Wednesday 31 August 2011

We’re failing kids in drug education. How can we fix it?

Zoe Kellner aged 21
Last week at an open and lush Midtown East coffee shop, I met a stranger, a chance Twitter connection. This well-dressed, petite, dark-haired woman somehow recognized me when I was still half a block away, her clasped hands in front of her glimpsing into a wave. “I knew it was you,” she began warmly. Then, over black iced coffee, she told me everything. Alone in the cafe, this unexpected newfound friend, Robin, told me about drugs and her daughter.
Four years ago she lost her only child, Zoe, to drug overdose. Zoe, a vibrant, beautiful 22-year-old college student, born and raised in New York who preferred West side to East. A young woman who fatally overdosed before entering treatment.
Read Zoe’s story, narrated by her mom. It took everything I had not to cry as her brave mother described the most tragic event of her life.
Today, August 31, is Overdose Awareness Day. And as much as we would like to think otherwise, to think it’s some other person or family, substance abuse and addiction hit us all. Similar to a plane accident, the conventional wisdom goes, “well, that won’t happen.” Well, yes, it could. It could happen to any of us. Zoe’s mom learned that:
I want to start the story when my daughter Zoe was in the 9th grade at a wonderful school in New York City. It is a lovely, nurturing, very sweet school, small, like a family, a community. She started in the first grade and went all the way through high school and graduated from there.
But in the 9th grade something happened that I can’t help thinking back to now.
One of Zoe’s classmates was very suddenly removed from school and sent out west to rehab. The next day, the school called a parent breakfast, because the kids were buzzing about what happened, and the parents didn’t really understand.
As I sat at this breakfast, and they explained what had happened to this young man, who was a good friend of Zoe’s, I thought to myself, “What am I doing here? This has nothing to do with me, because it’s so not Zoe.”
Fast forward. This young boy – now a young man — lives out in California, has a band, owns part of a restaurant, is smart and handsome and successful and thriving. Zoe is gone.
As parents, we don’t want to think our kids could get off track. In a million years, I never thought that I would be the parent who would lose a child to drugs. I never, ever, ever thought that could happen...
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Cassie Rodenberg @'Scientific American'

Mr Mange Goes Over

Stigmatizing Overdoses Won’t Make Them Go Away

Youth RISE
Aust Drug Foundation

Overdose prevention

Rocker's Wife Warns About Drug Overdoses

I can't help but think back 40 years ago; to the time I got up close and personal with overdose. The Sunset Strip scene of 1966, 1967's "Summer of Love" and the Monterey Pop Festival were my rock 'n' roll training grounds. I was working in the A & R department of Liberty Records, and by 1968 I had moved in with and was soon married to rock icon John Densmore of the Doors.
A most fabulous lifestyle; all fun and no consequences. I often look back and wonder what the world would be like if we knew then what we know now.
I remember an intimate birthday dinner party for Jim Morrison before he went to Paris. We all laughed when another Doors wife and I rolled up the birthday present we had found for Jim - a Courvoisier cognac bottle decanter on wheels made to look like an antique war cannon. Today I might choose something different.
Even then there were whisperings about some of our favorite musicians; friends being "real" junkies - Tim Hardin, James Taylor? It was hard to believe. Then came the news - both Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin were dead.
But the real shock came when my own mother died at 47 of an overdose. Still I saw it as a fluke - expected, after all my mother had a long history of problems.
Then Jim. Jim Morrison! Even our own little rock circle didn't seem to know an overdose killed Jim. Today I have no doubt that it did - and that his life could have been saved.
Suddenly hearing about someone you knew from the music scene dying from overdose became commonplace. "Remember so-and-so, the drummer from so-and so?"  "Yeah why?"  "He OD'd." "Far out."
Only it wasn't really so far out, it was just sad. I developed a drug habit right along with my second husband, Three Dog Night singer Chuck Negron. We took ODs in stride, happy to survive, part of the price, part of the game.
Who knew we would survive long enough to look back in sadness on the wasted lives and unsung songs, the unwritten poetry, the unpainted art.
My own life was saved twice by Narcan (naloxone), administered by the private paramedic some of us big shots kept on call. In 1984, my own baby sister died of a drug overdose. 1985 would find me checking into rehab at Cedars hospital, never to shoot heroin again.
As time marched on I would see my own son on life support, another overdose! OK today, though, and in recovery, thanks to medical intervention. But not so lucky were all the rocker parents who did lose their children. Oscar Scaggs, Jessica Rebennack, Andre Young Jr - so many kids of music legends lost.  All lives that could have been saved, like mine, if we had known how to prevent a drug overdose from becoming fatal.
Aug. 31 is International Overdose Awareness Day. Today we know that all life matters and things can change. Now that I am a cleverly preserved rock dowager, relying on my stories and memories for thrills, I've painfully watched a younger generation of rockers die of overdoses. Their numbers are legion, the sadness intolerable - they would have practiced their art for another 40 years like my lucky living peers have. Alive today, long gray hair, our leather pants bursting a little bit at the bum. We are still full of stories and music, all the promise that rocked life in the '60s. I want that young life and music to continue.
On Aug. 31 I will be taking my hippie sensibilities out of mothballs for a street protest in Hollywood to raise awareness that overdose is preventable, a medical emergency to be treated with urgency, dignity and without fear of arrest. If Jim Morrison were alive today he would have at least written about a poem about it and maybe joined me - gray hair, bursting leathers pants and all.
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The overdose crisis can be meet with solutions

