Saturday, February 14, 2004

The hearts you display, cookies
Valentine feeling
Now I must keel you poster

A valentines haiku for "the pancake torturer".

You know who you are!
posted by Irdial , 8:42 PM Þ 

posted by mary13 , 7:26 PM Þ 
posted by Claus Eggers , 6:14 PM Þ 

posted by Alun , 4:25 PM Þ 



On February 9, 2004, the Local 802 Chapter of the American Federation of Musicians announced what they described as an "historic joint agreement ... banning the use of the virtual orchestra machine (sic)" in all future productions of the Opera Company of Brooklyn" [...]

http://www.rms.biz/docs/press%20release.htm
posted by Irdial , 3:33 PM Þ 
posted by Ken , 2:53 PM Þ 



nka Essenhigh (American, born 1970).
Deluge, 1998.
Oil enamel on canvas, 72 x 72" (182.9 x 182.9 cm.).
Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
Sarah Norton Goodyear Fund, 1998.

In an age of satellite TV, the Internet, and global positioning systems, even artistic media are increasingly giving way to the high-tech. In this epoch, what is the role of painting? [...]

http://www.albrightknox.org/acquisitions/acq_2000/Essenhigh.html
posted by Irdial , 2:16 PM Þ 

illegal-art.org/audio/grey.html
This site was found on following weblogs, on the given date:

February 14, 2004
skronk.net
DJ Danger Mouse's Grey Album
» track this weblog
7:14 AM

charm.net/~pete/pete.cgi
Illegal Art
» track this weblog
6:27 AM

freeatlast.co.uk
The Grey Album
» track this weblog
6:27 AM

justinblanton.com
here
» track this weblog
5:47 AM

rapidmotion.com
look
» track this weblog
5:38 AM

web-laun.ch/pieceoBlog
illegal-arts.org
» track this weblog
5:13 AM

idletype.com
Illegal Art
» track this weblog
4:59 AM

dietrich.ganx4.com
Link
» track this weblog
4:59 AM

nofi.org
Link
» track this weblog
4:27 AM

miserychick.net
grey album
» track this weblog
4:22 AM

nosenseofplace.com
Grey Album - DJ Danger Mouse
» track this weblog
4:02 AM

February 13, 2004
radioactiveantimatter.com/blog
The Grey Album
» track this weblog
11:32 PM

shaviro.com/Blog
Grey Album
» track this weblog
10:32 PM

digitalcutuplounge.com/newsite/dclweblog.htm
Illegal Art
» track this weblog
10:11 PM

infobong.com
the whole darn album posted online in mp3 format
» track this weblog
8:42 PM

capsgetpeeled.com/blog
The Grey Album
» track this weblog
5:32 PM

jimtreacher.com
gives it away for free
» track this weblog
2:33 PM

groovymother.com
download a copy
» track this weblog
2:06 PM

ataxia.net
Illegal Art
» track this weblog
2:06 PM

blueskyonmars.com
Grey Album
» track this weblog
12:32 PM

boingboing.net
Link
» track this weblog
11:57 AM

atmasphere.net/mt
Link
» track this weblog
10:34 AM

eightface.com
The Grey Album
» track this weblog
10:32 AM

blog.largeheartedboy.com
DJ Danger Mouse: The Grey Album
» track this weblog
8:41 AM

catch.com
Jay-Z + the Beatles = You decide
» track this weblog
8:04 AM

submitresponse.co.uk/mt
Illegal Art have Danger Mouse's already infamous Grey Album for download.
» track this weblog
7:32 AM

litwack.org/injection
The Grey Album
» track this weblog
6:44 AM

bostoncoop.net/adam
The Grey Album
» track this weblog
6:38 AM

irdial.com/blogger.html
h to the iz-o, v to the iz-a
» track this weblog
6:36 AM


waxy.org
Illegal Art
» track this weblog
5:24 AM

[...]

Now, when we say "We are the best®™" we mean it.
And we have the proof.
Look at all the links pointing to The Grey Album; which one is the best, and where did it come from?

It came from HERE and KEN posted it.

BOOM!
posted by Irdial , 12:36 PM Þ 



Grimpoteuthis sp., PISCES V dive P5-253. Swimming with strong fin strokes.
posted by Irdial , 12:13 PM Þ 

megametal
ahh, the true power of broadband comes into its own .... connected, at last, a couple of weeks ago, to our wireless wonderland at 2mbps ....
posted by a hymn in g to nann , 12:09 PM Þ 

posted by meau meau , 12:08 PM Þ 
posted by Barrie , 9:59 AM Þ 

h to the iz-o, v to the iz-a

Utterly, absolutely, completely, to the last second, priceless.

"99 Problems" is a classic. The audacity, the technique; this is true, pure hip-hop, as it was practiced, "cut up music", beyond the edge, flagrant, perfect, infectious, and astoundingly, the rap and cut up music balance each other to the milligram.

Its rough, feels improvised, scratched, loose....

Dangermouse; "he has ears"!
posted by Irdial , 8:00 AM Þ 

posted by captain davros , 1:26 AM Þ 
Friday, February 13, 2004

Megametal Davros (10 mb MPG file).
posted by captain davros , 5:31 PM Þ 

posted by meau meau , 3:24 PM Þ 

Konx Om Pax
posted by Mess Noone , 1:41 PM Þ 


why make-up - when you can maskon?
posted by Alison , 1:24 PM Þ 

posted by Mess Noone , 1:10 PM Þ 
posted by Alun , 11:05 AM Þ 

Bill Gates' millions to battle TB

The money should more than double the amount spent annually on TB vaccine research worldwide....

This FACT is shameful. But at least we got Viagra and Prozac, right?





I think there's a pattern emerging here...

The devil has all the best tunes.


Statement from Microsoft Regarding Illegal Posting of Windows Source Code

REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 12, 2004 -- On Thursday, Microsoft became aware that portions of the Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 source code were illegally made available on the Internet. It’s illegal for third parties to post Microsoft source code, and we take such activity very seriously.

We are currently investigating these postings and are working with the appropriate law-enforcement authorities.

At this point it does not appear that this is the result of any breach of Microsoft’s corporate network or internal security.

At this time there is no known impact on customers. We will continue to monitor the situation.


Evil laugh.
posted by Alun , 9:25 AM Þ 
posted by Ken , 1:08 AM Þ 
Thursday, February 12, 2004

The role of the artist in Capitalism can be compared with that of the tour-guide: -- interpreter of experience for consumption on the most elite level, agent of recuperation for society's most exquisite longing or deepest resentments; -- and even a tour-guide may be sincere. But the comparison might prove invidious - inasmuch as the artist's intention is to add meaning to the sum total of experience, not to subtract or abstract it. The gesture art makes presupposes the gesture of reciprocity, of presence. This movement is interrupted by the essentially non-human intervention of Capital, the exacerbated mediation of a power that can only grow by creating scarcity and separation. What if all the artists, poets, scholars and musicians of Ireland were invited to transform the country's new Interpretive Centres in their own image? Who cares what exalted aesthetic lays claim to the triumph of interpretation so long as the result is always the suppression of our own creativity? In Java, I heard that "Everyone must be an artist" - and indeed everyone already is an artist to the extent that all lived experience is a co-creation of self and other: -- production that is also play - and above all, the production of meaning. We do not need the artist to live for us, but simply to be our facilitator, our companion, part of our circle of reciprocity - and as for art, if there exists any way for it to avoid being englobed, we can see it only as a form of opposition to the One Big World of unified representation. Such art refuses to become part of the Grand Unified Theory of the end of physics or history or the minimum wage or anything else. There's nothing "virtual" about it - and it's not headed for a condition of "disappearance," which would simply amount to defeat. I believe modern art as resistance is headed for the condition of the Unseen. That which is real but not seen has the power of the occult, of the imagination, of the erotic - like Sean's spirit-mask at Patrick's Well, it gives back meaning to the landscape - it abides unnoticed until someone perhaps takes it as a free gift - by its very existence it challenges the world of the commodified image and changes (however slightly) the shape of consensus reality. Even at its most hidden and secret, it exercises a magnetic effect, brings about subtle shifts and re-alignments - and at least in theory, it gives up merely talking about the world in order to change it. Is this perhaps however covertly an authoritarian act? No, not if it were a sharing of meaning, an opening into the field of "delicate tenuities". What if it were rendered completely invisible? Then perhaps we might speak of the presence of spirits, of a necessary re-enchantment too tenuous for the imperial heaviness of the eye - and of a necessary clandestinity. And what if it were to re-appear sometime as sheer opposition to the unbreathing virtuality of a world which is always deferred, always someplace else, always fatal?
Hakim Bey
posted by Barrie , 11:55 PM Þ 

