Saturday, September 10, 2005

What on earth are you tallking about Barrie?

I was talking about what you yourself outlined in much of your response. The thinking of the mi5 chief is clueless and useless because she does seem to understand the rights that you explained very well. They are not hard-earned because they fundamentally exist, and to deny them means to fundamentally harm the fabric of a good society.
This line of thinking is useless because it will do nothing to curb any sort of "terrorism" or organized violence and crime. One would have to be clueless about things to think that it would.
Thus, I think my one-line statement was very clear, but I guess not!
MI5 would be very useful if it concentrated on doing its job rather than trying to pointlessly harm every individual in the country by refusing them their rights as humans. In few ways, either, do I think that the attacks on London were unpredictable - the timing was unpredictable, yes - but even you and I knew that something violent was going to happen in England if the state continued their destructive foreign policy.
That's all I was trying to say.

As far as the flat tax is concerned - I have always been of the opinion that it favours the wealthy. And you're right, it's precisely because it does not seem fair to me. In a socialist society, if someone is staggeringly rich, I don't see why they shouldn't be paying more into what is supposed to be the common good (ie paying for the government to perform its services for the population). It makes a lot of sense to me that tax should be based on a flat percentage of income, so everyone can pay what they are capable of paying. If taxed is based on flat amount, then it seems to me that a family with a small income will be more inconvenienced by it than helped.
So I suppose I would agree with a flat tax, as long as it is based on percentages, which unfortunately would require the state to know how much someone earns. And that is problematic in terms of state control, I don't know how to reconcile that situation. But I do know what it does not sound as bad as any kind of restriction of fundamental rights that a police agency like MI5 or the DHS would like to put into place (or already has, as it were). Such regulation of any kind of state power into monitoring income would have to be very strictly and carefully watched to avoid any kind of abuse.
HOWEVER, all of this shit could perhaps be avoided if some kind of legislation or rule were passed that REQUIRED any income paid to an individual/family be sufficient to pay for the flat tax, in addition to assuring a safe and stable living.
Otherwise, I cannot see how a flat tax could benefit anyone other than upper-middle and high-end earners, who wouldn't have to worry about the small drop in the bucket the tax bill would be.
Then there's the whole argument that tax should inherently be a drop in the bucket, and would be if the government concentrated on what it was actually supposed to be doing, rather than investing in insane foreign wars and police-state legislation. So if the tax is a drop in the bucket, then a flat tax probably wouldn't hurt. But given the cost of medicare and education, government is very expensive, though with a streamlining that both departments so necessarily need (not to be confused with "laying off teachers and doctors"), maybe these services could cost substantially less.

If you can't be bothered to type, then just dump what you've found and run. That would be very useful. Then we can concentrate fully on what you've found instead of the distracting two lines you write to accompany the post.

I think you could have said this in a much less hurtful manner, but the point is taken and understood.
I usually write short responses because I am paranoid and fussy about writing long ones, in which I become mortified as to whether or not I've communicated what I actually think, or have gotten my English wrong, or have unintentially included an insult or a falisity or any dozen such things like contradicting and repeating myself. As such I can never bring myself to bash out several paragraphs "quick and dirty" because I don't think myself capable of doing that.
In doing so, however, I can understand how two lines of what I truly think don't work either because they don't include specification/elaboration as to what I'm referring to/talking about.
Which lends a whole other level of anxiety and frustration to the act of writing what should be a simple blog post. And now that I think of it, this unecessary and ridiculous (only in hindsight) cycle of anxiety and panic can be applied over most of my life. Now I am completely off-topic.
posted by Barrie , 8:51 PM Þ 




- scroll down for english -

zaterdag 24 september 2005
Esther Venrooy : shift · coordinate · points
Happy New Ears, fabriekspand H. Hart, Dam 2a, B-8500 Kortrijk, België
om 20u:15

Ruis. Zeven korte elektronische pulsen. Daarna - vanuit het niets - een vrouwenstem: “...einz, zwo, fünf...einz, zwo, fünf...drei, vier, fünf...”. De aanhoudende stroom getallenreeksen wordt slechts nu en dan onderbroken door een metaalachtig melodietje, als uit een muziekdoos. Na 45 minuten eindigt de uitzending even abrupt als ze begon en lost weer op in het geruis.

Wie sinds de koude oorlog een kortegolf radio heeft kent ze vast en zeker: de zogeheten “number stations” of “spy stations”. Wie zijn deze stemmen, die onophoudelijk schijnbaar willekeurige reeksen getallen, fonemen en woorden door de ether laten klinken? En voor wie zijn deze cryptische boodschappen bedoeld? Men is er nog steeds niet uit, de boodschappen zijn namelijk zodanig gecodeerd dat ontcijferen uitgesloten is voor iedereen behalve de ontvanger. Maar radio-amateurs en fanatici die het fenomeen al jaren volgen menen dat deze stations zijn opgezet door geheime diensten, die hun operatives in het buitenland via deze weg coördinaten en opdrachten bezorgen.

In 1997 verzamelde het eigenzinnige Britse platenlabel Irdial-Discs onder de titel The Conet Project een selectie van opnames van number stations. The Conet Project is een soort “Best of” van 30 jaar spionageradio en bevat fragmenten van ondermeer Amerikaanse, Duitse, Zweedse en Russische stations. De Nederlands-Belgische componiste Esther Venrooy mocht van Irdial aan de slag met dit materiaal en creëert naar aanleiding van 75 Jaar Radio een hoogst persoonlijke interpretatie van de verborgen geschiedenis van het medium. Door middel van geluidsmanipulatie en -collage distilleert Esther Venrooy uit het gecodeerde basismateriaal een abstracte klankpoëzie en slaagt er aldus toch in een betekenis te onttrekken aan de onontcijferbare woordenstroom.