International Overdose Awareness Day

My son Bradley Nowell, front man for Sublime, fought his heroin addiction for years before succumbing to an overdose on May 25, 1996, a date that will live in the memory of all who loved him. On the eve of International Overdose Awareness Day (31 August) Jason Flom has some good ideas on the subject.
 As in most cases of addiction, be it alcohol, smoking or drugs, the addict fights a life time battle to overcome their addiction. Brad got clean several times but in the end failed to resist the cravings. In cases of accidental overdose it will help if every drug addict, and the people who are close to him, carries naloxone to administer on the spot to overcome the effects. Further if "911 Good Samaritan" laws were in effect in every jurisdiction it would encourage friends to call immediately when early treatment is so critical. Brad overdosed more that once but friends and loved ones were there previously to get him help.
The addict must continually confront and try to overcome his cravings. if he can survive accidental overdoses he can live to fight another day.
Jim Nowell
@'Sublime' 

Bradley Nowell’s Father Pens Letter On Eve Of International Overdose Awareness Day

Moreland Hall

#OD11

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Meghan Ralston: An Open Letter to CA Governor Jerry Brown on International Overdose Awareness Day

Dear Governor Brown,
No other state in the country endures as many annual deaths from accidental drug overdose as California. In sheer numbers of lives lost, California bears the tragic, and embarrassing, distinction of being "number one." August 31 is International Overdose Awareness Day and I'm hoping this is the day you will commit to leading us out of this needless tragedy.
Like so many of us, some of your friends have battled addiction for many years. I'm certain you're thankful that they're still here to keep fighting, keep trying to get it right. Your loved ones are still alive--you're lucky, and they're lucky. But this year alone, tens of thousands of American families won't share your good fortune. Their luck will run out. If recent national trends are any indication, by the year's end approximately 28,000 people will have died prematurely from a preventable fatal drug overdose. In 16 states, accidental drug overdose is the single leading cause of accidental death, claiming more lives than motor vehicle crashes. The majority of these deaths involve prescription opioid painkillers.
We urgently need your leadership on this issue right here and now. We need to let Californians know that solutions exist. We need to pass AB 472, the "911 Good Samaritan" overdose death prevention bill, and start a statewide conversation about the myriad solutions to the problem.
Tackling the problem of accidental fatal drug overdose is complicated. There isn't a single magic bullet that will save all lives. Of course we need to expand access to a range of affordable, effective drug treatment programs, including medications like methadone. Of course we need to educate physicians about the responsible prescribing of opioid medications. But these solutions alone won't end the crisis. They can't prevent a college student from dying at a party if his friends panic when they can't wake him up. We need a range of solutions. Fortunately, one of them costs taxpayers nothing and is ready for your signature: Assemblymember Ammiano's AB 472, California's "911 Good Samaritan" bill.
By providing the 911 caller and the overdose victim with limited immunity from arrest for possession of a small amount of drugs or paraphernalia, AB 472 will make it much easier, and far more likely, for a panicking bystander to call for emergency assistance. These are the lowest level drug crimes versus the highest human impulse--the desire to sustain life.
Research repeatedly proves that the main reason people hesitate or fail to call 911 during an overdose is their fear of arrest. New Mexico, Connecticut, Washington and New York have already enacted similar laws that encourage people to do the right thing when someone's life is on the line. These policies prioritize pragmatism over ideology, and the net result is more lives saved and, not incidentally, more people able to pursue recovery.