SHIT BIOTECH FINI YUS
SHIT BITCHES FINI YOU

SHIT TUBE ICY FISH ION

SHIT OBIIT CHI YES FUN
SHIT BOYS FUCI TIE HIN

SHIT BIOETHICS UNIFY

SHIT OBEY UNIFIC SHIT
SHIT TUBE IONIC FISHY
posted by Irdial , 8:08 PM Þ 

KERRY, GAZA AND THE NEW SABBATEAN HOLOCAUST

by Barry Chamish

In the first week of February 2004, two related incidents occurred in Israel and America. Prime Minister Sharon announced his decision to evacuate the Jewish residents of Gaza and John Kerry won enough primaries to just about settle the issue of who will be the Democratic Party candidate in the upcoming American elections.

Here are a few less than publicized facts about Kerry:

http://www.june24.net/images/john-kerry.jpeg - He is a graduate, like both President Bushes, of the occultic Yale University cabal, the Skull And Bones Society. So whoever Americans vote for, they get the same secret society determining their lives.

http://images.google.com/images?q=t...oads/kerry4.jpg - Kerry, like Howard Dean, Wesley Clark and Joe Leiberman are all members of the Council On Foreign Relations (CFR). So whoever Americans choose to be the Democratic candidate, they will get the same CFR agenda.

http://images.google.com/images?q=t...s/marikerry.jpg - The well publicized CFR agenda insists on Israel withdrawing from Gaza, Judea and Samaria and half of Jerusalem, making Israel unviable as a state. To that end, like Dean before him, Kerry has promised to appoint Jimmy Carter (CFR) or Bill Clinton (CFR) as his administration's Middle East advisor.

http://images.google.com/images?q=t...kerrytears.jpeg - Not that Kerry will receive any new advice from either of them, since his campaign manager is Alan Solomant, an executive of Peace Now - America.

http://images.google.com/images?q=t...com/kerry98.jpg - Kerry is being protected from exposure of the ugly crime of participating in a massacre in Viet Nam.

- But as his prominence grew, so did the investigation of his past. And what did we recently discover; why Kerry is Jewish on his father's side. Somehow, he forgot the fact that his grandparents were prominent Jewish business people in Prague and that his father is 100% Jewish. Ask yourself, do you know anyone who doesn't know his father's religious background?

http://images.google.com/images?q=t..._as_karloff.jpg As rare as it must be, that affliction runs rampant in CFR circles. Former CFR Secretary-of-State Madeleine Albright also forget that both her parents were Jews, even though she was raised in the Jewish home of her relatives in London.

If you don't feel like voting Kerry, there is Wesley Clark waiting in the wings. Uncannily, he is also a CFR member who only discovered his father was Jewish while he was burning Bosnia to ashes. Now how come, no matter which Democrat you choose, you get a CFR half-Jew who forgot all about it? The answer is found in the Sabbatean (also Shabbataian and similar spellings) policy of having their Jewish apostate followers converting and hiding their roots and beliefs. Allow me to quickly summarize Sabbateanism/Frankism:

In my previous article, The Deutsch Devils, I revealed the findings of Rabbi Antelman in his books To Eliminate The Opiate Volumes I and II. His focus is the false messiah Shabtai Zvi, and the continuation of his evil ministry through the Turkish sect called the Donmeh. In the eighteenth century, Jacob Frank brought the Donmeh ideology to Europe and joined a fateful alliance. This was described in the article as:

Frankfurt at the time was the headquarters of the Jesuit, Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Illuminati, as well as Rothschild Brothers' financial empire. This is worth repeating: Frankfurt was the birthplace of both the Illuminati and the Rothschild empire. When Jacob Frank entered the city, the alliance between the two had already begun. Weishaupt provided the conspiratorial resources of the Jesuit Order, while the Rothschilds contributed the money. What was missing was a means to spread the agenda of the Illuminati and that the Frankists added with their network of agents throughout the Christian and Islamic worlds.

Jacob Frank became instantly wealthy because he was given a nice handout by the Rothschilds of Frankfurt. There is no other explanation.

And from this starting point, Rabbi Antelman gave us a blueprint for the war against Judaism and all its good, and indeed against humanity and all its moral treasures. A movement of complete evil now took hold. The Jesuits' goal was the destruction of the Protestant Reformation leading to a return of one pope sitting in judgement on all mankind. The Rothschilds goal was to control the wealth of the planet. And the Frankist vision was the destruction of Jewish ethics to be replaced by a religion based on the exact opposite of God's intentions. When these factions blended, a bloody war against humanity, with the Jews on the front lines, erupted and it is reaching its very pinnacle at this moment.

Rabbi Antelman traces the means of the worldwide reach of this ugliness. By the 1770s, the Illuminati was exposed and banned in Germany and then throughout Europe. Weishaupt made a strategic change that worked miracles for the international spread of his goals. He infiltrated agents into the Freemasonic lodges of England and Scotland, changing their highest tenets to his own, until every lodge in every nation accepted them. Thus, the Illuminati now had two centers of activity, Germany and Britain.

** A Visit To A Publisher

Before diving into the proofs that Israel is being set up for another Sabbatean Holocaust, permit me the liberty of explaining the inspiration for this piece. On February 1/04 I visited Gefen Books in Jerusalem to pick up some copies of my Hebrew book, Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin and David Morrison's book, Lies - The Rabin Assassination And Israel's Secret Service.

Dr. Morrison's book has made a powerful case for a conspiracy behind the Rabin assassination. One of the favors he did for me was, as a psychiatric doctor, confirming that my analysis of Rabin's medical records was the correct one. Though I had met him just once, he has aided my cause enormously.

That time I met him was in my home when he and Gefen publisher, Ilan Greenfield arrived to hear me out and decide whether to publish a Hebrew edition of my Rabin book, or not. Ilan told me something I didn't know. "If it wasn't for David, I would never have published your book. I left your place and told him you were coocoo. He answered that if I didn't publish your book, he'd never talk to me again. As a psychiatrist he watched you carefully and concluded you were totally sane. He told me, "He thinks differently than us, that's why he can see how the truth works. That's not called crazy, it's called gifted."

I told Ilan that without knowing how much I owed him, I had repaid David many times over by reviewing Lies in my book, The Last Days Of Israel, and by selling lots of copies of the book in Hebrew and English at my lectures.

Ilan's eyes lit up and he said, "Do you know we published two other books by him? Maybe you could promote them as well." He then showed me the books. He chose to display the newest book first. It is called, The Gush, and it is very relevant to today's impending withdrawal from Gush Katif. This book tells the human story of the Jewish residents of Gush Etzion, also secretly on the chopping block no matter what Sharon says. It was a nice book, I told Ilan, but my readers expect deep information from me. Then he showed me the other Morrison book, Heroes, Antiheroes And The Holocaust. I struck gold.

David Morrison's book on the secrets of the Holocaust stands with Perfidy, The Transfer Agreement and The Scared And The Doomed as one of the great studies of how Labor Zionism prevented the rescue of European Jewry. Morrison doesn't see this as policy but you will with the knowledge we have gained together.

