agency Ofcom has begun to map out the future of commercial Net phone services.

And while some issues are as yet unresolved, the organization issued a key ruling Monday that was popular among carriers.

The communications regulator announced that Net phone service providers will be able to offer subscribers both geography-based phone numbers and numbers that aren't tied to location.

Geography-based numbers will begin with "01" or "02," as do the United Kingdom's existing fixed-line telephone numbers. This will let consumers choose numbers that indicate where they are located. It will also allow a consumer to shift onto a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service plan and retain his or her existing number.

Nongeographic numbers, which will begin with "056," will be suitable for people who want to use their Net phone service from many locations. For example, a subscriber could install the necessary software on a laptop and connect anywhere over a GPRS or 3G link.

Ofcom predicted that Internet telephony, which it calls voice over broadband, will enable consumers to access features typically seen today solely in enterprises--including sophisticated messaging options, video calls and large conference calls.

In a statement, Ofcom Chief Executive Stephen Carter said his agency intends to "keep out of the way," while still encouraging the development of new voice services.

Regulation of Net phone service has also been a big issue in the United States, where debates have raged over how the services should be taxed to whether they must comply with the federal wiretap rules that govern fixed-line services.

This is Ofcom's first significant move in the Net phone sector, and it appears to have found broad approval within the industry.

"It's looking quite good so far," a representative for the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) said, lauding the availability of both geographic and nongeographic numbers. "There was a concern that Ofcom might go with either one or the other. This gives flexibility to users."

Ofcom also announced that it will run a public consultation into the tricky question of how functional and reliable a VoIP service should have to be.

Under U.K. law, any company offering telephone service must adhere to a set of provisions called PATS (publicly available telephone services). A service that complies with PATS must be able to continue working after a disaster, and it must always be able to connect users with with emergency services, for example.

Complying with PATS can be expensive. To comply, a VoIP provider would have to pay for a gateway to the public switched telephone network, which would be more costly than just routing calls over the Internet.

In addition, anyone using VoIP over a home computer would not be able to use the service during an electrical blackout, unless they also ran a generator or an uninterruptible power supply.

ISPA has been lobbying hard that Net phone services should not have to comply with PATS. The organization recently claimed that this would "effectively deliver a death sentence to the U.K.'s emerging VoIP industry."

Ofcom's consultation will run until Nov. 15.

Graeme Wearden of ZDNet UK reported from London.

[...]


How can this be described as "cheering"?
And no one can "Map out the future", especially when it comes to software. Like Joel says below, many people thought that Ebay would never become popular.

Also there seems to be a fundamental mismatch between what they think a telephone service is and what I think a telephoneservice is.

I think Skype is a telephone service. I use it to make phone calls all over the world. What OFCOM thinks about this is none of my concern. The bogus rulings that it might make from on high will not affect my use of Skype, and they will not have any bearing on all the people that use skype with me.

All of this assigning of numbers, PATS the Feds barking about tapping, all of it is irrelevant. No one can control IP telephony. No one. Read this from here:

<>
The Skype Group is headquartered in Luxembourg with offices also in London and soon in Tallinn.
In case you didnt know, Tallinn is the capital of Estonia. And no, I didnt know that either!!!!!
PATS cant touch Skype. The FBI cannot mandate anything as far as Skype is concerned, and I can promise you that this company will not incorporate in either jurisdiction any time soon, especially with the "cheering" noises coming out of OFCOM.

Even if a disaster happens and Skype is bought by bad company, the idea is in the open (anyone remember Intel Internet Phone? from the 90's?) Someone else will start a new independent company and provide the same service. They will base it on existing open source software, skinned to look good, so they dont have to build it from scratch. The old style telephone is going to be relegated to emergency use and calling people who dont have broadband. The new telephony will be untappable, free and better quality than the old telephoney. Yes, "telephoney"

Instead of trying to set up a framework to control it, HMG should be doing everything it can to make Skype base itself here. They do this by:

  • Guaranteed 25 year tax free operation.
  • Guaranteed 25 year zero regulation.

The software skills, jobs and tangential opportunities that will arise from having an innovative company like Skype in the UK are obvious...well, obviously not so obvious to OFCOM. But then again, they call VOIP "Voice over broadband"!

posted by Irdial , 9:40 AM Þ 

I currently have a policy of not joining any of these social networks, because they strike me as going strongly against the grain of how human networks really work. [...]

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/NotJustUsability.html

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

[...]

Now, let's look at a successful social interface. Many humans are less inhibited when they're typing then when they are speaking face-to-face. Teenagers are less shy. With cellphone text messages, they're more likely to ask each other out on dates. That genre of software was so successful socially that it's radically improving millions of people's love lives (or at least their social calendars). Even though text messaging has a ghastly user interface, it became extremely popular with the kids. The joke of it is that there's a much better user interface built into every cellphone for human to human communication: this clever thing called "phone calls." You dial a number after which everything you say can be heard by the other person, and vice versa. It's that simple. But it's not as popular in some circles as this awkward system where you break your thumbs typing huge strings of numbers just to say "damn you're hot," because that string of numbers gets you a date, and you would never have the guts to say "damn you're hot" using your larynx.

Another social software success is ebay. When I first heard about ebay, I said, "Nonsense! That will never work. Nobody's going to send money to some random person they encountered on the Internet in hopes that person will out of the goodness of their hearts actually ship them some merchandise." A lot of people thought this. We were all wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Ebay made a big bet on the cultural anthropology of human beings and won. The great thing about ebay is that it was a huge success precisely because it seemed like a terrible idea at the time, and so nobody else tried it, until ebay locked in the network effects and first-mover advantage. [...]