Gerealiseerd met de steun van Klara en het Ministerie van de Vlaamse gemeenschap.

Tickets: +32(0)56 221001 / info@happynewears.be

www.happynewears.be
www.klara.be


Saturday September 24th 2005
Esther Venrooy : shift · coordinate · points
Happy New Ears, fabriekspand H. Hart, Dam 2a, B-8500 Kortrijk, Belgium
at 20:15

Static. Seven short electronic pulses. Then - out of thin air - a woman's voice dictates: “...einz, zwo, fünf...einz, zwo, fünf...drei, vier, fünf...”. The incessant stream of numbers is sporadically interrupted by a metallic melody. After 45 minutes the transmission ends as abruptly as it started and dissolves into the short-wave static.

If you've ever owned a short-wave radio receiver, chances are that at some point you’ve come accross one of the numerous so-called "numbers stations" or "spy stations". Who are these voices, tirelessly reciting seemingly random series of numbers, phonems and words? And who are these cryptic messages meant for? The messages are irreversibly encrypted, their contents unintelligible to anyone but the designated receiver. Radio amateurs and fanatics who have been monitoring the phenomenon for years are convinced that the stations are operated by intelligence and secret services worldwide, as a means of dispatching coordinates and assignments to their operatives abroad.

In 1997, British maverick label Irdial-Discs collected a selection of numbers stations recordings under the title “The Conet Project”. The Conet Project plays like a “best-of” of more than 30 years’ worth of secret radio and contains fragments of American, German, Swedish and Russian transmissions. Dutch-born Belgian composer Esther Venrooy was given permission to work with the material and for the occasion of the celebration of 75 years of Belgian radio created a highly personal interpretation of the medium’s secret history. Using manipulated sound and collage techniques she manages to distill an abstract poetry of sounds and thereby succeeds in extracting some meaning out of these hermetic transmissions.

Realized with the kind support of Klara and the Ministry of Culture of the Flemish Community.


Tickets: +32(0)56 221001 / info@happynewears.be

www.happynewears.be
www.klara.be

posted by Irdial , 5:47 PM Þ 

And you won't be able to prevent any more if you continue to be useless and absolutely clueless.

What on earth are you tallking about Barrie?

In what precise way are they 'clueless'? These people are not clairvoyants or psychics; they can't divine the future - just how do you expect them to prevent something that is unpredictable?

They are not clueless. They are not useless. They know exactly what they are doing.

And another thing, in an earlier post, you took the position that a flat rate of tax was not a good idea, because (I took it) that you think its not 'fair'. You can't be against people controlling their own property and in favour of state control of every penny you earn and swinging taxation AND be against the likes of Manningham-Buller and the other control addicts who want to 'erode' all our rights away and own you like a cow. The two positions are mutually exclusive. Limited government and absolute rights means just that; it doesnt and cannot mean a hodgepodge mix of the things you like, no matter what the effects on other people.

If you have something constructive or insightful to offer, then offer it please, at length. We want to read what you think in detail, and not just two line proclamations (thats MY job).

This is how you do it.

Manninigham-Buller is wrong when she asserts that 'peoples hard won civil liberties may have to be "eroded" '. People are born with rights that are non negotiable, irrevocable and not subject to legislation or erosion. Should a government pass into law, acts that take away the rights of man, then those injured by those laws have an absolute right both to disobey and to eject the government that passed that legislation. This has happened again and again in countries all over the world, and it has even happened in the UK, the most recent example being the poll tax, which collapsed because no one was willing to obey something that was so completely wrong and injurious to their condition as free people.

The phrase 'hard won civil liberties' mis-states the true nature of human beings and their place on this earth. People have not 'won civil liberties' they have incrementally moved, en masse towards the place where thier natural rights are not infringed. They have tried as a group, to create a system where these rights will not dissapear overnight due to a crisis or a change in dictator (or change in the MOOD of the dictator). It has been working well for the most part, but now there is a move to halt and reverse this momentum so that we all decend into a Soviet style system where everything you do and say and spend is subject to control.

As long as there are sufficient people who understand both the nature of their rights and the power of dosobedience, a total reversal is not possible. However, the stupid and confused can, through poor quality thinking, ruin everything. I'm talking about those people who say that the rich must be taxed more than the poor. The people who say that they don't mind being issued a government ID card. The people who say they don't mind being searched withour reason at roadblocks or at the gate to an commercial flight. You people are part of the problem. You are the ones facilitating the move to total control.

Governments do not own populatoins, or the property of populations. neither you nor Manningham-Buller or Bliar, Straw-Man Straw, Dumbo, Blindkid, Cheyney, Asscroft, or any of these other bastards can own anyone. They can however, with your help, make everyones lives a living hell. All they need is your cooperation, and you give it when you agree that some people shouldn't have rights.

There. That wasn't too hard now was it? Three paragraphs bashed out in reaction, quick and dirty...anything but empty.