Morrison doesn't realize that he is reporting a Sabbatean massacre, yet he instinctively writes about the Young Turks. We begin and end our overview with that subject. I will add my comments beginning and ending with two stars **.


** The First Sabbatean Holocaust - The Dry Run **

pp 48 - The Young Turks who led the 1908 revolution were Turkish nationalists and established secular institutions, overthrowing the religious Moslem order. They viewed Armenians as a direct threat to their revolutionary plans. The evidence is overwhelming that the massacre of the Armenians was a deliberate, planned genocide. The Young Turks allied themselves with Germany and used world War I as a cover for their slaughter of Armenians... As did the Nazis in World War II, the Turks used their intended victims as slave laborers building a trans-Turkish railway for German business interests.

** And who were these Young Turks who organized The Armenian genocide? We turn to Sabbatean Messianism as Proto-Secularism: M. Avrum Ehrlich for the answer. **

http://www.nakazdytemat.com/

Brought to you via Shortwave. Wow!
posted by Irdial , 6:36 PM Þ 
posted by Ken , 4:31 PM Þ 

Ya Kid K is the one
posted by alex_tea , 11:25 AM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 11:16 AM Þ 

Rok Da House - Beatmasters with Cookie Crew
Who's in the House? - Beatmasters with MC Merlin
Errrrm
That's it.
(That's enough Hip-House...)
posted by captain davros , 10:24 AM Þ 

Music makes for a quiet mind
posted by meau meau , 9:40 AM Þ 

Soylent Green Manalishi With The Two Pronged Crown Jewels
posted by meau meau , 9:38 AM Þ 

but it's never really been accomplished or finished right

What what what??!! Can you say, "Hip House"? "Those who...history are doomed to repeat it" Ill leave you to list 10 bangin hip house tracks perfectly melding House with Hip Hop.

Wow, and just after the "Tommy Hitler Youth" post!

Hive mind in full effect....
posted by Irdial , 1:55 AM Þ 

i've known about this for awhile, but thought now was a good time to share:

P. Diddy In The Hizzouse Music, Working On Electronic Dance LP
02.10.2004 9:05 PM EST

For the past year, P. Diddy has been working on a electro-fueled dance-rap hybrid album, and he's hired some of the biggest names in independent electronic music to produce the disc.

One of his main collaborators is Felix Da Housecat, who wrote 12 songs, four or five of which will make the final cut, Felix said. Other producers include Les Rythmes Digitales, Timo Maas, DJ Hell and Zoot Woman, each of whom color Diddy's world with clattering beats and delirious samples.

"Puff likes that tech bangin' stuff," Felix said. "But it's not soulless and it really has a groove. It's definitely him, and it has a gangsta sound that he brings to it."

While Diddy has never dabbled in European-flavored electronic dance music before, he came into the project with no lack of knowledge. He's listened to loads of underground records and has attended electronic music festivals, including the Winter Music Conference in Miami, where last year he studied up on the numerous hot DJs, noting what he liked and what he didn't.

"He knows cheese from credible, which really shocked me," Felix said. "He wants straight, edgy music. The beats are really stripped-down and raw, and he's totally into it. We were in Ibiza together, and when I played, he jumped on the stage and there were like 5,000 people going crazy to this bangin' stuff I was playing. He's seeing that, and he's like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is where I want to take it.' "

But while much of the still-untitled album will be upbeat and frantic, Felix said there'll also be some emotive, down-tempo numbers. Diddy likely will bring a number of guest singers into his studio in the coming weeks, but he's also doing vocals himself, and it's not what his fans are used to hearing from the rap Renaissance man.

"It's sort of like rapping, but it's so hard to explain," Felix said. "It's definitely capturing his personality and his vibe in dance, so he's not changing himself. He says, 'I want something sexy and gangsta,' so that's what we did."

Felix tested one of the songs, "Jack You," in front of 25,000 people at the Big Day Out festival in Australia. Diddy played it in a much smaller club, and both were pleased by the response.

"I think 'cuz our worlds are so different, we're able to create some really great stuff," Felix said. "People have tried to merge dance music with hip-hop, but it's never really been accomplished or finished right. That was definitely the biggest test for me."

?Jon Wiederhorn
posted by Ken , 1:09 AM Þ 

posted by Claus Eggers , 12:40 AM Þ 

posted by captain davros , 12:08 AM Þ 
Wednesday, February 11, 2004

It was the aura of exclusivity that attracted me to Blogdial.

We are like water, only dry.
posted by captain davros , 11:32 PM Þ 
posted by Claus Eggers , 9:58 PM Þ 
posted by Ken , 9:43 PM Þ 

I'm rarely very awake in the mornings but on monday I was awake enough to enjoy this....




For those that like newsreaders (not the ones on TV, since none of you watch TV)

Ive been working at certain tv studios on the south bank since new year. My worst day was last friday when Neil Hamilton did a guest slot for This Morning in their I'm a salabrity, revive my career! update feature, wearing only a pair of Tarzan style animal print trunks. [He was on a set outside in view of my office].

I almost lost my breakfast.

Also, the other day found an audition tape of the guy who does Bo Selecta! Pondering on auctioning it on ebay.

posted by chriszanf , 6:49 PM Þ 

It was the aura of exclusivity

Matter VS anti-matter.

Blogdial excludes, it is not exclusive.

We winnow.
We reap.
We eat deceit.

"I wouldn't want to be a member of a club that didn't..."

Its not the buscuts (yes buscuts) its the BEER.

Data Mining...Someone put somones postcode into someones data miner.

But its OK now, because he was keel(ed)[hauled] for good measure.

"This will be a lesson for your life"

"Its a bit too late for that Dr. Smith!"

"If anybody in this, in the Security Council thinks...."

"Thumb me five bucks will ya pal?"

"What do you guys want?"

"Not only have you never heard of Divine...."

"First, you take the ones that are only fit for garbage detail, then you take the ones who can think, but who cant act, and then..."

"We'll be listening."

"*Click*"

"I'm a victim of the shows that I watch!"

"Its a paralell universe, where everything is the same, only different."

"Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone! Simone!"

"Simone..............Simone..............Simone..............Simone..............Simone..............Simone..............
Simone..............Simone..............Simone..............Simone.............."

"I am Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire, I own a mansion and a yaht."

"First, I am going to apply for a Wwrit of Hhabeas corpus, then a Writ of Execution, a Writ of Attachment, and finally a writ of diem clausit."
"Boy, you must think that my case needs alot of work!"
"No, I just like putting on the writs."

"Your mileage may vary"
"Subject to change without notice"
"Your rigts (yes rigts) remain unnafected"
posted by Irdial , 6:00 PM Þ 

What is astonishing is that the wave of introductions and the aura of exclusivity guarantees a high level of uptake. Breathtakingly brilliant.

It was the aura of exclusivity that attracted me to Blogdial.
That and the free biscuits.

The Blogdial data mine-field. BOOM! Akin lets off another one. SONIC BOOM! Anthony and Cap D caught in a skirmish*

Fuzzy logic puzzle.
Free Willy Wonka
Internet chatroom with a view
Week-to-view diary of a madman

*Skirmish; traditional Latvian costume comprising double full-length dress with double balaclava-like attachments. Joined at calf, hip and head. Highly ornamental. To be worn by a pair of women, at state occassion only in modern times.
posted by Alun , 4:46 PM Þ 

"If you've been thru the Orkut registration process, you know that it attempts to collect a ton of data about you. The kind of demographic data that marketing folks drool over. And right now there are lots of folks dying to get that special invite and begin the sign-up process," he wrote here last week.

Orkut's cookie now nests cosily alongside Google's cookie, set to expire in 2038, which in itself suggests that Google plans to be in the data mining business for a very long time.

However it's the cloning of the notorious MSN Passport conditions that strikes us as a fascinating comparison in trust.These days, you only have to tell people you'll do no evil and they'll believe you.