We can support solutions like expanding access to the generic drug naloxone, the very low cost overdose reversal drug with absolutely no potential for abuse. When administered to someone experiencing an overdose on an opiate drug like OxyContin or heroin, it restores respiration and consciousness. It's been our country's first line of defense in ambulances and emergency rooms for more than 40 years. In the hands of trained medical professionals and laypersons with access to it, naloxone has saved thousands of lives, but could be saving countless more--if people knew it existed, knew to ask their doctors about it, and knew where to find it.
While we all agree that we ought to do everything in our power to prevent our loved ones, especially our youth, from using dangerous drugs, we also know that many will, despite our most concerted efforts. We have to find ways of keeping them alive, even when they use drugs.
Governor, please stand in solidarity with the thousands of Californian families working to solve the problems of addiction and overdose. For many of them, International Overdose Awareness Day is not merely symbolic--it's a day when they unite in common purpose to help save lives. Please sign AB 472 and demonstrate to the country that California's overdose epidemic ends with your leadership.
Meghan Ralston is the Harm Reduction coordinator for the Drug Policy Alliance.
@'AlterNet'


overdosegirl 
Love, respect & gratitude to the Australians, especially Sally Finn--the woman who started Overdose Awareness Day there 11 yrs ago.

Overdose Awareness Day on Twitter

Take Action

More Americans die of accidental drug overdose than from firearms. Tell President Obama to stop letting people die because of bad drug policy.
US Overdose Awareness Day Events 

Can the Music Industry Help Reduce Overdose Deaths?

International Overdose Awareness Day 2011

Overdose Awareness Day has a number of aims:
It hopes to lay bare the stigma associated with drug use.
To include overdoses that are heroin related, but also overdoses from alcohol, pills and other drugs. The inclusion of all drugs is important and more reflective of the reality of overdose, allowing us to speak more broadly about the issues.
  • To provide an opportunity for people to publicly mourn for loved ones, some for the first time, without feeling guilt or shame.
  • To include the greatest number of people in Overdose Awareness Day events, and as such, encourages non-denominational involvement.
  • To give community members information about the issue of overdose.
  • To send a strong message to current and former drug users that they are valued.
  • To stimulate discussion about overdose prevention and drug policy.
  • To provide basic information on the range of support services that exist in the local community.
  • To remind the drug user to be careful.




Remember -
It could be your father, your daughter or your loved one...
It could be you...
or me.

 
In memory of Bauwka
Not the first nor the last but one of the youngest...

RIP

Tuesday 30 August 2011

Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?

DJ Spooky 'Ghost World: A Story in Sound'

Digital Africa is here people – but you knew that.  DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid underlines the point with his newest mixtape Ghost World: A Story In Sound.
As Spooky says:
The “Ghost World” mix is all about the multiple rhythms and languages of Africa, but it makes no attempt to give you everything – it’s from my record collection. That’s why the “story” of the mix is about: polyrhythm, multiplex reality.
He goes in-depth on his blog about digging through his records and offering up rarities we’d certainly never heard of – one example being the “Car Horn Orchestra” of Ghana which has a gathering of many taxi drivers who converge in downtown Accra to make a large symphony of honks from their taxis at the end of the work day or for funerals of drivers.  Expect a mix full of other cool sounds you probably wouldn’t anticipate.
Spooky spent time in Africa as a child, traveling through Kenya, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Egypt, and more recently visited Angola where he got turned on to Kuduro, which you’ll hear in this mix as well.  More than a mix, this is an art project that accompanied Spooky’s installation at the Venice Biennial Africa Pavilion.  Although we can’t offer you the installation, we can give you the mix to listen to + download FREE!
Download & Tracklist
@'okayafrica'