I REALLY like Joel's writing.

posted by Irdial , 8:43 AM Þ 

Maths holy grail could bring disaster for internet

Two of the seven million dollar challenges that have baffled for more than a century may be close to being solved

Tim Radford, science editor
Tuesday September 7, 2004
The Guardian


Mathematicians could be on the verge of solving two separate million dollar problems. If they are right - still a big if - and somebody really has cracked the so-called Riemann hypothesis, financial disaster might follow. Suddenly all cryptic codes could be breakable. No internet transaction would be safe. [...]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1298728,00.html

My emphasis.

The Guardian is really useless.
posted by Irdial , 8:13 AM Þ 

Hi all, have been away for a while. School is starting tomorrow so that will mean I will be away even more. I am nervous and unprepared. I haven't done much summer readings. I am quite unmotivated. This is all recipe for "bad," but I will try to make it something "good." Summer tends to de-motivate. I have been working a boring summer job so my mind has been caught it a depressing rut of repetition and entropy. Do any Blogdiallers have favourite motivators? Mine is music and excercise. After exercise comes drawing, I say. They are similar!

Listening...
Cavendish Sanguine - Strange Metals, Rare Earths
The Gideon Leeches - The Freezing Point of Sound
both from Fflint Central... highly recommended... especially liking the latter, an eerie sountrack of ice, snow, and loneliness.
Sunn O))) - White2 (lp). Not much needs to be said about them: Gorn. Woody.
Nebura Bunget, a Romanian black metal band.
Houses of the Holy...
Acid Mothers Temple and Escapade split
All of my favourites - Today I have just hooked up some new (old Pro 22s) speakers that add some serious low-end woodiness to my system, hence I must listen to everything over again very LOUDLY. I have also made some speaker cables that have a huge amount of bandwidth and seperation which makes everything sound absolutely wonderful. Clarity is a beautiful thing. I have also turned my two small satellite speakers towards the wall. I have no idea why this works, but it sounds amazing.
posted by Barrie , 1:28 AM Þ 


Posting this with Hello - anyone else using it? gmail me if you are! Posted by Hello
posted by captain davros , 12:47 AM Þ 
Tuesday, September 07, 2004



What you get for sucking Satan's cock.
posted by Alun , 10:32 PM Þ 

Washington politicians are once again seriously considering imposing a
national identification card - and it may well become law before the end
of the 108th Congress. The much-hailed 9/11 Commission report released
in July recommends a federal identification card and, worse, a "larger
network of screening points" inside the United States. Does this mean we
are to have "screening points" inside our country where American
citizens will be required to "show their papers" to government
officials? It certainly sounds that way!

As I have written recently, the 9/11 Commission is nothing more than
ex-government officials and lobbyists advising current government
officials that we need more government for America to be safe. Yet it
was that same government that failed so miserably on September 11, 2001.

Congress has embraced the 9/11 Commission report uncritically since its
release in July. Now Congress is rushing to write each 9/11 Commission
recommendation into law before the November election. In the same way
Congress rushed to pass the PATRIOT Act after the September 11 attacks
to be seen "doing something," it looks like Congress is about to make
the same mistake again of rushing to pass liberty-destroying legislation
without stopping to consider the consequences. Because it is so
controversial, we may see legislation mandating a national
identification card with biometric identifiers hidden in bills
implementing 9/11 Commission recommendations. We have seen this
technique used in the past on controversial measures.

A national identification card, in whatever form it may take, will allow
the federal government to inappropriately monitor the movements and
transactions of every American. History shows that governments
inevitably use the power to monitor the actions of people in harmful
ways. Claims that the government will protect the privacy of Americans
when implementing a national identification card ring hollow. We would
do well to remember what happened with the Social Security number. It
was introduced with solemn restrictions on how it could be used, but it
has become a de facto national identifier.

Those who are willing to allow the government to establish a
Soviet-style internal passport system because they think it will make us
safer are terribly mistaken. Subjecting every citizen to surveillance
and "screening points" will actually make us less safe, not in the least
because it will divert resources away from tracking and apprehending
terrorists and deploy them against innocent Americans!

The federal government has no constitutional authority to require
law-abiding Americans to present any form of identification before they
engage in private transactions. Instead of forcing all Americans to
prove to law enforcement that they are not terrorists, we should be
focusing our resources on measures that really will make us safer. For
starters, we should take a look at our dangerously porous and unguarded
borders. We have seen already this summer how easy it is for individuals
possibly seeking to do us harm to sneak across the border into our
country. In July, Pakistani citizen Farida Goolam Mahomed Ahmed, who is
on the federal watch list, reportedly crossed illegally into Texas from
Mexico. She was later arrested when she tried to board a plane in New
York, but she should have never been able to cross our border in the
first place!

We must take effective measures to protect ourselves from a terrorist
attack. That does not mean rushing to embrace legislation that in the
long run will do little to stop terrorism, but will do a great deal to
undermine the very way of life we should be protecting. Just as we must
not allow terrorists to threaten our lives, we must not allow government
to threaten our liberties. We should reject the notion of a national
identification card.

Norman Kirk Singleton
Legislative Director
Congressman Ron Paul
203 Cannon
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-2831
posted by Irdial , 9:25 PM Þ 

listening to... on the computer and many recent vinyl acquisitions on th hifi. mostly classical (european and asian).

saul bass... got postponed for a trip to epping forest. the car park was full of essex girls and boys. tits and testosterone. the forest was empty.

Sorry to be the ones to say. You are just not Essex
You are about as Essex as Steve Urwin. Try wearing a baseball cap back to front now and then, and consider getting an earring. You may want to get some alloys put on your sensible car and subscribe to Max Power before ever attempting our Essex Test again.