Don't you love the way that Privacy Policy fades into view, just as your privacy fades out of sight? [...]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/35375.html

Its a great strategy for getting people to sign up; tell them they cant. People are gagging to get in, (like the people queueing up to see the Egress) and as this happens, Google builds up the mot impressive six degrees of separation database ever, becaue only people who are in can invite new people.

Eventually, everyone everywhere with a connection will sign up since everyone is connected to everyone...if you see what I mean.

What is astonishing is that the wave of introductions and the aura of exclusivity guarantees a high level of uptake. Breathtakingly brilliant. Imagine the maps that they will be able to draw with this data; a genetic tree of who knows who on the entire internet.

Then imagine if they can correlate your ip or other address with your Orkut membership.

Lets not forget, Google gives data to the CIA.
posted by Irdial , 4:19 PM Þ 

The Register

It's startlingly similar to the Microsoft Passport Terms which caused a storm of outrage two years ago, a reader points out.

That reader is me. I'm not quoted as he emailed me asking as I was about to leave... Damn...

Anyway, I am back from LA now. I didn't do anything too rock and roll, but I enjoyed it. I'll tell y'all later.
posted by alex_tea , 3:15 PM Þ 

E-bay buys.... in no particular order...

Signed Mohammed Ali photo, for inspiration

Records and CDs, lots of them. Tragically Hip vinyl and Seefeel's Quique were particularly hard to come by from other sources. Hendrix, Mingus original LPs, lots of replacements for those stolen...

Four volume set of Blyth's Haiku books... swoon... so much beauty

Tickets to see Bjork at Shepherd's Bush Empire... funfunfun

More books...

Nikon FE2 body in beautiful condition, Agfa Clack, Polaroid camera...
posted by Alun , 2:33 PM Þ 

Talk like a reet marra
posted by meau meau , 2:30 PM Þ 

Pundit O'Reilly Now Skeptical About Bush

By REUTERS

Filed at 9:25 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative television news anchor Bill O'Reilly said on Tuesday he was now skeptical about the Bush administration and apologized to viewers for supporting prewar claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

The anchor of his own show on Fox News said he was sorry he gave the U.S. government the benefit of the doubt that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's weapons program poised an imminent threat, the main reason cited for going to war.

``I was wrong. I am not pleased about it at all and I think all Americans should be concerned about this,'' O'Reilly said in an interview with ABC's ``Good Morning America.''

``What do you want me to do, go over and kiss the camera?'' asked O'Reilly, who had promised rival ABC last year he would publicly apologize if weapons were not found.

O'Reilly said he was ``much more skeptical about the Bush administration now'' since former weapons inspector David Kay said he did not think Saddam had any weapons of mass destruction. [...]

New York Times

Kiss the camera? A huge amount of responsibility goes with the job that he does, and the way he destroyed, lambasted and insulted anyone who thought that the illegal invasion of Iraq was wrong.....none of it can be undone. Iraq cannot be un-invaded. The unflinching, unquestioning, unthinking support for Uncle Sham from the media helped make this illegal violence take place, and Bill O.Reilly is personally and permanently responsible for shepherding American thought into this corall and morass of war.

Sorry just isnt good enough. At the very least he should fire all of his researchers and get some people in his office that know how to use Google. By doing this, and finally reporting honestly, he can begin to redress the evil he helped unleash.

This does not mean that he has to tone his show down, or stop insulting, destroying and humiliating his "guests". Far from it; it is possible to be morally correct and still be a brutish presenter. Morton Downey Junior is the mold from which that style of presenter was forged. Mort: what a man, what a programme!
posted by Irdial , 12:28 PM Þ 



Music for DXing is back online, in Ogg Vorbis format.
posted by captain davros , 12:12 PM Þ 

Always need more CDs. Buy them, rip them, listen. Shuffle play is amazing. I have had a lot of fun recently from old tapes too - digitise those, OGG them, chop them up, and stick them on random. It's amazing what bits of old John Peel shows and random guitar ideas sound like mixed in with everything else.
posted by captain davros , 12:10 PM Þ 

SPACE crew spot own UFO
News24 (subscription) - South Africa
Moscow - The Russian-United States crew aboard the International Space
Station (ISS) have noticed an unidentified object outside the orbiting
craft, said space ...

Google News

Imagine.....theres nowhere to run!
posted by Irdial , 11:55 AM Þ 

Could you live with only 100-120 CDs?

If you have a large hard drive, you can live with alot of music. Anyone that limits the amount of music they have in their home because of the form factor of a CD is insane.

But you know this. You have alot of MP3s on your HD. You play them at random, and marvel at how you are pleasantly surprised hour after hour, when a piece you have not heard for years suddenly comes up, juxtaposed with something from a totally different sonic place. You also know that this experience is impossible with CDs, unless you have a CD jukebox that can hold 120 CDs.

Obviously he didnt rip those 400 CDs before he got rid of them, otherwise, he would have mentioned that his experience is as the above.
posted by Irdial , 11:33 AM Þ 

Do you have a big record collection?
No, maybe about 100 or 120 CDs. At the beginning, when I learnt there were other people working in experimental electroacoustic music I wanted to check them out, so I bought this and that, and then after a while people started sending me things and eventually there were so many that I decided to sell them. A year ago I sold about 400 CDs off. There were just too many. It's no fun having all these things that you know you won't listen to again. I still have about 250 LPs though. The vinyl sound is very nice - when I master CDs I try to get close to that analogue sound. I don't like it too linear. I do things with EQ that approximate the frequency lines of tube amplifiers, to give the music the bit more presence and warmth that is associated with analogue sound.

This interview has made me consider scaling things down. Could you live with only 100-120 CDs? Do we really need any more?

posted by Mess Noone , 10:48 AM Þ 

Snipsnap

It's so easy
posted by meau meau , 10:03 AM Þ 

orkut has a lot of positive traits that are worth investigating:

like this that alex posted last week?
posted by meau meau , 9:44 AM Þ 

The Photo that Kerry fears the most:

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/2/9/134218.shtml

What is most interesting to me is none of this irrelevant smear nonsense, but the fact that this image belongs to Corbis, the Bill Gates owned picture gobbling library.

Do you see what I am talking about; there may come a time where every photo ever taken belongs to one company, consolidated out of the many that now control huge libraries that make up our photographic history.

Im not even going start to talk about how deliberate and permanent witholding of images can be used to manipulate history, because you are all intelligent, exposed, and already know this.
posted by Irdial , 8:57 AM Þ 

I....guess "the internet"?

I'm right!
posted by Irdial , 8:47 AM Þ 

What are the sources on those figures, Akin?
posted by Josh Carr , 5:23 AM Þ 

Dear BLOGDIALIANS,

In an attempt to escape responsibility for the misleading statements that led the nation to war, President Bush has announced plans to form an independent inquiry to look into what went wrong. An inquiry would serve the Bush administration well: it would envelop the issue in a fog of uncertainty, deflect blame onto the intelligence services, and push any political damage into 2005, after the upcoming election.

But the facts need no clarification. Despite repeated warnings from the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency, President Bush and his administration hyped and distorted the threat that Iraq posed. And now that reality is setting in, the President seeks to pin the blame on someone else. We can't let him.

Congress has the power to censure the President -- to formally reprimand him for his betrayal of the nation's trust. If ever there was a time to use this function, it is now. Join the call for Congress to censure President Bush now at:

http://www.moveon.org/censure/?id=-539027-24Vd7Yn86Y9kb1kp3dto2A

Thanks,
Ken
posted by Ken , 2:28 AM Þ 

232 Number of American combat deaths in Iraq
between May 2003 and January 2004 (from the "end
of the war" until now).

88% Percentage of American citizens who will
save less than $100 on their 2006 federal taxes
as a result of 2003 cut in capital gains and
dividends taxes.

$42,000 Average savings members of Bush's
cabinet are expected to enjoy this year as a
result of the cuts in capital gains and dividends.

44% Percentage of Americans who believe the
President's economic growth plan will mostly
benefit the wealthy.