The Eleven Best Quotes From Sinéad O’Connor’s Online Sex Hunt

Rare Early Photographs of Musicians Around the World

Hari Dasu, India. c. 1900?
Photo: James
Egypt
The Colored Idea Band of Sonny Clay arrives in Sydney, 1928 / Sam Hood
The band entered Sydney Harbour playing their newly composed 'Australian Stomp' on deck, with their dancers performing. After good reviews, the Truth newspaper organised for the band to be raided. They were found with Australian women and deported. African American bands were banned from visiting until 1954. The Library has photographs of the Louis Armstrong tour, the first Afro-American entertainer to visit after the ban was lifted, and of the Harlem Blackbirds in 1955, the first Afro-American group to visit.

Phone hacking: judge to question Rupert and James Murdoch under oath

Injustice Facts

Intelligent?


Cornell Proves Robots Are Not So Genius, Mostly Just Silly

Ai Weiwei attacks injustices in China in magazine article

Ai Weiwei was held in detention by the Chinese authorities for nearly three months earlier this year. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters
Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist held by the authorities for almost three months earlier this year, has attacked injustice in China in a passionate article fuelled by his own experiences of detention.
He accused officials of "deny[ing] us basic rights" and compared migrant workers to slaves, describing Beijing as "a city of violence" and "a constant nightmare".
But one of the most powerful passages describes how people "become like mad" as they are held in isolation and how detainees "truly believe [captors] can do anything to you".
His remarks, in an article about Beijing published on the website of Newsweek magazine, are certain to anger Chinese security officials. They come days after it emerged that China is reportedly planning to give police legal powers to hold some suspects for up to six months without telling their families. Campaigners say the move would legitimise and potentially increase the number of secret detentions.
Ai's own 81-day detention caused an international outcry. It was the most high-profile case in a sweeping crackdown that saw dozens of activists, dissidents and lawyers held earlier this year.
State media said he was held for economic crimes and released in June "because of his good attitude in confessing" and a chronic illness. His family and supporters believe he was targeted due to his social and political activism.
The 54-year-old artist is not able to give interviews but confirmed that he had written the article. He described it simply as "a piece about the place I live in".
Ai's bail conditions reportedly prevent him from discussing what happened to him in detention, although a source gave Reuters a detailed account of events, which included more than 50 interrogations.
The restrictions are also said to ban him from using social media – although he sent a brief flurry of angry tweets recently about friends who had been enmeshed in his case – but not from writing.
"The worst thing about Beijing is that you can never trust the judicial system," he wrote in the Newsweek article. "It's like a sandstorm … everything is constantly changing, according to somebody else's will, somebody else's power."
He went on: "My ordeal made me understand that on this fabric, there are many hidden spots where they put people without identity … only your family is crying out that you're missing. But you can't get answers from the street communities or officials, or even at the highest levels, the court or the police or the head of the nation. My wife has been writing these kinds of petitions every day [while he was held], making phone calls to the police station every day. Where is my husband?
"You're in total isolation. And you don't know how long you're going to be there, but you truly believe they can do anything to you. There's no way to even question it. You're not protected by anything. Why am I here? Your mind is very uncertain of time. You become like mad. It's very hard for anyone. Even for people who have strong beliefs."
The artist described the capital as two cities. The first was one of power and money, peopled by officials, coal bosses and the heads of big companies who help to keep "the restaurants and karaoke bars and saunas … very rich". The second was a place of desperation, he wrote, calling migrant workers the city's slaves.
Ai, who helped to design the "bird's nest" national stadium for the Olympics – but publicly turned on the games before they began – said none of his art represented the capital.
He added: "The Olympics did not bring joy to the people."
He also warned: "Beijing tells foreigners that they can understand the city, that we have the same sort of buildings …
"Officials who wear a suit and tie like you say we are the same and we can do business. But they deny us basic rights."
Ai described people giving him quiet support when he went out last week, for example patting him on the shoulder, but only in "a secretive way" because they were not willing to speak out.
He said people told him to "either leave, or be patient and watch how they die. I really don't know what I'm going to do."
Tania Branigan @'The Guardian'