You are 10% an Essex Boy!

posted by Alun , 7:54 PM Þ 

Robert Mangold, Curled Figure Study (XX)

A painting by Robert Mangold, who has a piece at this gallery.


posted by Irdial , 7:42 PM Þ 

posted by meau meau , 5:33 PM Þ 

In Between the Notes

The video documentary In Between the Notes was produced by Other Minds in 1986. Directed by filmmaker William Farley and photographed by Bill Marpet, it was taped mainly in India during 1985. It traces the life and career of this seminal influence on many of the leading musicians of our time. VHS copies are available for sale from Other Minds in both NTSC (American) or PAL (European) formats.


Terry Riley speaks


La Monte Young speaks


Marian Zazeela speaks


Pandit Pran Nath sings Raga Misra Kafi



Pandit Pran Nath speaks

http://www.otherminds.org/shtml/Notes.shtml
posted by telle goode , 3:58 PM Þ 

The Zimbabwe land reforms are right and should have been worked towards much earlier, but Mugabe's approach of getting rid of white farmers largely through the tolerated force of barely organised militia is wrong because it is leading to hunger and poverty by those who;

Depend on current output for their survival.
Don't have the level of skills to manage these farms economically afterwards (the farms' economics no doubt depended upon exploiting the workforce anyway)

The Land Reforms are being enacted by Mugabe for purely political motives and they are not organised in a way that contributes to those farms viability, they are about his power not any sense of justice for his people (if he had that he would allow the opposition party to function without terrorising them and their supporters).

-

BTW that population clock is wrong because it doesn't increase exponentially.

-

Also doomed to fail are the LibDem's spending proposals - they intend to spend an extra £12bn on public services when they win the election. Unfortunately this will be spent in £3bn chunks each year which just goes to show how doomed their proposals are.
posted by meau meau , 2:00 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 1:34 PM Þ 

Vaccine lowering hospital expenses
Chicken pox: A new study says inoculation against the common disease is saving millions of dollars
By Carey Hamilton
The Salt Lake Tribune


Karen Wilcox was bewildered and concerned when a rash appeared on her daughter Chloe's torso.
The bumps resembled chicken pox, the Sandy mother thought, but her daughter had received a vaccination for the contagious disease as a baby.
Sure enough, when Wilcox brought Chloe to the doctor's office, her pediatrician confirmed that the then 4-year-old girl had a breakthrough case of chicken pox, also known as varicella.
"I was surprised," Wilcox said. "But even though she got it, it didn't last long - only a couple days. She wasn't itching intolerably, she didn't feel sick and she didn't have a fever. The vaccine made her case milder." [...]

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_2408614

Note how this article and the other fails to mention who is the manujfacturer of this vaccine, and what its name is.

This article does do one interesting thing; it calls Chicken Pox "Varicella" which is a much less benign name for the "problem".

Google has many many reports of news articles on this there is obviously a PR push going on to engineer adoption of this, yet another vaccine jab.

If you dont want to get a bad case of Chicken Pox, you can take a dose of Zovirax, which will almost completely supress the symptoms, including the itching, the pox, the fever and the rest.

Did you know that adults and children that get Chicken Pox can take Zovirax to supress its symptoms, with no side effects?

Hmmmmmmmmmmm!
posted by Irdial , 1:18 PM Þ 

19: Global Food Cartel Fast Becoming the World's Supermarket

This is a veryimportant concern given the amount of overpopulation in the world (the human population well over its sustainable footprint - especially if we expect the world to 'advance' to western standards). The wars for fossil fuels are going to seem like nothing compared to the wars for water and fertile land, and these wars are going to be fought on one side for these food cartels.

There are too many indulgant humans on the planet for this not to be the case. The people that say that overpopulation is a myth seem in part to think that the 'empty space' around the world can be given over to arable food industry production without any repurcussions in the ecosystem. My earlier post linking to soya bean production shows that this is definitely not the case.
Also that because a country does not conform to western ideas of productivity and economic activity, they have been unable to become large-scale food producers for these reasons alone. Excluding countries which have poverty and starvation through wars (Sudan) and political stupidity (Zimbabwe) poorer countries already have the largest percentages of agrarian workers. Over-exploitation of these lands will have the same effect as eating into 'empty areas'.
posted by meau meau , 11:59 AM Þ 

NEW TECHNOLOGY TO MAKE INTERNET CALLS CHEAPER
MIL

Date : SEP 07, 2004

London - Telephone calls through Internet shall be cheaper with the help of new technology. Stephen Carter, the Chief Executive of Ofcom said: "Broadband voice services are quite new and are emerging a great market potential so our first task as regulator is to keep out of the way."

Since the market for voice over broadband (VoB) developed, Ofcom would like to take necessary steps to inform the consumers and protect their rights. The marketing experts feel that an increasing competition in the wholesale broadband market would benefit from a wide range of providers.

Turning voice calls into data packages and routing them over the Internet using the new generation of high speed, the so-called Internet connections, process the technology. The new technology is likely to replace the traditional network of telephone exchanges that switch calls between lines.

According to Ofcom as given in E-mail Newsletter, the trend in broadband connections is to give consumers unlimited Internet access for a monthly fee. This would mean calls to other broadband users to be included in the package, along with all other online usage.

"Ofcom further believes that the emergence of these services will offer important benefits to consumers. Call costs should reduce significantly. Where a call connects from one VoB to another, the only costs to the consumer is typically a standard monthly fee, regardless as to whether the call is to the next town or to the other side of the world," the regulator said.

Ofcom has also outlined plans for a new numbering system for VoB users. Providers will be able to offer customers who are switching from traditional services geographic numbers beginning with 01 or 02 that will allow them to keep their existing home telephone numbers. There will also be a new code, 056, not linked to any location which can be used anywhere in the country. [...]


http://internationalreporter.net/scripts/techDetails.asp?id=107

This is interesting; OFCOM, that nearly useless organization, trying to wiggle its way into a place where it cannot possibly have any influence or control.