$10.9 million Average wealth of the members of
Bush's original 16-person cabinet.

$116,000 Amount Vice-President Cheney is
expected to save each year in taxes.

$42,000 Median household income in the US in
2001.

$100 billion Estimated cost of the war in Iraq
to American citizens by the end of 2003.

1st This year's deficit is on course to be the
biggest in United States history.

28 Number of days "holiday" (days off) that
Bush took last August, the second longest holiday
of any president in US history (Recordholder:
Richard Nixon).

45% Percentage of Americans who believed in
early March 2003 that Saddam Hussein was involved
in the 11 Sept. attacks.

1983 The year that Donald Rumsfeld gave Saddam
Hussein a pair of golden spurs.

9 Number of members of Bush's defense policy
board who also sit on the corporate board of, or
advise, at least one defense contractor.

1st George W. Bush became the first American
president to ignore the Geneva Conventions by
refusing to allow inspectors access to US-held
prisoners of war.

35 Number of countries to which US has
suspended military assistance after they failed
to sign agreements giving Americans immunity from
prosecution before the International Criminal
Court.

54% Percentage of US citizens who believe Bush
was legitimately elected.

80% Percentage of the Iraqi workforce that is
currently unemployed.

55% Percentatge of the Iraqi workforce employed
before the war.

0 Number of coffins of dead soldiers returning
home from Iraq that the Bush admin. has allowed
to be photographed

0 Number of funerals or memorials that
president Bush has attended for soldiers killed
in Iraq.

100 Number of fund-raisers attended by Bush or
Vice-President Dick Cheney in 2003.

29,000 Number of American troops to have either
been killed, wounded, injured or become so ill as
to require evacuation from Iraq, according to the
Pentagon.

501 Number of American servicemen to die in
Iraq from the beginning of the war--so far.

16,000 Approximate number of Iraqis killed
since the beginning of the war.

10 000 Approximate number of Iraqi
civilians killed since start of war.
posted by Ken , 1:38 AM Þ 
posted by Ken , 1:30 AM Þ 

Creation Science Fair

Middle school 2nd place is particularly of interest ...

Someone tell me this is a spoof!
posted by mary13 , 1:10 AM Þ 

What was your best buy on eBay?
posted by captain davros , 12:40 AM Þ 
Tuesday, February 10, 2004

ppbth

Now I have to keel you.
posted by Irdial , 11:01 PM Þ 

no, of course not! i was just being facetious. i thought it was a very interesting [and relevant] piece. i'm just one of those people that believes that if the government or spammers or whoever wants to get a hold of your personal information, there are a multitude of simpler methods to follow.

besides, orkut has a lot of positive traits that are worth investigating...no one is telling you you even have to be forthright with your actual name, user photo, etc. so there is not really much to be worried about if you are indeed that paranoid [which, i agree, could be for good reason].

anyway, you're still not invited, so ppbth. :P
posted by Ken , 10:21 PM Þ 

Would you have preferred not to have read that?
posted by Irdial , 9:10 PM Þ 

ok, akin's not invited.
posted by Ken , 8:45 PM Þ 

Avoid Friendster and its clones, warns security expert

Computer users who value their privacy should stay clear of 'social networking' websites, and should warn their friends away too, according to a distinguished Australian security professional. And for good-measure, the rash of new websites - with names apparently inspired by artificial food preservatives such as Ryze, Plaxo and Orkut - make a mockery of existing data protection legislation.

"In general, people would be well-advised firstly to stay well clear of all address-book and 'social networking systems', and secondly to prevail upon their friends, colleagues and acquaintances that they should avoid making any data about them available to service-operators like Plaxo," says Professor Roger Clarke, a visiting professor at the Australian National University.

Clarke has studied the leading contenders, of which the most famous is the revenue-free Friendster, and concluded that not only do they lack a basic understanding of privacy concerns, but they are not likely to either.

Clarke describes the opt-in data harvesting as "disturbing" - a self-evident observation to anyone outside the self-referential Silicon Valley bubble from which many of these services have arisen - but not a concern to the creators.

The 'social network' sites present opportunities for ruthless marketroids and stalkers. Plaxo, the most notorious example Clarke cites, encouraged users to upload their entire address books to the servers.

"Every IP-address, every email, and every social-network relationship that arises appears to be entirely free of any express contractual constraints."

But Plaxo goes further by offering a weasel-worded privacy'guarantee'. Plaxo states: 'We respect the privacy of your contacts and maintain a strict policy of not sharing their contact information (received as a result of responding to your update requests) with other Plaxo users who are asking for this information.' But Clarke notes, "the emphasised words appear to exclude the data that is provided by the user when they upload their address-book, and hence the undertaking does not apply to the data about other people that users gift to the company. This assurance falls desperately far short of real privacy protection."

The faddish websites also offer opportunities to be wrongly accused of nefarious activity.

"Social networks are a primary way in which suspicion is generated about individuals. Acquaintances of terrorists, terrorism suspects, terrorism financiers, terrorist supporters and terrorist sympathisers are at risk of being allocated into a grey zone of terrorist associates. A tag of that kind is potentially as harmful to a person as have been negative categorisations made in previous contexts, such as 'etranger', 'subversive' and 'unamerican'," Clarke notes. [...]

The Register

Party poopin pundit or particularly prescient person?....hmmmmmmm!
posted by Irdial , 8:38 PM Þ 

Ken Meier invites you to join his network of personal friends at orkut.com.

orkut is a community of friends and trusted acquaintances that connects individuals through a social network that grows person by person.

With orkut, you can catch up with old friends, make new acquaintances through people you trust, and maybe even find that certain someone you've been looking for everywhere.

orkut helps you organize and attend events, join communities that share your interests, and find partners to participate in the activities you most enjoy.


* * *

If you're already an orkut member, make sure that the email address at which you received this note is entered into your orkut profile. That way, you'll automatically be connected to all of your friends.

This invitation was sent to BLOGDIAL on behalf of Ken Meier.

* * *

Just send me [jkmeier at uchicago dot edu] your email address and I'll invite you. For the uninitiated, orkut is like Friendster, only better.

Who's on orkut already?
posted by Ken , 6:45 PM Þ 

Category: Race/Ethnicity
Subject: White people and the sea
Question:
Why do white people swim in the ocean when they know dangerous sea creatures lurk in there and it can kill them?
POSTED 1/4/2004
Polly S., Thurmond, KS, United States, Female, Mesg ID 14200494719 [...]

Oh dear that place is FULL of Trolls!!!!
posted by Irdial , 6:00 PM Þ 
posted by Ken , 5:23 PM Þ 
posted by Ken , 5:21 PM Þ 
posted by Ken , 4:14 PM Þ 
posted by meau meau , 2:59 PM Þ 

For those that like newsreaders (not the ones on TV, since none of you watch TV) here is our xml feed.
posted by Irdial , 2:40 PM Þ 

Spot the fake smiles
Results
You got 17 out of 20 correct
posted by Alison , 2:30 PM Þ 

In the United States, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 retroactively extended the duration of copyright from the life of author plus fifty years to the life of the author plus seventy years, in the case of individual works, and from seventy-five years to ninety-five years in the case of works of corporate authorship and works first published before January 1, 1978.

Under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works states are required to provide copyright protection for a term of the life of the author plus fifty years. However, the convention permitted parties to provide for a longer term of protection, and between 1993 and 1996, the European Union provided protection for a term of the author's life plus seventy years (see Directive on harmonising the term of copyright protection). The United States, however, only provided for the minimum required by the convention.

As a result, many literary works, movies and fictional characters, which were quite profitable for the copyright owners, were threatened with soon passing into the public domain. This included several characters owned by the Walt Disney Company; without the act, Mickey Mouse would have entered the public domain between 2000 and 2004 when early short films such as Steamboat Willie and Plane Crazy were due to reach the end of the 75-year copyright term.

