Saturday, April 02, 2005

The Computer In Art by Jasia Reichardt.

I have this book, and it's great.
posted by captain davros , 11:04 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 7:06 PM Þ 

I *never* thought I'd have to try so hard.
posted by captain davros , 2:51 PM Þ 

did you ever think it'd be like this?
did you ever think you'd laugh so much?
did you ever think you'd have to try so hard?
posted by mary13 , 10:40 AM Þ 
Friday, April 01, 2005
posted by Irdial , 6:26 PM Þ 

http://www.ceefax.tv/

This is just the coolest hack ever!
posted by Irdial , 2:47 PM Þ 

Echelon Civil Disobedience Campaign:

--------------------------------------------
Join the Echelon Civil Disobedience Campaign!
Let's Overload Echelon!
--------------------------------------------
sigint echelon sugar grove virginia sabana seca puerto rico waihopai new zealand comsat intelsat interception wideband extraction aluminium potassium sulphate signal analysis filtering data processing nitroglycerin facsimile analysis nitrogen trichloride traffic analysis phenol keyword recognition text retrieval topic analysis ammonium hydroxide continuous speech recognition distillate diesel naphthalene red nitric acid ammonium nitrate machine-transcribed speech
posted by meau meau , 12:16 PM Þ 
posted by Alison , 11:36 AM Þ 

Canada and the European Union said yesterday that they would impose duties on U.S. products to retaliate against a law that has helped American companies pocket more than $1 billion from foreign competitors.

[...]

The European Union said yesterday that it would ask member states to slap 15 percent duties on U.S. exports of paper, agricultural goods, textiles, machinery and other products [...]

here

Which of course will mean buying goods from the US will be less economic which will put downward pressure on the value of the dollar which will make stronger currencies such as the Euro more desirable for trade which will make oil producing countries want to sell in euros which will annoy the US government which will initiate a war which will bankrupt the US!
posted by meau meau , 10:34 AM Þ 

On the Peace Tax thing...

Firstly, thanks to Sarah for pointing it out to me. It was reported several times apparently, in the magazine Accountancy Age. The discussion was on tax, implications, whether the reasons were valid and feasible, along with pro and anti letters.

There are some of the relavent articles here, here, here and here. [Two new, two older] You may be able to find others there too.

People against argued that one could say you objected to e.g. Faith-based education, bus lanes, abortion.... However, in tax terms these are too specific and you would have to withold your tax for ALL education, transport, health. Any one of which would exclude you from interacting with any part of society (everyone you need to live day to day requires education, therefore you pay, needs to get around, will have had healthcare...). But an army, we can do without completely, as a fair few nations do. And an aggressive army is at best unnecessary and should be a matter of conscience. So the argument goes.

[Second should be, how have we all missed this up to now?]

Unfortunately, most of us with jobs are involuntarily conscripted into PAYE (pay as you earn), so tax is deducted institutionally. Has anyone experiece of trying to escape from the PAYE system? I'm not sure if it's possible (a contract clause?). Anyone dealing with corporate HR departments knows how difficult it is to get even the most basic requests answered, so I imagine it's a nightmare trying to extricate oneself from PAYE. It may well be law that employers have to deduct your tax.

Investment income may also be taxed at source (your bank savings definitely are) unless you can prove you're exempt.

So, what are the non-self employed left with?

We are being held tightly by the short and curlies.
posted by Alun , 9:57 AM Þ 

an action of iniaction, of 'will not'

This is a very good point and one that so many so-called "activists" completely miss. It is a concept that their single-minded brains cannot understand NOW but could be MADE to understand if they were to put a bit of oil in their gears. "WILL NOT." This is as ACTIVE a decision as any other. This choice of free will effects change through the refusal of action JUST AS MUCH as a choice of physically performing an action (usually retaliatory action) can. This is a mode of thinking that is not obvious to those many whom are conditioned by a society that relies on their ignorance of this important fact. One cannot be an activist until one truly understands the definition of action!
This is all that needs to be said.

Sit still. Stop thinking. Shut up. Get out!
-
Magick is the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will.
-AC

That being said, we need more magicians.
posted by Barrie , 7:23 AM Þ 
Thursday, March 31, 2005

Before 1996 it was unknown that the development of permanent weak tones in the human inner ear is influenced by descending signals from the auditory brain.

These tones, the so-called spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs), have been measured since 1979 with sensitive microphones in the ear canal, and they appear in the majority of healthy ears. For the persons who have them they are normally not audible. As a rule, only a few tones are measured per ear, but in rare cases there can be about 20. The tone frequencies are stable over many years. They range from 0.5 to 10 kHz, the majority lying between 1.5 to 3 kHz.

[...]

Thank you Martin Braun!

...and thanks for your "gamelan pelog scale of Central Java as an example of a non-harmonic musical scale: Interval distribution.
...and for your "Bell tuning in ancient China: bells of Zeng from 433 B.C"
posted by telle goode , 11:45 PM Þ 

Religious right to die
Christian Science fiction

If the horrific circus surrounding the tragic death of Terri Schiavo isn't taken as a powerful argument for euthanasia....

A tragedy is that it won't be:

"This is not only a death with the sadness it brings, this is a killing," said the Rev Frank Pavone, a spiritual adviser to Ms Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler. For seven years her family had fought over whether to keep her alive. The feud continued up to and beyond the moment of her death, when her parents claimed that her husband Michael had denied them access to her bedside.

After Ms Schiavo's feeding tube was disconnected two weeks ago, protesters streamed into Pinellas Park in Florida to keep vigil outside the hospice. There were 53 arrests as they tried to bring her food and water.
[...]

Mr Schiavo's lawyer George Felos became a target of harsh criticism and threats while arguing that Ms Schiavo should be allowed to die.