Its clear that they have no understanding of how the internet works; how can they possibly regulate Skype, or any other of the telephony software that is out there both existing and to be written? They cant mandate that Skype give access to 999, or any other service. They cannot assign these absurd old style prefixes to companies like Skype. They cannot regulate this. They are OBSOLETE.

And as for protecting peoples rights, peoplese rights are protected by simply by choosing the software that they want to use to make calls, not by haveing some absurd bunch of computer illiterate jobsworths pronouncing from on high that "it will be like this".

No.

It will be how WE want it to be. We will run the software that WE want, to make calls in the way that WE choose, and there is NOTHING THAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. The same goes for the absurd rumblings that the FBI are making about mandatory tappability of internet telephony. Once the tools are out there, we WILL have secure telephone calls, and there is NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. Skype's chat is already 128 bit encrypted, the voice part will be next. No legislation can stop it. No body like OFCOM can regulate it.

Telephony is free!!!!
posted by Irdial , 11:55 AM Þ 

A Girl's guide to Geek Guys

Imprinting


You might notice that these men harbor some strange ideas about how the world works and some particularly strange ideas about women. There is a reason for this. Because they've had limited interpersonal experience, geek dudes must look elsewhere for behavior models. Lacking a real world social milieu, geeks often go through a transference stage with such narratives, and try to model their interactions on them. Thus, certain media images and themes come to have an overly cathected, metaphorized reality to them, while the rest of us view such programming as mere entertainment. Case in point, our next topic... [...]

http://www.completeevil.com/geek.html

Oh, poor girl. Poor, dear, suffering child. I will help her now.
posted by Irdial , 11:31 AM Þ 

In states where Bush won a popular majority in 2000, the average woman bears 2.11 children in her lifetime -- which is enough to replace the population. In states where Gore won a majority of votes in 2000, the average woman bears 1.89 children, which is not enough to avoid population decline. Indeed, if the Gore states seceded from the Bush states and formed a new nation, it would have the same fertility rate, and the same rapidly aging population, as France -- that bastion of "old Europe."

If Gore's America (and presumably John Kerry's) is reproducing at a slower pace than Bush's America, what does this imply for the future? Well, as the comedian Dick Cavett remarked, "If your parents never had children, chances are you won't either." When secular-minded Americans decide to have few if any children, they unwittingly give a strong evolutionary advantage to the other side of the culture divide. Sure, some children who grow up in fundamentalist families will become secularists, and vice versa. But most people, particularly if they have children, wind up with pretty much the same religious and political orientations as their parents. If "Metros" don't start having more children, America's future is "Retro." [..]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54700-2004Sep1.html

It is self explanatory.

posted by Irdial , 11:25 AM Þ 

Exercise: For Muscles, It's All Downhill

By JOHN O'NEIL

Published: September 7, 2004

Exercise helps diabetics improve their ability to metabolize sugar. But for those patients who don't feel up to the Stairmaster, a new study offers some comfort: the exercise involved in walking downhill, the researchers found, leads to even bigger improvements than hiking up.

The study was presented last week at a conference of the European Society of Cardiology and was led by Dr. H. Drexel, a cardiologist at the Academic Hospital in Feldkirch, Austria.

The study tried to find out if there was a difference in the effects of the two main forms of muscle use, concentric and eccentric, on glucose tolerance.

In concentric exercise, muscle cells shorten to exert force on an object, as in lifting a weight. In eccentric exercise, muscle cells are lengthened as they resist a force - for example, opposing gravity by lowering a weight more slowly than it would fall.

The study involved 45 healthy but sedentary adults. Half of them were assigned to climb a route that included a rise in elevation of 600 meters (about 2,000 feet) three to five times a week, taking a cable car back down. The others took the cable car up and walked down the same hill. After two months, the groups switched, performing the opposite of their original trek for another two months.

Dr. Drexel said that both forms of exercise improved glucose tolerance, but that the downhill hike had a bigger effect - a 25 percent change in tolerance compared with 9 percent after the stint of uphill climbing.

He did not speculate on the reason for the difference. But other research has raised the possibility that eccentric exercise may increase blood flow more than concentric exercise does. [...]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/07/health/07exer.html

You cant make this shit up!

Coming next, a Stairmaster excersise machine that creates a perpetual downhill walking experience.

Really.

It will be easy to dismount wont it?

posted by Irdial , 10:21 AM Þ 

But Sweetie, You Love Lima Beans

By BENEDICT CAREY

Published: August 31, 2004

If only that very first bite of asparagus had inspired delight, and the first taste of jelly doughnut caused a stomachache. If children's happiest food memories were baked and not fried, leafy green rather than beefy, think of the difference in what people might eat.

Now, think of what it might mean to change those memories - as an adult. Psychologists in California and Washington were studying false memories when they stumbled on a surprisingly easy target for manipulation: foods. In a study accepted for publication in the journal Social Cognition, the researchers describe how they fooled college students into thinking that as children they had become sick when eating certain foods.

The students answered questions about their early eating memories. A week later, they were presented with a bogus food history profile that embedded a single falsehood - that they had gotten sick when eating pickles or hard-boiled eggs - among real memories.

"This is called the false feedback technique, where you gather data from the subjects and use it to lend credibility to this false profile," said Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, a psychologist at the University of California at Irvine who led the research.

But about 40 percent of the 336 participants confirmed in later interviews that they remembered getting sick or believed it to be true. Compared with a control group, the believers said on questionnaires that they would be much more likely to avoid eating pickles or hard-boiled eggs if offered them at a party. In another study, just completed, the researchers found that people who were told that they loved asparagus as children were much more drawn to that slender delicacy than those whose memories were left alone.