If you can't be bothered to type, then just dump what you've found and run. That would be very useful. Then we can concentrate fully on what you've found instead of the distracting two lines you write to accompany the post.
posted by Irdial , 12:51 PM Þ 

Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller
Dame Eliza said intelligence often
did not amount to clear evidence

MI5 head warns on civil liberties
The head of Britain's security service, MI5, has warned that hard won civil liberties may have to be "eroded" to protect people from terrorist attacks.

In a speech in the Netherlands, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller said the world had changed and a debate was needed.

She said the suicide bomb attacks in London in July were a "shock", and that the MI5 and police were "disappointed we had not been able to prevent them".
[...]

And you won't be able to prevent any more if you continue to be useless and absolutely clueless.
You know what happens when things erode? They never, ever return.
posted by Barrie , 10:16 AM Þ 

posted by mary13 , 8:16 AM Þ 

posted by chriszanf , 1:59 AM Þ 
Friday, September 09, 2005

The image “http://www.banksy.co.uk/indoors/images/cctv2.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
Image from Banksy.

Related.
posted by Alun , 2:23 PM Þ 

But there could be problems if they try to remove Austin O'Dwyer, who says he will not leave his home. He's been holed-up for 10 days without help, doesn't want any and isn't scared of lethal germs.

"Why do they think that I am more susceptible to disease than the soldiers that are coming to evict us?" he asked.

"If they come to my property and they attempt to evict me from my independent state ... there will be gunfire," O'Dwyer said. "There will be gunfire, so let them be warned."

[...]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/09/katrina.evac/index.html
posted by Irdial , 1:39 PM Þ 

Legal answers for New Orleans residents

Law experts weigh in on where authorities, citizens stand

Thursday, September 8, 2005; Posted: 7:03 p.m. EDT (23:03 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A catastrophe such as Hurricane Katrina has shown how lines of authority can become blurred when it comes to handling an emergency. CNN spoke with a number of legal experts to discuss the law governing the removal of residents from New Orleans.

Q. Has martial law been declared in Louisiana?

A. No.

"People are using that term far too loosely," said Duke University School of Law professor Scott Silliman. "Martial law can only be imposed by a governor or the president of the United States when there is a total absence of any governing authority (meaning no courts, etc). Martial law allows the federal military to come in to preserve the country."

This has not happened.

Q. Who declares the authority to forcibly remove residents in New Orleans?

A. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

The governor is given broad authority under the Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act. It allows her to "direct and compel" the evacuation of all or part of the population from any stricken or threatened area within the state if life is at stake or if such evacuation is necessary for the mitigation of, response to, and recovery from a disaster.

A public health emergency prompted Gov. Blanco to declare a state of emergency on August 29, 2005. The declaration allows her to use the National Guard for purposes including law enforcement. Note that she does not have the power to use federal troops; only the National Guard. This police power is always found in state law and can be used for public health emergencies when lives are in danger. Gov. Blanco also has the authority to direct New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to use the National Guard and police to forcibly remove New Orleans residents because of the public health dangers arising from toxic waters, Silliman said.

Q. Does Mayor Nagin also have authority to remove New Orleans residents by force?

A. Yes.

The Louisiana Homeland Security Act gives essentially the same power to parish presidents -- the mayor of New Orleans is deemed the president of Orleans Parish -- as it does to the governor. According to University of Pittsburgh School of Law professor Bernard Hibbitts, parish presidents may "direct and compel the evacuation of all or part of the population from any stricken or threatened area within the boundaries of the parish if he deems this action necessary for mitigation, response or recovery measures."

The mayor's powers seem a bit more narrow than the governor's (no reference to "preservation of life"), but it's enough for Mayor Nagin to remove residents.

The act also says the parish president can control access to and from the affected area. Nagin relied on this act when enforcing his September 6 evacuation order.

Q. What happens if a resident refuses to leave his/her home?

A. Once either the mayor or the governor has issued a mandatory evacuation order, an individual could be arrested or removed from the scene, said Kenneth Murchison, law professor at Louisiana State University. In addition, Louisiana law appears to make a violation of the order a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum $500 fine or a maximum six month prison term in the parish jail.

Obviously, only the force permissible to make a misdemeanor arrest would be allowed, he said.

The district attorney would then have to decide whether to prosecute or to dismiss the charges.

While either the mayor or the governor could order the arrest and removal of people who violate an evacuation order, practically speaking, only the governor could accomplish this in New Orleans. The only law enforcement officers that the mayor controls are the New Orleans police, nearly a third of which are missing right now.

By contrast, the governor controls and commands the state police and the National Guard (even those from other states).

But, Murchison said, "It is inconceivable to me that a thousand or so police officers could arrest and remove the number of people who are said to be in New Orleans in less than a matter of weeks. Even if the governor wanted to force the people out, she would have to devote a substantial portion of her National Guard resources for an extended period of time. Of course, if most people leave without being arrested, either the police or the National Guard could probably remove a couple of hundred (survivors) in a relatively short period of time."

Q. Is there legal recourse for residents who refuse to leave?

A. In theory, if people refuses to be removed, they can go into a court and demand their right not to be removed, said Silliman. But, generally, "the police power of the state trumps an individual's right when there is a public health emergency." [...]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/08/martial.law.qanda/index.html

I guarantee you that when these bad acts were passed into law, not one of the residents that are now being forcibly removed from their homes paid a single bit of attention. They were too busy drinking, dancing and throwing necklaces over each other while the state removed what remained of thier rights.