Copyright owners successfully lobbied Congress for an extension of copyright, to provide for the same term of protection as exists in Europe. Hence both houses of the United States Congress passed the act as Public Law 105-298 with a voice vote, making it impossible to determine who voted for the act and who voted against it, and passed it during both the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal and the Kosovo War, ensuring that the act would get little coverage from the mainstream media.

As a consequence of the act, no copyrighted works will enter into public domain due to term expiration in the United States until January 1, 2019, when all works created in 1923 will enter into public domain.

In addition to Disney, Sonny Bono's widow and Congressional successor Mary Bono and the estate of George Gershwin supported the act. Mary Bono, speaking on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, noted that "Sonny wanted the term of copyright protection to last forever", but that since she was "informed by staff that such a change would violate the Constitution", Congress might consider Jack Valenti's proposal of a copyright term of "forever less one day".

Proponents of the Bono Act argue that it is necessary given that life expectancy has risen dramatically since Congress passed the original Copyright Act of 1790, that a difference in copyright terms between the United States and Europe would negatively affect the international operations of the entertainment industry, and that some works would be created under perpetual copyright that would never be created under time-limited copyright. They also claim that Congress has the power to pass whatever copyright term it wants because the language "To promote the progress of science and useful arts" in the United States Constitution is not a substantive limitation on the powers of Congress, leaving only the restriction that copyrights may only be for a "limited time". Given this interpretation, a million years would still be a valid "limited time" under the letter of the Constitution.

Opponents of the Bono Act consider the legislation to be little more than corporate welfare and have tried (and failed) to challenge its constitutionality, claiming that such an act is not "necessary and proper" to achieve the purpose of "promot[ing] the progress of science and useful arts". They point out that the Tenth Amendment limits the powers that a treaty can grant to Congress. More directly, they see two successive extensions of approximately 20 years each (the Copyright Act of 1976 and the Bono Act) as the beginning of a "slippery slope" toward a perpetual copyright term that violates the spirit of the "for limited times" language of the United States Constitution, Article I, section 8, clause 8. They question the proponents' life expectancy argument, pointing out that the copyright term under the 1790 act lasted only twenty-eight years, that life expectancies have not risen threefold since 1790 (ignoring infant mortality, they have increased barely ten years), and that even though terms of patents have not been extended in parallel, patents adequately reward investment in the field with only a twenty-year term. They also question the proponents' "works would not be created" argument by pointing out proponents' hidden assumption that the goal is to create all works, whereas the authors of the United States Constitution considered the goal "to promote the progress of science and useful arts." In fact, some works created under time-limited copyright would not be created under perpetual copyright because the creator of a distantly derivative work does not have the money to purchase a license from the owner of copyright in the original work, or the individual or privately held owner of copyright in the original work might refuse to license a use at any price (though a refusal to license may trigger a fair use safety valve). One can thus argue that a rich public domain is necessary for artistic creation.

For example, the works of Shakespeare and the Greek myths have been the basis for much of Neil Gaiman's writing, which might well not have been created if they were still under copyright. Recent works that have entered the popular culture, and for which copyright is arguably not appropriate, include the novels that created Frankenstein and Dracula, both originating in the 19th century. Most of the holy writings of major religions are also in the public domain, which allows them to be adapted. If the Roman Catholic Church had a perpetual copyright on the letters of Paul of Tarsus, it could have refused to license them for translation or for use by other churches. [...]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Bono_Copyright_Term_Extension_Act


Now.

Imagine for yourself, a world in the future, where a decendent of Bill Gates has managed to buy up all the stock libraries and collections of photographs created since the first photograph in the 1800's, all of which are copyrighted forever thanks to another, final amendment to the copyright laws.

One man, one company will have total control over every photo ever taken, when in fact, many millions of photographs would have fallen into the public domain had corporate bought legislation not been allowed to be put into the law.

The benefit to the citezenry of works falling into the public domain is well understood. The choice presented to us is do we want to live in a world where all of the collected works of every artist belongs to one company, like a modern version of the Soviet era Melodia, or do we want to live in a world where after having plenty of time to exploit her work, an artist then serves humanity after she is dead.

Patents last 20 years. If they did not, everythying you buy would cost more because a patent gobbling monster corporation would be imposing a fee for every object that is manufactured; imagine the case for a walkman in a world where patents never expire, you would have to pay a small amount of money for each innovation in your walkman. For example:

Magnetic heads
hinges,
pulley,
capstans,
pinch rollers,
rubber grommets,
casette spokes,
anodizing metal,
integrated circuits,
volume slider,
lcd display,

and anything else that is an original patented idea that was incorporated into the walkman. The price would at least double.

As it says above, imagine if writers had to pay a royalty ever time they borrowed or enhanced an idea from an out of copyright book. It would mean that many works simply would not be made, and of course, this is completely separate from the horrible situation of a single company controlling all of western culture for its own profit.

There is nothing wrong with profit. There is nothing wrong with owning property. What is wrong however is the relinquishing of your responsibility to future generations, and the accumulation of the control of culture in one persons hands. The founding fathers understood this responsibility and wrote the copyright laws accordingly.

I say that you should not be made to forfeit your property because the word forfeit means something very specific, which is different to allowing your work to fall into the public domain.

Forfeiture means :

# Something surrendered or subject to surrender as punishment for a crime, an offense, an error, or a breach of contract.

# To surrender, be deprived of, or give up the right to on account of a crime, an offense, an error, or a breach of contract.

Which means that the state is forcibly taking something away from you. When a person creates a work it is immediately protected by copyright, and furthermore the person knows in advance that this copyright is subject to a fixed term that will end when the author is dead, plud 75 years. If they do not accept this, then they have the option of not releasing the work (keeping it secret). Most civilized people accept these terms, this contract with humanity, however, there are people wo do not, and these are the people who want to extend copyright to a term not less than eternity. They are a small number of "corporate scum" who cannot stomach that some of their works will fall out of control. Think about it; Disney is a company old enough for this to actually matter. They have mead billions off of the work of Walt Disney, and now, it (should have been) time to let Mickey Mouse go, and concentrate on making the new characters for the new generation of animation lovers.

Nintendo's Mario is more recognisable than Mickey Mouse. This proves that it is possible for a company to develop characters that can superceed the popularity of a brand as powerful as "the mouse". The question is for Disney, "why should we bother making new characters when we can sell Mickey Mouse for eternity?". And then the quesion is, is the world better off with companies making new characters, finding Nemo, Legend of Zelda, Masters of the Universe, Dragonball, or would we prefer one giant entertainment company controlling all characters art and creativitiy, selling it back to us again and again until the end of time without ever making a single new thing?

The answer is obvious; its better for everyone if copyright expires after a fixed term, so that people can benefit from expired works, companies dont get lazy, and creativity remains a dynamic, cross fertilizing, self iterating engine, working for the benefit of the people who create and the public.
posted by Irdial , 1:48 PM Þ 

Copyrighted works shoul dfall into the public domain after a pre set amount of time, which by the way, should not be extended every generation.

Can you explain your thinking here?
posted by captain davros , 1:07 PM Þ 

'Festivals', in that for 7/11 days there is a flurry of entertainment (and less candified things) that does what? Ameliorate the pain of a barren wilderness for the rest of the year? Earn brownie points for the council & sponsors who would rather spend a big lump of money in one place rather than sustained backing?
And like radio programmes all the interesting stuff is on at the same time (no matter what you like) and there will be an intelligent debate on a tuesday morning or a wednesday afternoon, while I'm at work. Or even worse I'll have to be away for half the time anyway. And there will be pre-show discussions that do nothing for understanding and a lot to diminish the feature. And it will be spectacular, and branded, and shiny, and there won't be any accidents except the unannounced changes of venue, and there won't be any drinks or they will be expensive.

But they will be enjoyable and they shall be forgiven because nothing would happen otherwise, or would it?
posted by meau meau , 1:02 PM Þ 

# What have you proposed?

We have proposed a tiny fee designed to move unused copyrighted work into the public domain.
# How would it the [renewal fee] test work?