Proust's reflections on tea and cookies notwithstanding, the earliest experience of taste is as open to tampering as other memories, Dr. Loftus said. If these revisions became permanent, they might affect how and what people eat. "What we'd like to do now," Dr. Loftus said, "is take the students out for a real picnic and see what happens." [...]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/31/health/psychology/31psych.html

Do I really have to say anything about this? Of course not.

posted by Irdial , 10:17 AM Þ 

Savings Found in Vaccinations for Chickenpox

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: September 7, 2004

CHICAGO, Sept. 6 (AP) - Vaccinating children against chickenpox saves the American health care system nearly $100 million a year in reduced hospitalizations for severe cases, a study has found.

Though most people who get chickenpox can be treated at home, complications requiring hospitalization can include severe skin infections, encephalitis and pneumonia.

In 1993, two years before the government licensed the vaccine for routine use in early childhood, about 14,000 Americans were hospitalized for chickenpox-related complications at a cost of $161 million, compared with 3,700 hospitalizations and $66 million in related costs in 2001, the researchers estimated.

Routine vaccination has reduced cases in young children who get the shots and has helped keep the disease from spreading to unvaccinated older children and adults, in whom the disease tends to be more severe.

The reduction "is excellent news for the vaccine program," [...]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/07/health/07pox.html

Whats wrong with this picture?
posted by Irdial , 10:03 AM Þ 

i am listening:-

pil - first two albums, repeatedly, to the annoyance of some

and since this morning.... ladytron - playgirl

god bless matti pellonpää

posted by Mess Noone , 8:04 AM Þ 

Censored 2005: The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2003-2004


#1: Wealth Inequality in 21st Century Threatens Economy and Democracy

#2: Ashcroft vs. the Human Rights Law that Hold Corporations Accountable

#3: Bush Administration Censors Science

#4: High Levels of Uranium Found in Troops and Civilians

#5: The Wholesale Giveaway of Our Natural Resources

#6: The Sale of Electoral Politics

#7: Conservative Organization Drives Judicial Appointments

#8: Cheney's Energy Task Force and The Energy Policy

#9: Widow Brings RICO Case Against U.S. government for 9/11

#10: New Nuke Plants: Taxpayers Support, Industry Profits

#11: The Media Can Legally Lie

#12: The Destabilization of Haiti

#13: Schwarzenegger Met with Enron's Ken Lay Years Before the California Recall

#14: New Bill Threatens Intellectual Freedom in Area Studies

#15: U.S. Develops Lethal New Viruses

#16: Law Enforcement Agencies Spy on Innocent Citizens

#17: U.S. Government Represses Labor Unions in Iraq in Quest for Business Privatization

#18: Media and Government Ignore Dwindling Oil Supplies

#19: Global Food Cartel Fast Becoming hte World's Supermarket

#20: Extreme Weather Prompts New Warning from UN

#21: Forcing a World Market for GMOs

#22: Censoring Iraq

#23: Brazil Holds Back in FTAA Talks, But Provides Little Comfort for the Poor of South America

#24: Reinstating the Draft

#25: Wal-Mart Brings Inequality and Low Prices to the World

posted by Irdial , 1:36 AM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 1:19 AM Þ 
Monday, September 06, 2004

I used to be wary of InDesign, but now I quite like it.

Things I like:
1. The same key commands for viewing your page as Illustrator. Apple - for zoom out, apple + for zoom in, apple 0 for fit in window. So easy!
2. You can import .psd from PhotoShop. Saves so much time. Though InDesign will crash sometimes when I use Edit Image to jump to PhotoShop and Illustrator. Perhaps the new version is more stable in this regard.
3. The high res preview is good. Very good and quite accurate. Looks beautiful on my cinema display. Xpress always looked so ugly to me. Though high res can slow everything down unless you have a fast computer. Be warned!
4. Hanging punctuation. After you dig around and find how to use this, it is lovely.
5. The Align tool, which is one of my favorites from Illustrator too. All your ducks in a row!

Things I don't like:
1. I would prefer to import one paragraph style at a time, as opposed to all of them at once. I think Xpress has this function. It is always better to have choice, to add only what you need, instead of adding and then subtracting.
2. We had problems deleting unused colours from the swatch palettes. You had to do this weird phantom colour swatch thing to get rid of them. I think Adobe has fixed this in the new version.
posted by mary13 , 4:02 PM Þ 

What have you been listening to? All of y'all?

Squarepusher "Venus no.17" - the acid remix
and Black Dog, I cant get enough of Black Dog...
posted by Alison , 2:50 PM Þ 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
You have received this message from the "FIPR Alert" mailing list run by
the Foundation for Information Policy Research http://www.fipr.org/
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sony lawyer enslaved worker, apparently



Explains much

By Nick Farrell
Monday 06 September 2004, 08:49

ONE OF THE brains behind the music industry's moves to drag old
ladies, children and other file-sharers through the courts has just
lost a slavery case. A court found that the maid of James Jackson, a
vice president of legal affairs at Sony Pictures Entertainment, was
entitled to more than $850,000 to settle charges of enslavement and
assault and battery.

The jury found that Nena Ruiz was kept against her will and paid her
only $300 for a year of work at his Los Angeles home. Associated Press
reports Jackson's wife has additionally been held liable for slapping
Ruiz and pulling her hair. Ruiz claimed the Jacksons had nicked her
passport and threatened to call immigration officers if she tried to
leave.

Nena Ruiz told hacks that slavery still existed and that victims
should not tolerate it and should not be afraid to seek help.

The Jacksons have denied the charges and suggested they could appeal
the jury's decision.