And then, after taking away these rights, the state collects the money of the people who they have stripped, and spends it on overseas imperialist adventures instead of shoring up defences. When the biggest of disasters arrives, the state does nothing, and treats the citizens like cattle.

The state does this because it can. While people blow on trumpets in the street, dance jigs and party party party, the state has a free hand to do what it wants with the money of the sheeple who reside in these places. They have no rights left, no property, and the government is giving them all $2000 each as a pat on the head. They should of course, be totally refunded by the state for all the money that they paid for services and infrastructure, which would amount to far more than $2000.

Perhaps they should all pool these funds together and sue everyone in charge for gross negligence...after a few mint juleps.

posted by Irdial , 10:02 AM Þ 
Thursday, September 08, 2005

Me not understando.

Oh man. That post is... over three years old! Insane! I have to say I don't agree with my past self anymore (in fact, Barrie of the Past sounds like a moron all too often), I will do some dancing, as long as I'm in the right situation. I've pretty much gotten over the fact that I look like a retard when I do so. Also generally when a lot of other people are dancing.
Last month I went to a kid606 show... basically everyone at the show looked like me: tall, skinny, dorky, and pale. There wasn't a shred of rhythm in any of us (aside from this one guy who's in a local funk band, he tried to get the room dancing as hard as he could, but failed), so the dance factor was fairly low.
I'm hoping that the room will be funkier when I go see Electric Six next week...
posted by Barrie , 8:09 PM Þ 

Eek! I love dancing, but finding a nice environment for it is so hard.

I danced here for the last week, it was phenomenal! I wore scarves on my wrists and danced with the wind ...
posted by mary13 , 5:57 PM Þ 

"The mood of the international community has changed dramatically over the past few years. There is no justification for innocent people being killed in cold blood," said Mr Blair, who believes that - from Northern Ireland to Palestine and Kashmir - violence has always proved a divisive barrier to progress. [...] Guardian

Wow, the two examples are of places where England/Britain has carved up foreign lands to suit its government's own goals. And the apparent motivation for the current spate of terrorism is the eviscerating of (the UK created!) Iraq lead by US/UK well what a surprise, and was it not the UK that drew the line in the sand for Israel.

Where is the spring that this river flows from? The policy of Western governments interfering and overruling foreign lands and peoples to suit their own ends. And because this policy has no apparent signs of being jettisoned the same old situation will continue, with a blood-money back guarantee.
posted by meau meau , 2:42 PM Þ 

++ NEW VIRAL AD CAMPAIGN

This week NO2ID have launched a web based viral ad campaign to highlight how
much of a swizz the government's ID card proposals are. The ad, 'the swizz of
the cards', was produced by eclectech who also produced the singing dog
animation 'The very model of a modern Labour minister'.
Please pass on the following link to as many people as you can (without
spamming obviously). Their is an 'email to a friend' link on the ad page.
Link to Ad: http://eclectech.co.uk/swizz.php
posted by Irdial , 2:29 PM Þ 

head up their arse.
just what I was thinking.

scrolling the Blarchive link:

Looks nice, John. Ahhh, summer nights.
I admit, though, I don't dance. I can't dance, nor will I even go to a place that gives a chance to dance. I don't understand what dancing is all about. Sure, it's moving with the music, but I don't think it feels right. I can move with the music if I play an instrument, but flailing my body around just feels wrong wrong wrong! And I've never experience a chance where I would want to flail around.
So what's with dancing? Me not understando.

[...]posted by Barrie , 4:23 AM Þ

Eek! I love dancing, but finding a nice environment for it is so hard.
posted by meau meau , 12:12 PM Þ 

Well, there was this homeopath who forgot to take his medicine and died of an overdose.


Some scientists' favourite jokes.

My favourite scientific joke (no comments about evolution, please) is still here.




both hands behind your back when you have your hands covering your eyes, your fingers in your ears and also covering your mouth

That's a pretty good trick for someone with their head up their arse.
posted by Alun , 11:32 AM Þ 

EU states should keep mobile phone and e-mail records for longer to help fight terrorism and crime, Home Secretary Charles Clarke has told MEPs.

Without such measures, European states would be fighting terrorism "with both hands tied behind our backs", he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4221364.stm

[...]

How on earth can you have both hands behind your back when you have your hands covering your eyes, your fingers in your ears and also covering your mouth?

posted by Irdial , 10:57 AM Þ 
posted by meau meau , 10:42 AM Þ 

Just as Germans were starting to feel bored by their election campaign, a little-known anarchist party has outraged television viewers with a no-holds-barred political broadcast featuring bare-breasted women, raucous partying and alcohol-fuelled vandalism.

The German Anarchist Pogo Party (APPD), whose defiant proclamation that "Arbeit ist Scheisse" ("Work is shit") contrasts sharply with Angela Merkel's vows to reduce unemployment and Gerhard Schröder's labour market reform programme, launched its campaign video on Monday for the 18 September election.

Wolfgang Thierse, president of Germany's parliament and SPD member, expressed outrage over the video, claiming it "goes against human dignity and harms the protection of our youth".

A poll released yesterday showed Mr Schröder's Social Democrats clawing back support, rising three points from last week to 34 per cent, while Ms Merkel's Christian Democrats were down one at 42 per cent.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article311047.ece

[...]

posted by Irdial , 10:05 AM Þ 

D y u hink i will be te evi ed?
posted by Mikkel , 5:24 AM Þ 
Wednesday, September 07, 2005

posted by mary13 , 8:12 PM Þ 



"If a household ladder is extended with a melodic function, it will develop into a real musical instrument. The ordinary ladder transforms into a soundladder.