Megrahi was framed

Infographic in today's Times, showing destination & amount of British arms sales Jan-June 2011 to Mid East

(Click to enlarge)
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NBN will worsen piracy: leaked cable

Chathexis

Someone who wanted to know how we live might ask how we talk. Madame de Rambouillet talked in bed, stretched out on a mattress, draped in furs, while her visitors remained standing. Blue velvet lined the walls of the room, which became known as “the French Parnassus”: a model for the 17th- and 18th-century salons, where aristocratic women led male philosophes in polite and lively discussion.
Talking, of course, is nothing new. But conversation, in the 17th century, was a novel ideal of speech: not utilitarian instructions or religious catechism, but an exchange of ideas, a free play of wit. Thus the hostesses of the Enlightenment received visitors in a new kind of furniture. In 1667, the Gobelins tapestry-weaving workshop became Louis XIV’s official furniture supplier. Previously, fabric—like Madame de Rambouillet’s velvet—had been confined to walls and clothing. The Gobelins were the first to apply it to chairs, which for many long, uncomfortable centuries had been small and hard. Now they were wide and soft—more like beds. The fauteuil confessional, for instance, had wraparound wings against which the listener might rest her cheek, as the priest had done behind his screen. Listening and talking became even easier in the 1680s, with the introduction of the sofa. Seating for two! For the first time in history, people could sit comfortably together indoors for long stretches—thereby making it easier for them to speak comfortably together for long stretches. Thus was conversation enshrined—en-couched—as a vehicle of Enlightenment, fundamental to the self-improvement of civilization.
Face-to-face exchanges continued in the exchange of letters. As the salon had the sofa, “written conversation”—as one style manual called it—had the desk, another invention of the 17th century. For men, there was the bureau—a big, heavy table for conducting official correspondence. (From bureau comes “bureaucracy.”) For women, there was the secrétaire. Unlike the flat bureau, the light, portable secrétaire featured stacks of shelves and cubbyholes, which were kept locked. Some writing surfaces slid outward, like drawers. Others opened from the top, as if the desk were a jewelry box—or a laptop.
If talking is one thing, and conversation another, then what is chat?
In the early days of the internet, chatting was something that happened between strangers. “Wanna cyber?” millions of people asked, and millions answered: Yes! On AOL—as of 1994, the most popular internet service provider in the US—half the member-created chat rooms were for sex. AOL also launched the first mass IM interface, which was where the real action happened. Each conversation appeared as a flat, white square on your screen—it was like having sex on a tiled floor. But at least it was someone else’s floor. Signing off was like walking out of a public bathroom. Nobody knew where anybody went: answers to “a/s/l?” were likely lies, screen names universally inscrutable. Because AOL permitted five screen names per account, it was possible to use one for strangers, another for friends. Before the introduction of the Buddy List—in 1996, dubbed the “stalker feature” by AOL employees—you could come and go without any of them noticing.
Eventually, AOL’s dominance waned as people signed up for free web-based email and downloaded desktop-based chat clients, like AOL’s own Instant Messenger (1997). In AIM, all that remained of the original AOL  was the AOL Buddy List, which hung in the corner of our screen. (Chat rooms were still out there, but mostly for terrorists and pedophiles.) Chatting now required constant tabbing between applications: browser for email, IM window, browser for search. Like hermit crabs outgrowing their shells, people kept shucking their old screen names for new ones.
Gmail changed all this. We signed up using our real name. So did our friends, and one day those names appeared in a column on the left side of our inbox. This was Gchat, and whenever we signed in, up came the gray, ghostly list of Gchattable names. And what names! Previously, we’d decided which screen names to include on our “Buddy Lists” (poor AOL: it came first and had to name the animals, and it named them in a corporate-Midwestern way that couldn’t help but become comically creepy). Gmail made the choices for us, pulling names from our email contacts. It was like standing outside the door of a party that all your friends had been invited to. Maybe they had already arrived!
Gmail began “in beta” and by invitation only in 2004 and remained technically in beta for the next five years; it continued to feel exclusive long after everyone was using it. (Registration opened to the public in 2007.) Being new, it was also youthful: you could tell when a person signed up for email by the client they used—AOL between 1994 and 1999; Hotmail or Yahoo! between 1999 and 2004; after 2004, only Gmail. When Gmail automatically added Gchat to every user’s inbox in 2006, it was like a conspiracy of the young against the old. We would chat while they thought we were working; they would grow old and die; we would inherit the earth and chat forever...
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Riot sentence 'feeding frenzy' claims anger magistrates