The [renewal fee] test is a renewal fee proposal that will help shift works no longer being commercially exploited by anyone into the public domain. Here's how: fifty years after a copyrighted work was published, a copyright owner would have to pay a tiny renewal fee, a requirement which serves as a test by the government to see if the copyrighted work is commercially viable or otherwise important to the copyright holder. That renewal fee could be as low as $1. If the copyright owner does not pay that renewal fee for three years in a row, then the copyright would be forfeited to the public domain. If the renewal fee were paid, then the form would require the listing of a copyright agent--a person charged with receiving requests about that copyright. The Copyright Office would then make the listing of renewal fees paid, and copyright agents, available free of charge on their website. [...]


http://eldred.cc/ea_faq.html

This instantly strikes me as wrong, since the government should never have the ability to make you forfeit your property.

Copyrighted works should fall into the public domain after a pre set amount of time, which by the way, should not be extended every generation.
posted by Irdial , 12:27 PM Þ 



Tower Records filed chaper 11 today. Its being widely reported that part of the reason for this is "internet downloading" where actually, the real reasons are to do with the picture above....get me?
posted by Irdial , 11:44 AM Þ 

COPE

History

In 1968, civic politics in Vancouver changed forever. During the previous 30 years, one party had dominated council, school board and park board. Each election the backroom power brokers of the Liberal and Conservative (and later Social Credit) parties would get together with the boys from B.C. Electric, CPR, the Vancouver Board of Trade and some of the big corporate law firms, and decide who they would run on the Non-Partisan Association slate.

Their agenda was simple: keep the 'socialists' out of city hall and make the world safe for developers. They had the money, the organizational power and the ear of the mainstream press to ensure that most of their candidates would be elected.

"COPE brought genuine competitive politics to Vancouver for the first time: a different vision of the city and policies that promoted the interests of the people who live in the city and not those of the developers who look at the city as a giant mechano set to be torn down and rebuilt whenever the profit incentives were large enough."
-Donald Gutstein Communications Department, Simon Fraser University Introduction, 1968-1993 COPE, Working for Vancouver

COPE is part of a proud tradition of citizen groups, labour unions, socialist parties, and other reform organizations determined to elect progressive representatives to civic office. [...]


COPE
posted by Irdial , 10:30 AM Þ 

Lynn Whitlow, a Bikram teacher .... "It's like Starbucks. You go in knowing what you want.''

That's just WRONG.
posted by Alun , 10:04 AM Þ 

In full, for your amusement and delight...

Id Cards Could Protect Immigrants - Blunkett

By Jon Smith, Political Editor, PA News

National ID cards could protect immigrant workers such as the Chinese cockle pickers who died off Morecambe Bay from gangmasters, Home Secretary David Blunkett said today.

He said an ID card system would mean the bosses who prey on illicit workers would not be able to hide them away, and would help police deal with the problem.

Mr Blunkett also said he thought a new FBI-style police agency launched today would also be able to help in such situations “where Triads are involved”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme: “In situations like this, where Triads are involved there would be co-operation between the local force dealing with this and the new Serious Organised Crime Agency.”

The Home Secretary said the agency would not be taking away from the local police in such a situation but “re-inforcing and supporting”.

Asked if anything could help prevent further similar tragedies, Mr Blunkett replied: “Yes. I think ID cards would ensure anyone who was here couldn’t actually present themselves for any other services without identifying themselves properly.

“That would enable us to get a grip on the way in which gangmasters are able to hide these people away.”

And in situations where dozens of illicit workers were hidden away in one building, Mr Blunkett added: “I think it would also give greater confidence to police ... that they are able to inquire and find out who they are.”
posted by Alun , 9:55 AM Þ 

I had mentioned earlier about the COPE party in Vancouver, they were elected with an overwhelming majority into municipal government. Their volunteers were quite amazing. I was called 4 times prior to the election: the first was two weeks before election day, to confirm that I was registered (also to discuss COPE platform/issues/etc); the second was 4 days before election day, to confirm I knew where my polling station was, and if I had decided on a candidate; the third was the day before election day, to confirm all of the above and encourage that I go out and vote; the fourth was on election day, to remind me where the polling station was and when it closed. I have never had that kind of attention from a political party before, and living in a lower income neighbourhood, you don't expect it. What worked was the person to person effort, and I highly suggest that if the people of USA want to change their government, they should get out and personally support the party they are interested in.
posted by mary13 , 7:11 AM Þ 

"Do-re-mi is in the public domain until you make a melody and turn it into a song and copyright it,'' Choudhury said. "The English language is public domain but if you write a book, on any subject, you get a copyright."

yoga copyrights???

I have not been to a Bikram's class, and now, I will never go. You don't sue people to respect your practise, you earn it. I always felt there was something funny about Bikrams, the sexy/sweaty/suffering yoga, it did not ring true. This story is not surprising.
posted by mary13 , 7:05 AM Þ 

15 out of 20

That was a strange test. I was judging myself throught the whole thing.
posted by mary13 , 7:01 AM Þ 
posted by Mess Noone , 12:25 AM Þ 
Monday, February 09, 2004

Powers of ten with a purpose:

http://www.lcurve.org/
posted by Irdial , 11:59 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 11:50 PM Þ 

"pays adventurist "
posted by Irdial , 6:59 PM Þ 

Less is more. ................................ braindance is... incredible! braindance is... boundless; eclectic; entertaining; rephreshing; fulfilling; wholehearted; sensual; stimulating; bold; unconventional; real; imaginary; visionary; essential; debonair... braindance is unique! This is Music like That, and now, take a listen

cologneweddig a response
posted by Claus Eggers , 6:41 PM Þ 

Have you heard this before? Most of the cameras on the busses in London are fakes!

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=95806&cid=8211282
posted by Irdial , 4:42 PM Þ 



heh, found that whilst looking for something to link the word "extortion" to, which of course the immoral unfathomable and very stupid blockade of Cuba is not. The blockade of Cuba is pure evil, of which extortion is only a subset.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/
posted by Irdial , 3:21 PM Þ 

No one should be untraceable and no one should be untouchable.

And this (how did I manage to leave this out?!) is the polar opposite of what is right.

EVERYONE should be untracable and NO ONE should be touchable.
posted by Irdial , 3:16 PM Þ 

trafficking in drugs

"Drugs" shouldnt be illegal. Thats not a real crime.

trafficking in people,

WHY do people want to move from one place to another so desperately? Solve that problem. And here is a free clue, it has NOTHING to do with a new agency.

engaging in fraud and extortion.

A new, made up agency wont stop this. Police can handle it.

They control criminal empires that reach from the other side of the world to the dealer on the street corner.


No. The people "blind melon" is talking about are not really criminals, but are merely entrepreneurs providing services, in this case, getting around immigration rules and supplying dope for dopers. During prohibition, people who brewed and sold beer were "criminals". Clearly that is bullshit, and the "criminals" who sell "drugs" are exactly the same as prohibition era still runners and speakeasy owners.

That era even saw the same sort of propaganda that we are subjected to today; police raiding bars and smashing up barrels of beer; exactly the same as watching COPS where they use handheld battering rams to shut down crackhouses. Same shit different day.

In reality, the only thing on a street corner is Dumbass Plonkert prostituting his police state booty agenda.

What an IDIOT and SHAME on the UK papers for simply regurgitating the home orifice's press releases without tearing them apart in the same breath, like MSNBC and all the american media seems to be doing with dumbyas TV spectacular.

"Yeah".
posted by Irdial , 2:56 PM Þ 

Organised criminals make their millions from human misery ..., engaging in fraud and extortion

??
posted by meau meau , 2:34 PM Þ 

"Organised criminals make their millions from human misery - trafficking in drugs and people, engaging in fraud and extortion. They control criminal empires that reach from the other side of the world to the dealer on the street corner," Mr Blunkett said at the launch of the initiative.