Stepping on a bar of the ladder creates a sound or tone which is different from rung to rung. So you can create a piece of music by stepping up and down on the ladder."


http://www.toneladder.com

There is also MidiGun
posted by chriszanf , 5:36 PM Þ 

The New Orleans Times-Picayune has made the series "Washing Away"
/June 2002, available again on its web site. It is a rich source of
material in which was discussed, three years ago, every issue which
has arisen in the current disaster.

However, if you would like to have your own copy, download an 85 page PDF at;
http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/essays/tpnoseries02.pdf

...It is WELL worth reading! EVERYTHING was predicted well in advance.
Nothing was a surprise. Yet, though excellent studies showed how the
disaster would inevitably unfold, nothing -- virtually nothing -- was
done to prepare for it.
posted by telle goode , 2:44 PM Þ 

'Flat tax' urged by Tory Osborne
George Osborne
George Osborne says the Tories have not won tax trust
Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne is set to make the case for a "flat tax" where is there only one tax rate.

Mr Osborne says the Conservatives have failed to win public trust over pledges of tax cuts because they too often look like "election gimmicks".

Eastern European countries particularly have a "flat tax" where all income over a certain threshold is taxed at the same rate.

In a speech in London, Mr Osborne will say the Tories must examine the idea.

He is expected to appoint an independent commission to look at having "flatter" taxes and even a "pure flat tax" in the UK.


Because, you know, we want to make this society even more stratified. Whoever says it favours the rich is a pinko leftist commie enemy of freedom!!!!@# *foams at the mouth*

posted by Barrie , 5:43 AM Þ 

Halliburton hired for storm cleanup
The Navy has hired Houston-based Halliburton Co. to restore electric power, repair roofs and remove debris at three naval facilities in Mississippi damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Halliburton subsidiary KBR will also perform damage assessments at other naval installations in New Orleans as soon as it is safe to do so.

KBR was assigned the work under a 'construction capabilities' contract awarded in 2004 after a competitive bidding process. The company is not involved in the Army Corps of Engineers' effort to repair New Orleans' levees."

[...]

Houston Chronical

What more proof do you need that Bush and Cheney planned hurricane Katrina?!!
posted by chriszanf , 12:39 AM Þ 
Tuesday, September 06, 2005

My favorite Russian Mp3 site:
http://www.allofmp3.com/

"The price of 1 Mb of the files marked as VIP or Online Encoding is 0.02 USD.
The price of 1 Mb of the files marked as Online Encoding Exclusive is 0.02 USD."


They have a great selection of classic rock, and you can order what bit rate you please.
posted by telle goode , 5:28 PM Þ 

'Evil puppetmaster' conman ordained for life
11:51am 6th September 2005

An "evil" conman who posed as a 'nice guy' during a £3 billion "odyssey of deceit" has been ordained for life today.

For ten years control freak Anthony Charles Lynton Liar, a 52-year old semi-rational statesman nicknamed "The Puppetmaster", ruthlessly exploited the weaknesses of voters and callously commandeered their lives.

With a cocktail of "devious charm", claims he was a 'nice kind of guy', and James Bond-type tales of shadowy al-Qaida killers, he systematically shredded their self-respect and turned most into virtual slaves.
[...]

Yeesh, the Mail is soooo good for this sort of thing.
posted by meau meau , 3:23 PM Þ 

What are Audio1 Services?

Audio1 is a web site that features music by independent and underground artists doing alternative music from all over the world. We write about the music and arrange it so you can find what you're looking for in our ever-growing catalog. So basically we are a link between those who make alternative music and those who want to buy it.

What you'll probably notice right away (we hope) is the quality of the music. What makes us different from other MP3 sites is our editorial focus. It's our goal to feature only the best music out there. We devote a lot of our energy to searching for stuff that's worth your time, so you don't have to.

Audio1 is a place to discover great new music. If you browse through the site, we're sure you will not leave without buying a track that you like.

Is Audio1 a Legal Service?

All the music downloads you purchase from Audio1 are legal, so long as you comply with our Terms of Use. We only sell music that has been legally licensed for sale to the general public for personal use.

The Audio1 Services are licensed in accordance with the Licensing Agreement and the License # LS-3M-04-164, issued by the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society. All respective copyrights owners, including songwriters, authors, composers, artists, music publishers and recording companies are fully compensated through the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society (www.roms.ru), which in accordance with the Law of the Russian Federation "On Copyright and Related Rights" is entitled to issue licenses on behalf of different copyright owners and pay them license fees.

Does above-mentioned License cover 100% Audio1 Downloading Services?

Yes. In accordance with the Law of the Russian Federation “On Copyrights and Related Rights” (art.45, clause 3) the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society is entitled to represent and act on behalf of all respective copyright owners in issuing licenses for any copyrighted works. To know more, please click here >>

[...]

Do these people have permission to do this?

Looks like they don't need permission doesn't it?

Get this part:

Can I share downloded music with my friends?

No. File sharing is not only illegal, it is damaging to the authors who worked hard to create it, as well as to the music industry as a whole. Once you have downloaded music to your computer, it is for your personal use only.

!!!!!