Magistrates have responded angrily to prison governors' accusations they have indulged in a sentencing "feeding frenzy" after the riots in England.
Prison Governors Association president Eoin McLennan Murray said sentences had appealed to a populist mentality.
But Magistrates Association chairman John Thornhill said sentencing had followed guidelines and he was "angry and concerned" by the comments.
Since the riots, the prison population has gone up by more than 1,000.
It reached a record high for the third consecutive week last Friday, standing just 1,500 short of its operational capacity at nearly 87,000.
The most recent Ministry of Justice statistics for court cases relating to the disturbances between 6-9 August estimate that 70% of people were remanded in custody. By comparison in 2010, 10% of those brought before magistrates' courts were remanded in custody.
When it came to sentencing, 46% received a custodial sentence. For equivalent offences convicted and sentenced last year the custody rate was 12.3%, the MoJ figures show.
'Conveyor-belt' justice
Mr McLennan Murray said magistrates hearing the riot cases were ignoring the norms of sentencing and that the media were putting pressure on the judiciary.
He said the magistrates were "choosing at a much greater rate" to use custody rather than bail, and criticised the "conveyor-belt" situation where courts were sitting through the night and weekends to deal with the large number of cases.
"What they have been doing is reflecting the anger and emotion that surrounded it and therefore using custody," Mr McLennan Murray told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Mr McLennan Murray said the seven-fold increase in remanding in custody raised concerns that "this kind of speedy, across-the-board justice probably means that a number of people are dealt with unfairly".
But Mr Thornhill said the riot cases occurred in "special circumstances", and added that there had been an increase in custody remands because of a corresponding rise in arrests.
'Heightened atmosphere' "Yes, there have been more remands in custody than normal, but there have been more offences than normal - 2,000 arrests and more in a very short period of time."
He dismissed claims of influence, saying "the judiciary does not respond to political pressure", and instead looked at the sentencing guidelines and Bail Act and applied them to individual cases.
"That is what has been happening even in this heightened atmosphere," he said.
The Courts and Tribunals Service says legal advisers in court have been advising magistrates to "consider whether their powers of punishment are sufficient in dealing with some cases arising from the recent disorder". Magistrates are able to refer cases to crown courts which have tougher sentencing powers.
Sentencing guidelines
Maximum sentences are fixed by Parliament and there are discounts for early guilty pleas. The Sentencing Council drafts guidelines to promote consistency but judges and magistrates can depart from them when the interests of justice require it. The Court of Appeal also hands down guidance in appeal cases.
Prisons Minister Crispin Blunt has said he believes harsher terms for rioters are justified under case law. But some MPs and justice campaigners have said some of the sentences handed down have been too harsh.
In one case, magistrates in Manchester jailed mother-of-two Ursula Nevin, 24, for five months for accepting looted shirts. A Manchester Crown Court judge later freed Nevin and ordered her to do 75 hours' unpaid work instead.
@'BBC'

3RRR Byte Into It - 24 August 2011

Dr Suelette Dreyfus talks about digital whistle-blowing, Julian Assange, and the Melbourne Writers Festival. A performance & interview with John Jacobs from the Handmade Music Festival. Presented by Georgia Webster, and Ben Finney.
Download