"The most challenging aspect of this case, from a spiritual point of view, has been dealing with these forces of such hatred and negativity," Mr Felos said in an interview last year. "I cannot imagine what would motivate somebody to call up and say, 'We have put your name on a death warrant and if Terri Schiavo dies, you are next."'

Such blind hypocrisy is flabbergasting, yet, at the same time, unsurprising. And that makes me sad.
posted by Alun , 9:20 PM Þ 

"If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood".

{Henry David Thoreau, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience", 1849}

Thanks for those links AK.

Now all thats needed is the fools from StopWar and all those other pacifier groups who facilitate war to get behind the only real solution, and put 10,000,000 people behind it.

People are not stupid, at least it appears that SOME people are not entirely stupid. I said it before, marching is useless, and that some other type of action is needed...an action of iniaction, of 'will not', of geting O.U.T.

Let them 'bring on' the Iran phase of the project, so that the entire war system can finally be dismantled.
posted by Irdial , 9:14 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 8:47 PM Þ 

The image “http://www.peacetaxseven.com/images/heading.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

The Peace Tax Seven say everyone is a victim of financial conscription. That we are all made complicit in state ordered killing through our taxes. They are calling for a judicial review of current taxation practices which contravene the human rights of conscientious objectors.
They would rather fund non-violent alternatives to war preparations.

[.../]


See also:

The image “http://www.conscienceonline.org.uk/images/imported_images/cartoons/kbweb2.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

prisoners of conscience

Arthur Windsor
On 6th March 1986 Arthur Windsor, a Gloucestershire pensioner, was imprisoned for 21 days for refusing to pay £100 of tax. He was the first Conscientious Objector to be imprisoned since conscription ended in 1960. Served the full sentence.

Sian Edwards
Sian Edwards sentenced to 7 days in Puckleworth Remand Centre on 17 February 1987. Served the full sentence.

Nigel Wild
Nigel, a Newcastle baker, was sentenced to 28 days in Durham Prison on 23 November 1990 after five years of tax resistance and several court hearings. He served the full sentence. Nigel, who had withheld £182, offered to pay with 182 bread buns, but these were rejected. "It is the military-industrial machine which we are resisting. We must trust our conscience in believing in a juster world", says Nigel Wild.

Roger Franklin
Roger Franklin is the most recent tax resister to go to prison. Roger has been resisting paying tax on interest from investments for over ten years. In November 1995 Roger was sentenced to 28 days in prison for refusing to pay £600 of capital gains tax. This was the first of ten instalments for a £6,000 tax debt built up over five years. He served 14 days with remission.

Roger Franklin was sentenced to 21 days in Gloucester Prison on 22 January 1996. He served 10 days with remission.

"As a pacifist, I object to supporting the armed forces. I would not, however, take the extreme position of tax resistance, even on that issue, except when an unjust war is actually being waged. But when it comes to genocide - to preparations for the massacre of the population of whole cities - I feel it is impossible to resist only moderately. An extreme evil demands total withdrawal of support."

Roger continues to resist war taxes and has since been made bankrupt by Inland Revenue.
posted by Alun , 8:38 PM Þ 
Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Privacy fears over NHS database

A new NHS computer database may threaten the privacy of patients' medical records, the BBC has learned.

A senior Department of Health civil servant said people would NOT be able to decide what details were stored [...] BBC

++

Patients will be unable to make a single request for their records not to be held on the NHS Care Records Service. Instead they will have to ask their details are not recorded onto the national medical records database each time they deal with the health service.

Any patient who does not want their medical information held on the NHS CRS Service will only be able to do so if they can demonstrate they will suffer significant distress or damage, and will be required to prove this afresh each time they come into contact with an NHS service. e-health

-

So your medical records will almost certainly be microsofted and all the security flaws that that entails. I tried to get some info about the Electronic patient Register (as it was called in January) but the people at my local surgery knew nothing about it and the then alleged opt outs (which appear to have been removed).
posted by meau meau , 10:36 AM Þ 

Dav, you were right, the jam rooms were the best part of the EMP. What a fun museum. Not only do you get to wander round with headsets listening to music and history, but they have a great collection of band posters and paraphernalia to explore. The guitar museum alone was worth it, beautiful examples of the lingeage of the guitar. And the Hendrix rooms were so fantastic! I think the best part was listening to Hendrix's songs and reading the lyrics from his original writings. So inspiring. And he had great penmanship. We tried our best to rock the jam rooms, however we were a little lacking in the guitar skills ... but we emerged quite invigorated! Overall, perhaps it was a little bit Disneyland-ish, but still a cool way to learn about music. I would not say no if I was asked to design an exhibit, what a fun project to work on!
posted by mary13 , 3:49 AM Þ 
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
posted by captain davros , 7:51 PM Þ 

Too late for easter but a quick fix for fighting blues is the Mouse on Mars - Autoditacker lp (First three sides at least).
posted by meau meau , 3:47 PM Þ 
Sunday, March 27, 2005

Happy Fertility Weekend everyone, or whatever you want to call it.
Any holiday that stretches celebration of fertility over four action-packed days has got to be good. Be sure to fit in as many fertility rites as possible, (the Catholic church be damned) you don't want to miss this opportunity!

The snow is starting to melt again!
posted by Barrie , 8:41 PM Þ 

What's a solution to feeling blue? I don't want to have a crap*y easter! n.b. I don't imbibe so booooze/etc. isn't going to help...

Exercise and cleaning your house.
posted by Alison , 2:52 PM Þ 

posted by Alison , 2:37 PM Þ 

Experience music is great - make sure you have a go on the drums and guitars in the soundproof booths!
posted by captain davros , 6:04 AM Þ 
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