Apparently Sony has already suspended Jackson and plans to fire
him. After all it does not want its image of a tough pirate fighting
for the forces of good tarnished by having one of its principle
proponents being a known slaver.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
You have received this message from the "FIPR Alert" mailing list run by
the Foundation for Information Policy Research http://www.fipr.org/

for all administrative matters, including unsubscribing, please visit
https://mailman.aldigital.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/fipr-alerts
or send an explanatory email to
------------------------------------------------------------------------
posted by Irdial , 2:25 PM Þ 

posted by meau meau , 1:34 PM Þ 

posted by meau meau , 1:26 PM Þ 

posted by meau meau , 1:17 PM Þ 


This post was made with Hello. Just had a Hello session with Captain D, and earlier, one with a very nice chap in Miami Florida. Hello and Picassa work extraordinarily well. Usability has been taken to the next level...the bar has been raised. Totally useful, near flawless software. Posted by Hello
posted by Irdial , 1:59 AM Þ 

How can I get MSN Music downloads to play on my iPod?

Unfortunately Apple refuses to support the popular Windows Media format on the iPod, choosing to only support their own proprietary DRM format. If you are an iPod owner and are unhappy about this, please send feedback to Apple and ask them to change their policy and interoperate with other music services.

There are more than 70 portable audio devices that support MSN Music today, and we hope that someday Apple decides to join with the industry and support consumer choice.

Let’s unspin this.

First, the Windows Media format is described as “popular”, but Apple’s “own format” (apparently AAC/FairPlay is that-which-shall-not-be-named in Redmond) is a “proprietary DRM” format. The truth is that all three words — popular, proprietary, and DRM — apply to both formats. But the only one they choose for themselves — “popular” — is the least apt for Windows Media, given that Apple’s AAC/FairPlay has 70 percent market share.

(Admittedly, there are millions of unprotected Windows Media audio files out there, and the iPod doesn’t play those either — but this FAQ is about the DRM-protected music you can buy from MSN Music, not Windows Media in general.)

The second paragraph could effectively be rewritten as:

There are more than 70 portable audio devices that depend on technology licensed and controlled by Microsoft today, and we hope that someday Apple gives up on their own market-leading technology, bends over, and uses ours.

The “consumer choice” championed by Microsoft involves no choice at all regarding:

  • Media format (Windows Media)
  • Operating system (Windows)
  • Web browser (Internet Explorer)

But other than that, Microsoft is all for choice.

Daring Fireball

posted by alex_tea , 1:33 AM Þ 

Our repro is the best in London.
Phone number? Gmail me.

Xpress can output PDFs when you use Distiller
Indesign has Distiller built in!

The most opaque design tool ever.
I agree. I don't use Illustrator for layouts, it's awful. Freehand is a lot better in that respect. Illustrator is good for illustrating though. And making logos.

especially multi page work
I don't do a lot of multipage work though, so that doesn't apply to me. I'm sure I will be doing more in the future though.
posted by alex_tea , 12:19 AM Þ 
Sunday, September 05, 2004

At work we're moving over to InDesign as we currently use different software each (Freehand, Illustrator or Quark), so it hasn't been used extensively yet, but I am enjoying it so far.

I stopped using Freehand a few years ago; it had a rough feel to it that Illustrator doesnt have. There used to be great plugins for it however.

Sadly EMI and their subsidiaries DEMAND that you supply them with Quark files so they can chop and change them as they wish.

Xpress is beautiful partly because its interface is so simple. This does not excuse the crapness of the tools like the align interface. Xpress is like a coping saw; you can use it to cut a jigsaw puzzle or cut off a limb. Adobe tools are opaque, with many dialogues and tools that have no immediately obvious use and just too many options to do a really simple thing; lay out text.

Illustrator is the prime criminal in this respect. The most opaque design tool ever.

Xpress's interface has not changed over the years because you can do literally anytyhing with it just as it is. Obviously, as more and more people use software to get things done, it needs to be dumbed down in order to keep the number one position, but as a tool for type fanatics it is second to none...or at least it has been. I'm testing InDesign this week, make no mistake.

As for output, InDesign has a really easy PDF export, with support for custom .joboptions too. If your repro house doesn't take PDFs get a new repro.

Our repro is the best in London. They have pulled rabbits out of hats that would make your hair stand on end. And they teach. As you know, Xpress can output PDFs when you use Distiller; we have used this to run out jobs with total sucess. There isnt anything that Xpress cannot do, and do perfectly....or so the wisdom goes. Its true that the low res previews and all the other shitty things it does poorly are a pain in the ass, but Xpress really is the tool of choice if you are doing serious work, especially multi page work....or so they said.

One of the best things about the Adobe suite is how the interface ties in together throughout the range of applications. That really helps.

I'm not too concerned with that frankly. I'm more interested in high res previews while you are working and the "little" things like that. And built in tools that give you functionality that you have to get with a third party extension, like sizing a box to a picture and absurd, simple things like that, which Xpress should have done from the start.

I dont know what has been happening with third party developers in the InDesign world, but with Quark Xpress there are some simply staggering extensions out there, that make Xpress more powerful than you can possibly imagine. Xchange International has some stuff that will blow your mind; like the extensions used to create those huge catalogues like the Littlewoods, Argos and La Redout productions. Thousands of images, prices and many hundreds of pages, dozens of Xpress operators, complex layouts and perfect results every time. And lets not forget every newspaper on planet Earth.

Irrational loyalty to a piece of software. Who would have thought it?
posted by Irdial , 11:31 PM Þ 

At work we're moving over to InDesign as we currently use different software each (Freehand, Illustrator or Quark), so it hasn't been used extensively yet, but I am enjoying it so far.

Sadly EMI and their subsidiaries DEMAND that you supply them with Quark files so they can chop and change them as they wish. As for output, InDesign has a really easy PDF export, with support for custom .joboptions too. If your repro house doesn't take PDFs get a new repro.