Monday 29 August 2011

American Theocracy Revisited

19 years old iPhone hacker Nicholas Allegra (comex) joins Apple

Famed Scientist Richard Dawkins Destroys Rick Perry on Evolution

Jamie xx Essential Mix (27/08/11)

  
Broadcast on BBC Radio 1, 27th August 2011.
Tracklist:
Orbital - Belfast
Phanes - Lucky Woman
Ifan Dafydd - No Good
Harvey Mandel - Christo Redentor
Koreless - Lost in Tokyo
Floating Points - Sais
Wiley - Colder (Instrumental)
Fantastic Mr. Fox - Untitled
Pärson Sound - Untitled
DJ Deeon - Fine Hoes
Luke Vibert - Analord
New Look - Janet
John Tejada - Unstable Condition
Univac - Untitled (Track 1)
Aardvarck - Nosestep (Original Mix)
Jean Jacques Smoothie - 2 People
Instra:mental - Pyramid
Grimm Limbo - Fortune Favours the Brave
R A G - Rage (Spaventi &Aroy Raw Mix)
Ronnie Dyson - All Over Your Face
Jamie xx - Far Nearer (Bootleg)
Axel Boman - Purple Drank
Loosse - About You (feat. Yolanda)
Anette Party - Moreno (feat. Anita Coke)
Gino Soccio - Dancer
Mr Beatnick - Synthetes
Funke, Sacha vs Nina Kraviz - Moses (Stimming Remix)
Jamie xx &Gil Scott Heron - I'll Take Care of U (Special DJ Version)
Genius of Time - Houston We Have a Problem
Austin Eterno/The xx - I Remember Shelter
James Blake - Libra (Edit)
Pangaea - Bear Witness
Holly Miranda - Slow Burn Treason
Peter Horrevorts - Siren
Chuck Roberts - My House (Acappella)
Virgo Four - Do You Know Who You Are?
Morning Factory - Diane's Love
Karen Pollack - You Can't Touch Me (Roc &Kato Vocal Beat Trip Mix)
War - The World Is A Ghetto (Special Disco Mix)
Marshall Jefferson - Mushrooms (Justin Martin Mix)
Radiohead - Bloom (Jamie xx Rework)
Download
ABC Tech & Games 
Wow, Slowed down cat sounds like Vangelis conducting a choir of whales. Top comment by Dontholdback too

Smoking # 109 (LadyLike)

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Krystof from NO JUSTICE NO BART speaks to BART BOARD


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The Rampant Misuse of 'Orwellian'

Nightmare or fantasy? A look at the often used (and often misused) insult.
A recurring theme of this column is that language is a giant organic beast, with thousands of tentacles and no sense of right and wrong. Nowhere is the amorality of language more clear than in the realm of eponyms, those words that turn a name into a new term, often in ways the bearer of the name would despise.
The best example might be “Orwellian”—an adjective that has likely made George Orwell spin in his grave repeatedly, ever since his name started being used as a synonym for the totalitarian doublethink he attacked in 1984. Recent uses of “Orwellian” seem to expand the term even further, as it joins “socialist” as a common weapon used by right wingers against all things Obama. Without a doubt, “Orwellian” is one of our most commonly and controversially used words.
Though Orwell was a prolific writer—you should really check out his essays—it’s the dystopian novels 1984 and Animal Farm that form the popular sense of “Orwellian.” The Oxford English Dictionary started finding examples of its use as early as 1950, one year after 1984 debuted. The OED also collects other meanings for the word, including “an admirer of the works and ideas of Orwell,” but that more flattering use didn’t show up until 1971, and the bulk of recent uses mean doublethink-y, newspeak-esque, and Big Brother-ish. It’s as if we called criminal scum “Batmanistic” because Batman is so effective in beating them senseless.
Though “Orwellian” is almost always a negative term, the targets vary. Often, it’s about language: Legislation like the "Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010” and disturbing euphemisms like "sudden in-custody death syndrome” get the Orwellian label. Writers make reference to “an Orwellian global corporate state” and the GPS-like Facebook feature “Places” is described as being “so Orwellian as to surpass even what Orwell imagined...” Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric about a new weapon is called “exactly the kind of Orwellian doublethink that characterized the Bush administration.” Even the “end” of the Iraq war gets the Orwellian treatment, as Salon’s Hannah Gurman writes that the author "could not have invented a more Orwellian tale than the actual story of the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.”
In particular, the recent “Ground Zero Mosque” hubbub has been the cause of many accusations of Orwellianism, as seen in stories like “MSNBC Masking the Mosque: Muslim 'Scholars' aka Stealth Jihadists, an Orwellian Freak Show” and “Associated (Orwellian) Press.” These stories equate the recent AP stand against saying “Ground Zero mosque” (because the potential mosque/Islamic cultural center would not actually be located at Ground Zero, just near it) with the Nazi-inspired totalitarian villains of Orwell’s books. It doesn’t seem like a stretch to say that is a stretch...
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Mark Peters @'GOOD'