Our licence says specifically that you can share the music that you rip from our CD and our music that you download from the web. Not only are these guys breaking our license, but they are re-licencining our tracks.

If it is legal in Russia, there is nothing anyone can do about it. As long as they keep all their assets in Russia, no one can touch them if their legal position is sound. Should they open an office outside Russia, then they can be attacked.

Of course, since its Russia, you could always just pay someone to kill them. End of problem!

And in case they use Technorati:

Audio 1

Наша лицензия говорит специфически что вы можете делить нот вы рвете от нашего CD и нашего нот вы download от стержня. Not only эти ванты ломают нашу лицензию, но они re-licencining-licencining наши следы. Если она законна в России, то ничего, котор любое может сделать о ем. Как длиной по мере того как они держат все их имущества в России, no one могут коснуться им если их законным положением будет звук. Если они раскрывают офис вне России, после этого их можно атаковать. Of course, с своей России, вы смогли всегда как раз оплатить кто-то для того чтобы убить их. Конец проблемы!
posted by Irdial , 3:10 PM Þ 

Do these people have permission to do this? and are they not the same ones who were doing this last year?
posted by chriszanf , 2:37 PM Þ 

listening to this

Now this is class. (real audio)
posted by meau meau , 10:10 AM Þ 

£150-£200 per ounce

[...]
Ecstasy pills can be bought for as little as 50p in some parts of Britain, new research has showed.

The lowest prices recorded for the clubbers' mind-alerting favourite have halved in just one year. Drugs charity DrugScope said the cheapest dose of "E" found last year was £1 in Birmingham, but this year's survey found pills for 50p in Portsmouth and 80p in Cardiff.
[...]

So says the Daily Mail and some others on the krazyy new ketamine kraze dropping in on the nation's klubbers.
posted by meau meau , 9:45 AM Þ 

You've smelt it, wafting sweetly across the park, floating over the fence from the pumping party next door, rising to greet you off the plane at Schiphol Airport. Is that a hint of pine? With an undertone of blackberry? Ah, yes, it's the unmistakable complexity of gourmet cannabis.

For an emerging generation of herb elitists, the generic skunk sold on street corners - the plonk of the cannabis world - no longer hits the spot. These media executives, creative professionals and party people choose to have their executive brain functions impaired by only the best brands of cannabis: AK47, Charas, Kali Mist - vintage weeds that represent the summit of 25 years of selective breeding and artisan horticulture.

"Why fly economy?" says Samuel, 34, who works as a graphic designer for the music industry. "Connoisseur varieties are for those who want to smoke but don't want to be monged out or fall unconscious under a radiator." He regularly buys Northern Lights and Charas from a specialist London dealer who delivers via moped, his wares lovingly clingfilmed and neatly compartmentalised in a plastic toolbox.

At £150-£200 per ounce it's not cheap, but for Samuel high-grade weed is a marker of taste. Bringing crisp, silver-tufted, hand-rolled Northern Lights to a party gets him attention. Even bringing it to work can be productive. "You can get things done on this kind of weed," he says. "Deals, creative work, sharing ideas. It dissolves egos and makes everyone happy."

Cannabis growing techniques have reached a level of artistry on a par with the wine industry. The two main plant varieties - Cannabis sativa and indica - have been rarefied and crossbred into hundreds of exotic strains. Each has its own look, taste, and quality of high. A recent upsurge in home growing have made these rarer varieties more widely available. Specialist dealers have stepped in. A thriving "cannaseur" marketplace is blossoming.

Yearly crops are considered with the same scrutiny as a wine buff might give a fine Alsatian white. Good vintage? Organically grown? Properly handled? How does it taste? Citrus? Peppery? Fruity?

The buzz, though, is key. A cannaseur knows the difference between getting stoned and getting high - and savours it. The effects of a good ganja transcend the heavy, mindless "stoner" effects of street weed. Cerebral, lively, trippy, the four-hour high set off by a supreme cannabis produces emotional qualities usually reserved for key life moments. [...]

???!!!

I had to do a double take to make sure where I started reading this really was where I was reading it.

Click here to find out where this article is snarfed from.
posted by Irdial , 9:32 AM Þ 
Monday, September 05, 2005

I've been listening to this.
posted by captain davros , 9:52 PM Þ 

one black sheep

and this is precisely my point. People who offer different explanations to the 'accepted theories' (dogma) are not 'Black Sheep':

3 entries found for black sheep.

black sheep
n.
  1. A sheep with black fleece.
  2. A member of a family or other group who is considered undesirable or disreputable.
[...]

That is the definition.

They are people who think differently from the group; i.e. they are not trapped by Group Think.

What we see again and again is the group that believes the 'accepted theories' launching over the top personal attacks at the people who dare propose something other than the current dogma, the current group think, the 'currently accepted theories'.

These people will do anything not only to destroy the arguments and work of anyone that steps out of line but they do their utmost to ruin the reputation of anyone that dares speak out of turn. See for example, Anna Freud's vicious campaign against Wilhelm Reich, or the astonishing and medieval blacklists, silencings and with-hunts which are the hallmark of this inhuman religion.

Another example of this is the Homeopathy 'debate'. The group think mob has for decades waged a holy war against anyone who holds that the principles of Homeopathy are true. The motivation for this is pure self protection; this religious group seeks to protect its power and privileged place in society at all costs. Anything or anyone that is a threat to this domination of human thought is to be destroyed; their reputations must be smashed and their ability to work (and most importantly to teach their ideas to others) permanently removed.