One of the best things about the Adobe suite is how the interface ties in together throughout the range of applications. That really helps.
posted by alex_tea , 11:06 PM Þ 

Tuesday, September 7th in Chicago: INFLUENCE. featuring John McEntire (of Tortoise, Soma Studios), Jamie Hodge (Aestuarium), Ken Waagner (AAC/Hit It!), and Jonathan Krohn (Interrupt Media). More details here.
posted by Ken , 10:14 PM Þ 

Figure 2: Hardly anyone uses the QuarkXPress's Space/Align (top) or Merge (bottom) features because of their poor interfaces. Corresponding features in InDesign (middle) are generally clear and require little brain activity to achieve powerful results.

Even if you don't care about typography or the elegance of a program's user interface, InDesign still offers far more than XPress. For instance, after all these years, QuarkXPress 6 now gives us multiple undos. But there are still many features that are not undoable, like moving a guide, drawing a starburst, or making a change to a master page. Actually, it's worse: Most undoable actions in XPress also stop you from undoing any previous actions. So much for multiple undo. Conversely, not only is everything undoable in InDesign, but even if you crash (let's face it, all software crashes sooner or later), InDesign protects your document -- even unsaved documents -- and you lose hardly any work. [...]

http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/20604.html

Oh dear me. We love Quark Xpress, and have done for ages. We tried InDesign years ago, and found it to be a bloated, slow piece of garbage. Whats more, none of the repro houses we used would touch files made by it. It was just a pretender, an upstart application, used by people with no sense. Now, AT tells me that it rulz over Xpress.

If anyone other than AT said those words we would'nt have paid much attention, but since we KNOW that you have a brain, we have to look at InDesign again. What is certainly true is that Xpress is lacking in what you see above, and the space align is one of our personal "points of displeasure" with Xpress. Having said that, the output Xpress generates is 100% reliable, in every way, you KNOW that every repro house can output its files flawlessly, and your work will not be ruined, delayed or munged by a rip, its operator or any other Murphy factor.

Having said all of that, having declared our love of Quark Xpress, if InDesign really has improved that much, we have to try it.

posted by Irdial , 8:06 PM Þ 

re: Adobe
Maybe so in that field, but with InDesign they've pulled the carpet out from under Quark's sluggish bottom... Let's just hope they can continue to innovate in that arena. Maybe Quark will come back with a killer app, but I doubt it.

re: Clubs
I shouldn't post when I am drunk, I make no sense. Akin does though.

re: The Knife
The Rex The Dog remix is a club track, it's better than the original. Their album is good though. Also the band released the album themselves, so that's why they released it. I agree with your 'sound-alike' statement though. I think a lot of dance music, house, techno, electro, whatever, is becoming a bit timeless because it's all trying to sound like stuff that happened 5-10-15 years ago (and has been for at least 5 years or maybe more), and they're haven't been many massive evolutions. But then, who says it has to evolve quickly?

re: Anil Dash
I hate Anil Dash. Audioscrobbler's down so I can't see, but I don't care really. He's so dull. Il est chiant.

re: Mathew Jonson - Deconstruction
Bought it today from Smallfish. ;)

re: Hairdressers in E2
I've haven't been to the hairdressers for years cos a friend of mine does it for me, but there's that Stamp place on Bethnal Green road by the top of Brick Lane, or there's a place on Cheshire Street which is quite new. They might be good, probably quite trendy and over priced though.

re: SETI@Home
ROT-13!
posted by alex_tea , 7:52 PM Þ 

Okay, just got "Hello". Anyone else with hello gmail me so we can try it.

Listening to...nothing today in my epic 240 mile journey to lincolnshire and back as the radio was broken.

Otherwise, lots of XTC, King Crimson, Tool, Virgin Radio, SW stuff (Voice of Turkey, Radio Canada, China Radio International), John Peel, interesting documentary about phone phreaks und so weiter.

Never really been clubbing, but I was just a bit too young in '88/89. Also lived too far away and was into punk. Now I just feel old, not old-skool!
posted by captain davros , 7:34 PM Þ 


A few words on, still the best synthesizer to program... CASIO's phase distortion synthesis with 8 stages of variable pitch and wave envelope, and 8 waveforms DCO's and, no filters! My CZ-5000 even has a 8 track sequencer. Brilliant.
posted by telle goode , 7:00 PM Þ 

Introducing, another nail in Adobe's coffin (at least as far as Photoshop Album is concerned) Hello integrates with Picassa, and both are from Google.

How does Hello work?

Hello is a new program that lets you connect directly with your friends to share your digital pictures. If you’ve used an instant messenger program before, you’ve already got the idea—Hello is special because it lets you share your pictures along with your messages.

With Hello, you just pick what pictures you want to show off, and click “Send.” That’s it. Hello takes care of all the hard work. And you and your friends can download full resolution, print-quality pictures from each other, while you’re doing more important things, like talking about your pictures.

I can already send pictures with email. Why do I need Hello?

Hello is designed to let you send high-quality pictures instantly and securely over any speed connection, even dialup. With Hello, you can send hundreds of high quality pictures to your friends in just seconds—you can’t do that with email.

When you share pictures with Hello, you get feedback from your friends right away. Also, Hello automatically encrypts all your pictures and chat before sending, so it’s safer and more secure than email. [...]


Google is nimble. Its thinking is young and fresh. Adobe cant hope to keep up with it in this area - they just don't get it.
posted by Irdial , 6:55 PM Þ 

http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/anildash/

Look at what famous blogosphereoid and Six Apart VP Anil Dash listens to.
Corporate music through and through. (notavaluejudgementyourmileagemayvarysubjectochangewithoutnotice)

The programme posted by meau is absolutely and positively a must listen.
The programme posted by meau is absolutely and positively a must listen.
The programme posted by meau is absolutely and positively a must listen.

Threre. I said it three times. Listen to it, carefully.... and send the link to your friends.
posted by Irdial , 2:56 PM Þ 

Do any of you still go clubbing? Except for Alison I have this preconception that you're all of the old guard; it was probably a lot better 10-15 years ago, but I was to young, so I have to make best with what I'm given.