"They believe they are beyond the reach of justice and out of our sights. That is not the case. No one should be untraceable and no one should be untouchable. This new agency will focus on tracking them down."


Blunkett to create 'British FBI'
posted by Alun , 1:23 PM Þ 

The Guardian/Observer tech-illiterates strike again:

********* *BEGIN ENCRYPTED or SIGNED PART* *********

Thanks to George Danezis for this story ... it starts off sensible
enough -- people have known for some time that most unlawful copies of
movies are generated by insiders; and there was an academic paper on
this last year

Simon Byers, Lorrie Cranor, Eric Cronin, Dave Kormann, and Patrick
McDaniel. Analysis of Security Vulnerabilities in the Movie
Production and Distribution Process. In Proceedings of the 2003 ACM
Workshop on Digital Rights Management, October 27, 2003, Washington,
DC. [Paper also presented at The 31st Research Conference on
Communication, Information and Internet Policy, September 19-21,
2003, Arlington, VA.]

http://lorrie.cranor.org/pubs/drm03.html

so it wasn't a surprise when the FBI managed to catch someone at it.

However the story then manages to link in almost every horseman of the
infocalypse ... drugs, people smuggling, terrorists, the Russian Mafia

and after that it just gets silly

"Scientists have now developed an experimental program that can
download a DVD quality movie in five seconds."

which will be a reference to very high speed Internet technology
(hardware, not software) that won't be in a home near you any time soon!
It's in a paragraph quoting DK Matai from mi2g, who will know better
than that, and presumably did't actually say the self-contradictory

"The internet is perfect for them because it allows total anonymity
and limited traceability."

Finally, you will note that the sub-editor has gone for "Pirates" in the
headline, despite limited links between the story and those who take
over shipping, mainly in the waters off Indonesia.

still ... judge for yourself

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1143457,00.html

Pirates loot the film and music giants' coffers

Organised crime is running the multi-billion dollar counterfeit trade - and
it's not just Hollywood that will suffer. Jamie Doward reports on the fight
against the bootleggers

Sunday February 8, 2004
The Observer

Suddenly, Hollywood is having to confront the sort of nightmare scenario
usually found only in movie scripts: its greatest enemy may lie within. For
years Tinseltown has urged everyone from George Bush to Vladimir Putin to
clamp down on movie pirates, but now it has emerged that Hollywood's Public
Enemy No 1 was an insider who could have inflicted millions of dollars worth
of damage on the only industry in America that - for now, at least - has a
surplus balance of trade with every country in the world.

When FBI agents swooped on the Chicago home of Russell Sprague a few days ago
they uncovered a cinematic treasure trove which has raised alarming questions
over possible links between the movie industry and sophisticated pirating
networks.

... etc

--
"Nothing seems the same
Still you never see the change from day to day
And no-one notices the customs slip away"



********** *END ENCRYPTED or SIGNED PART* **********
posted by Irdial , 12:59 PM Þ 

GW Bush presides over the worst administration that I have witnessed in my entire voting carrier. He is worse than Johnson, Nixon, or Reagan. His moral authority sinks lower than the sex-scandal-ridden Clinton. He lies, obfuscates and promotes favoritism to "corporate citizens" over "real citizens." His cowboy attitudes and go-it-alone mentality have little or nothing to do with representing his countrymen. Everything about GW Bush reeks of elitism and cronyism. His policies are geared to benefit corporate interests. [...]

http://www.e-thepeople.org/article/29343/view
posted by Irdial , 12:07 PM Þ 

And I thought Blunkett was funny


NJET
posted by meau meau , 12:06 PM Þ 

RUSSERT: But your base conservatives -- listen to Rush Limbaugh, the Heritage Foundation, CATO Institute -- they're all saying you're the biggest spender in American history.

BUSH: Well, they're wrong.


That interview is laugh-a-minute stuff!



RUSSERT: This is Time magazine: Love Him or Hate Him: Why George Bush arouses such passion, and what it means for the country.

BUSH: Yes.

RUSSERT: Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader in the Senate, said that you've changed the tone for the worse, that it's more acrimonious, more confrontations, that you are the most partisan political president he's ever worked with.

Our exit polls of primary voters -- not just Democrats but independents in South Carolina and New Hampshire -- more than 70 percent of them said they are angry or dissatisfied with you. And they point to this whole idea of being a uniter as opposed to a divider.

Why do you think you are perceived as such a divider?

BUSH: Gosh, I don't know, because I'm working hard to unite the country. As a matter of fact, it's the hardest part of being the president.



And I thought Blunkett was funny!!
posted by Alun , 11:57 AM Þ 

http://www.wiredsafety.org/

best favicon.ico yet....
posted by Irdial , 11:00 AM Þ 

16 out of 20
posted by captain davros , 10:27 AM Þ 

14/20 - the six wrong ones were 2/3 genuine & 2 of those people I wouldn't trust on face value.
posted by meau meau , 9:57 AM Þ 

"See, free societies are societies that don't develop weapons of mass terror and don't blackmail the world."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4179618
posted by Irdial , 9:35 AM Þ 

Bush sets case as "scare-mongering, draft-dodging, alcoholic, dyslexic, cerebrally-challenged puppet president".

Mr Bush said he was a "war president" and the top issue for voters should be the use of American power in the world.... !!!!!!!!!


Thee Persidayent meets the Prayuss:

[On Friday, you announced a committee, commission to look into intelligence failures regarding the Iraq war ....]

RUSSERT: Prime Minister Blair has set up a similar commission in Great Britain.

BUSH: Yes.

RUSSERT: His is going to report back in July.

BUSH: Right.

RUSSERT: Ours is not going to be until March of 2005, five months after the presidential election.

BUSH: Yes.

RUSSERT: Shouldn't the American people have the benefit of the commission before the election?

BUSH: Well, the reason why we gave it time is because we didn't want it to be hurried.........




... And that's very important for, I think, the people to understand where I'm coming from, to know that this is a dangerous world. I wish it wasn't.

I'm a war president.

I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign policy matters with war on my mind

. And again, I wish it wasn't true, but it is true.

....


posted by Alun , 9:16 AM Þ 



Colin Powell says Iraq arms furore gets on his nerves: Secretary of State Colin Powell has accused critics of politicising the United States' failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and said it is getting on his nerves. [...]

reuters
posted by Irdial , 1:08 AM Þ 


posted by captain davros , 12:09 AM Þ 
Sunday, February 08, 2004

I got 12.
Sarah got 18!!!!!

Boy, am I in trouble!


Saw whirling dervish ceremony tonight at RFH.
Like being in someone else's dream.
posted by Alun , 11:21 PM Þ 

I scored 11 correct out of 20 on this test.
posted by Irdial , 6:19 PM Þ 

It is also known that the operation caused significant disquiet in the intelligence community on both sides of the Atlantic. [...]

But they did it anyway. Pepto Bismol. Well wadyaknow? The stuff works!
posted by Irdial , 5:24 PM Þ 
posted by Alun , 4:35 PM Þ 

Play it loud, play it proud.





posted by Alun , 4:21 PM Þ 

THOUSANDS of Web sites are putting Playboy magazine's pictures on the Internet - free. And Randy Nicolau, the president of Playboy.com, is loving it. "It's direct marketing at its finest," he said.

Let the music industry sue those who share files, and let Hollywood push for tough laws and regulations to curb movie copying. Playboy, like many companies that provide access to virtual flesh and naughtiness, is turning online freeloaders into subscribers by giving away pictures to other sites that, in turn, drive visitors right back to Playboy.com.

When Mr. Nicolau is asked whether he thinks that the entertainment industry is making a mistake by taking a different approach, he replies: "I haven't spent much time thinking about it. It's like asking Henry Ford, 'What were the buggy-whip guys doing wrong?' '' [...]

New York Times
posted by Irdial , 12:15 PM Þ 
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