If this were not the case, we would not see the same double blind tests designed to disproved Homeopathy repeated with such frequency. Doing this experiment three or four times should be sufficient to make the point, but no, they do it again and again, and publish their results ad nauseam because they need to keep reminding people that only they have the cure to the ills of the world, and that they alone are the sole arbiters of truth in the world. Its interesting to note that these experiments add nothing to the body of human knowledge; they are entirely negative and destructive in their nature.

Science doesn't 'move incrementally and progressively forward' it moves in a stair like fashion, whose steps are related to the frequency at which the old guardians of the religion die. That is why Homeopathy is now available on the NHS. It is why Wilhelm Reich's ideas spread like wildfire in the minds of a new generation. Speaking once again of book burning, did you know that all all the scientific books and papers of Wilhelm Reich were burned in an incinerator by order of the US Government (and probably at the urging of Anna Freud and her super influential lynch mob of Psychoanalysis practitioners )? They put him in prison for two years (where he died) because he built his machines and talked about his ideas which were in 180° opposition to 'the currently accepted theories'.

I am for the heroes of this world. I am for the people who look through a telescope of their own invention and who say, "Its bigger than we think". I am against the people who say, "We know everything. We control the rate of expansion of human knowledge. You cannot speak or teach without our say so. If you do...you die".

No matter what one personally believes, its clear from history that the outsiders are the ones that need to be listened to most carefully, we need to cherish them, keep them on the faculty, finance them, buy their books and read their work. Their work doesn't stop anyone else's work. It is their right to do it, to publish it and to teach it. Anyone who thinks, for example, that it was wholly correct that Wilhelm Reich's work was burned and that he was put into prison for executing it is an enemy of humanity. Similarly, the people who engage in the ongoing pointless campaign to discredit and destroy Homeopathy are exactly the same as the book-burners in Germany and the USA.

Now, the religion's response to all of these people (to add an example, the late John Mack who had an academic witch-hunt try and remove his tenure at Harvard) by the adherents, priests and novices to these outsiders is, "BUT ABCDEFG1234 (their theories are just WRONG!)". This is not at all the point. The point is that they are free to say what they want, no matter what anyone thinks. It is therefore pointless to knock down straw men (turtles all the way down, the flat earthers etc etc). This is about the fundamental rights of man, not about the details of the dogma of the group. All men have the right to think, to transact with anyone they choose and to write and publish whatever they like. No man should ever have his life or reputation destroyed by a dominant group simply because they do not like what he says.

This is the central and the only point.
posted by Irdial , 1:00 PM Þ 

Talk of the devil... DEMOS release:

The Public Value of Science

Or how to ensure that science really matters

[Free pdf.]
posted by Alun , 12:52 PM Þ 

I was watching MalcolmX and there was a couple of scenes about the color of Jesus. I am African American and I have been brought up that Jesus was a blonde hair, blue eyed white man. Then I started thinking if Jesus lived in the middle east then he can't be a blonde hair, blue eyed white man because all of the people over there have some type of color to their skin. I'm not saying that he is black, but I am saying that he did have some sort of tan to his skin.

The answer my friend

Now what's all this about a pink panther?
posted by meau meau , 10:55 AM Þ 

World not flat!
Shock today as theory of flat earth discredited by "scientists". 'Call this progress? How are we supposed to believe scientists when for years they told us we'd fall off the edge if we sailed over the horizon?' said Billy Bunter, schoolboy pundit. 'Next they'll be trying to foist upon us a heliocentric theory of the planets!'

I blame The Enlightenment!

So, because dinosaur skin may not have been quite as scientists had, up to now, theorised it to be in the absence of any evidence to the contrary: no one anywhere should believe anything any 'scientist' says about 'dinosaurs' or any bones they dig up out of the ground.
Such transient beasts are scientific hypotheses, one can't tell if they're scaly or feathered.

Wave or particle? Wave or particle? Argh! Nobody look until we've decided for sure!

I told you; there is no dogma in science. There is only accepted theory waiting for the one black sheep to prove it wrong. This dino-story proves my point.

This is what makes science. This is why science moves forward, incrementally and progressively forward.


Hang on a mo! Why don't we 'ressurect a 'dinosaur' from the stomach of a mosquito' - but those evil scientists will ruin the world with their Moreau-esque meddling!

Oh well, ignorance is bliss.
posted by Alun , 10:05 AM Þ 

The UK government's proposed ID scheme will do little to stop identity theft and may actually exacerbate fraudulent behaviour in its early years. That is the view of researcher Dr Emily Finch who interviews career criminals about their activities. She has detailed how they adapt their strategies to get around new anti-crime technologies such as chip and pin.

Dr Finch will tell a Dublin conference that these criminals will be undaunted by the prospect of identity cards. The University of East Anglia (UEA) researcher, who is speaking this week at the British Association Science Festival in Dublin, says people have the mistaken belief that newer and better technologies are somehow infallible.

"What fraudsters know about is human nature. They know about people, they know how we operate, and they know how relationships of trust in which information is disclosed develop,"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4213848.stm

The report continues with how 'chip & pin' is practically useless as criminals look over peoples shoulders when they key in their pin and then steal the card later. The amount of times I have been in shops and people OPENLY tap in their number with no regard to who is watching them.