You are a creative person, so you especially do not have to put up with what you are given. As for it being better now than in 88/89 ask Evil Eddie Richards to show you his stash of video tapes from back then, and then you tell me if its more fun now. If it is more exiting now, then you had better drink it all in, becaue you must be having an absolutely unreal total, 125% proof time of your life never to be repeated. By the tone of what you say using a phrase like "make best" its not the case.

I listened to The Knife's "Heartbeats"
Ladytron are better than The Knife. MUCH MUCH better.

Some dance music records and labels are interesting; what I want to know is, why are they releasing these sound-alike records? It cant be for the money, its certainly not for the buzz of creativity or for the breaking of new ground. The tracks are not big enough (correct me if I am wrong) to be classed as dance music utility tracks, so what is the point? It just feels like they arent trying very hard. If they want to release music like this, they should licence and re-release the originals. Or maybe not. It just doesnt make me want to go back and listen to it, it doesnt exite me, move me or inspire me. There is no thrill in it, no buzz, no steep intake of breath....nothing, except a "ho-hum - what the hell are they doing this for?".

By all means, they should do and release what they want, but, (and thats a big but) I expect more. Much more. I expect my spirit to be lifted, my bones to be rattled, and everything else that happens when you are blown away by music.

When I first heard "Playgirl" I was desperate to find out who the group that made it was. Sadly for the speed of my immersion into Ladytron, I first encountered it on a German sattelite TV pop programme, and there was no info given!!! It took a long time, but finally I found out who it was, and found to my complete amazement, that everything else they have done is as good as Playgirl. Which is very very unusual today; a group that is consistently brilliant, in these times of mass starvation....its almost beyond belief. And yet, its true. Ladytron, again and again, track after track pull it off.

They make different sorts of track, without resorting to different styles; this is important. Others introduce variety into their releases by doing different cuts in different styles - I hate that. Ladytron have crafted thier own space, this is why you can say that something "sounds like Ladrytron" this alone is something to applaud them for. They have found their own space, inside the tinyest of gamuts, and yet inside this space, there is variety - different textures, and lots of music.

Daft Punk are another outfit who have managed to do this. They give you something when you listen to them, and you want it again after its finished.

But thats just me.

So, what have I been listening to?

Rowland S. Howard "I burnt your clothes"
From his "Teenage Snuff Film" CD

Marin Marais "Livres de Pieces de Viole"
"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche"

The Velvet Underground "Beginning to see the light"
"There are problems in these times...but none of them are mine"

The Velvet Underground "Guess Im Falling in love" (instrumental)
Brutal.

The Velvet Underground "After Hours" (live)
Mo Tucker singing. Find this, then find any Pipas track...hmmmm its not confluence, thats for sure.

Conlon Nancarrow "Studies for Player Piano"
Endlessly fascinating, and sometimes spectacular.

And lots of other stuff...
posted by Irdial , 1:16 PM Þ 

Dame ap-Pauline Neville Jones' propaganda pill is not being swallowed, at least not by BBQ Radio 4 listeners. Hear how they are not taken in by the lies of politicians and the gloss of the media.

If you don't want to listen, basically the majority of listeners following a debate programme on whether the So-called War On Terror could only be solved bty violent means, said not only NO but that the SWOT is a bogus 'solution' that avoids the basic realities of why terrorism is being prosecuted and that we are not prepared to have our rights ripped from us in the attendant over-surveillance (NIR etc) of the innocent population.

Now if the majority voice of the people could be broadcast on television...

... also on TV, I saw ITV news recently - that studio *is* Number 2s bunker.
posted by meau meau , 11:06 AM Þ 

The image “http://daily.nysun.com/Repository/getimage.dll?path=NYS/2004/08/30/8/Img/Pc0080400.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
The image “http://daily.nysun.com/Repository/getimage.dll?path=NYS/2004/08/30/8/Img/Pc0080300.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
[...]

NY Day Sun

Sadly these people are smart enought to know all of this, but too stupid to understand that demonstrating is a waste of time.

Two sides of an equaition, each side canecelling out the other, the result, just what it says on her t-shirt.
posted by Irdial , 10:48 AM Þ 

Mathew Jonson

You

MUST
MUST
MUST

MUST
MUST
MUST

get the Decompression EP on M-nus

It is

i
m
m
e
n
s
e


Also Robag Wauhme: Wuzzelbud "KK" on a Kompakt offshoot is nice.
posted by meau meau , 10:40 AM Þ 

A good laugh for Sunday morning:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1296884,00.html

A very good laugh!
posted by Irdial , 10:20 AM Þ 

Who is the "Late Great Francis W-H-I-T"?

I should know this shit, but it's been bugging for months. I bet it's well obvious.

How was Saul Bass Alan? I still have to see that. Hopefully next weekend. Did you buy the DVD?

I didn't make it to Wang sadly -- too many complications. Anyway, looking forward to Haywire; Richie Hawtin, Magda and Mathew Jonson in the techno room and Keith Tenniswood and a whole lot of people in the electro/d'n'b room... All at the depot in King's Cross...

Do any of you still go clubbing? Except for Alison I have this preconception that you're all of the old guard; it was probably a lot better 10-15 years ago, but I was to young, so I have to make best with what I'm given.

The best record I bought recently was Mathew Jonson on Sub-Static. Apart from that I've been listening to The Knife (remember I told you about them before, their album -- Deep Cuts -- is really good too, check it out) and Ricardo Villalobos. The Two Lone Swordsmen remix is awesome...

What have you been listening to? All of y'all?

And hello to Telle... How did you get signed up with the essay, have you been lurking?
posted by alex_tea , 3:33 AM Þ 
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