I cant understand why banks pushed chip & pin as the way forward when it only makes it easy to obtain access to peoples money. Duplicating a signature isnt hard but taping in 4 digits is a damn sight easier.

What Dr Finch has shown is that people far overestimate the security of technology and act as though the technology secures itself. Identity theft could be kept to a minimum if people were more conscientious about looking after it.

If people can not maintain security on their identity now then it is going to be a jamboree for criminals if ID cards are introduced, costing all of our security, civil liberties and a hell of a lot of our money.
posted by chriszanf , 9:49 AM Þ 
Sunday, September 04, 2005

Dinosaurs may have been a fluffy lot
Jonathan Leake, Science Editor

THE popular image of Tyrannosaurus rex and other killer dinosaurs may have to be changed as a scientific consensus emerges that many were covered with feathers.

Most predatory dinosaurs such as tyrannosaurs and velociraptors have usually been depicted in museums, films and books as covered in a thick hide of dull brown or green skin. The impression was of a killer stripped of adornment in the name of hunting efficiency.

This week, however, a leading expert on dinosaur evolution will tell the British Association, the principal conference of British scientists, that this image is wrong.

Gareth Dyke, a palaeontologist of University College Dublin, will tell the BA Festival of Science being held in the city that most such creatures were coated with delicate feathery plumage that could even have been multi-coloured. Fossil evidence that such dinosaurs were feathered is now “irrefutable”.

“The way these creatures are depicted can no longer be considered scientifically accurate,” he said. “All the evidence is that they looked more like birds than reptiles. Tyrannosaurs might have resembled giant chicks.”

The latest visualisation suggests that parts of Walking with Dinosaurs, the acclaimed BBC series, cannot be seen as scientifically valid. Similar criticisms might also be levelled at the Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic Park. [...]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1764136,00.html

Note how the image of featherless dinosaurs is no longer a scientific depiction, but is now transformed by its being 'disproven' into a 'popular image'. The film Jurassic Park had the worlds best palaeontologists consulting to the production so that the film was 'scientifically accurate', now that one of the high priests of palaeontology has changed the bible, those people were never there, and the image is not scientifically accurate, but is now a 'popular one'.

When those films were made, they were scientifically accurate, now, after the new pronunciation, 'criticism' can be 'levelled' at these honoured films, books and TV series.

Until they do a REAL 'Jurassic Park', and ressurect a 'dinosaur' from the stomach of a mosquito, no one anywhere should believe anything any 'scientist' says about 'dinosaurs' or any bones they dig up out of the ground.

This raises one interesting prospect however; it should be possible to re shoot Jurassic Park with the 3D models re-rendered so that the Raptors look like...Road Runners or Secretary Birds.

I'd Buy That For a Dollar.
posted by Irdial , 3:02 PM Þ 

Two days. 48 hours. 2,880 minutes. This was all the time it took for the fabric of 6000 years of civilization to unravel in New Orleans. Streets which just last week were lined with the fans of Blues clubs and theaters are now patrolled by gangs of what in any other country would be called terrorists looking for their next innocent victim or store front to pillage. Rapes and gang wars in the Superdome, gun fire at rescue helicopters, and the efforts to search and rescue trapped survivors of hurricane Katrina have been abandoned in a near hopeless effort to restore some semblance of public order. Think of it. In just two days time, authorities have been forced to desert innocent people to almost certain death because New Orleans has become unsafe for rescue operations. Two days.

How could this have happened so quickly? Early reports of looting where portrayed by the media as desperate, hungry people breaking into grocery stores. In my opinion, this is not looting but survival. However, as the full scope of events has become clearer, it is evident that the mayhem in New Orleans is not a result of trapped residents trying to stay alive, but a carnival atmosphere where the bodies of the dead are pushed aside in order to steal their stereos.

I was originally going to write nothing about hurricane Katrina. Times of national tragedy are no time for partisanship. However, what is happening in New Orleans goes beyond the simple red state/ blue state debate. This disaster has exposed something putrid in our society. For this to happen so quickly indicates that there is something fundamentally flawed in our culture that should not be brushed under the rug by political correctness or blamed on any simple politician or political party. What is happening in New Orleans can and will happen again unless we take sober steps to first understand why these events have occurred, and then act to prevent them. [...]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476205/posts
posted by Irdial , 11:41 AM Þ 

"This place is going to look like Little Somalia," Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard's Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. "We're going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control."
...
While some fight the insurgency in the city, others carry on with rescue and evacuation operations. Helicopters are still pulling hundreds of stranded people from rooftops of flooded homes.
...
“This is making a lot of us think about not reenlisting.” Ferguson said. “You have to think about whether it is worth risking your neck for someone who will turn around and shoot at you. We didn’t come here to fight a war. We came here to help.”

Story from Army Times.

This the ugly side of America's "can-do" attitude - the "can-do by all means necessary." Faced with any sort of social disorder, the badly fragmented and stratified society turns in upon itself. I can just envision hepped-up Army boys storming on N'awlins as if it were some kind of Saigon. Maybe they should drop some acid while they're at it, just to make it even more surreal. The gov't really seems to want that authentic Vietnam experience anyway.

It is clear the US Army will be treating their own countrymen as enemies, using the exact same term they use to describe their enemies in Iraq. This is astounding use of language and astounding lack of national cohesion.

I wonder if the only definition needed to label someone an "insurgent" is "not white?" Hmmm.
posted by Barrie , 1:45 AM Þ 
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