Right Wing Tries New Tactic To Soften Bush’s Katrina Debacle: Say Obama’s Leadership On Irene Was Just For Show

First Federal Reserve Audit Reveals Trillions in Secret Bailouts

♪♫ Public Enemy - Black Is Back

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Twirling in Times Square

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It’s the Economy, Dummkopf!

Why the Impossible Happens More Often

The Noosphere Sculpture by Yves Jeason
I've had to persuade myself to believe in the impossible more often. In the past several decades I've encountered a series of ideas that I was conditioned to think were impossibilities, but which turned out to be good practical ideas. For instance, I had my doubts about the online flea market called eBay when it first came out. Pay money to a stranger selling a car you have not seen? Everything I had been taught about human nature suggested this could not work. Yet today, strangers selling automobiles is the major profit center for the very successful eBay corporation.
I thought the idea of an encyclopedia that anyone could change at any time to be a non-starter, a hopeless romantic idea with no chance of working. It seemed to go against my general understanding of human nature and group interaction. I was so wrong. Today I use Wikipedia at least once a day.
Twenty years ago if I had been paid to convince an audience of reasonable, educated people that in 20 years time we'd have street and satellite maps for the entire world on our personal hand held phone devices -- for free -- and with street views for many cities -- I would not be able to do it. I could not have made an economic case for how this could come about "for free." It was starkly impossible back then.
These supposed impossibilities keep happening with increased frequency. Everyone "knew" that people don't work for free, and if they did, they could not make something useful without a boss. But today entire sections of our economy run on software instruments created by volunteers working without pay or bosses. Everyone knew humans were innately private beings, yet the impossibility of total open round-the-clock sharing still occurred. Everyone knew that humans are basically lazy, and they would rather watch than create, and they would never get off their sofas to create their own TV. It would be impossible that millions of amateurs would produce billions of hours of video, or that anyone would watch any of it. Like Wikipedia, or Linux, YouTube is theoretically impossible. But here this impossibility is real in practice.
This list goes on, old impossibilities appearing as new possibilities daily. But why now? What is happening to disrupt the ancient impossible/possible boundary...?
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Kevin Kelly @'The Technium'

Why the Fukushima disaster is worse than Chernobyl

Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music

Billy Corgan gets in a nasty Internet fight with a guitar pedal engineer and trans advocate

Web drama’s heating up again for Billy Corgan, mere weeks after he announced he’ll be heading up a new professional wrestling organization. This time around, the story involves some nasty back-and-forth between the Smashing Pumpkins frontman and a guitar pedal engineer and transgender activist.
After spending money and collaborating to develop a bass pedal specifically for Corgan (per his request) with no feedback, Devi Ever aired her grievances toward the Smashing Pumpkins frontman on the SP forum site, Netphoria.
From there Billy sent out a series of now-deleted tweets about Ever’s “piece of shit” pedals, her business ethics, and her character. As if the childish fight-picking wasn’t enough, Corgan continually referred to Ever as him/her and he/she for being a transgender woman, and he commented on her appearance—as if calling someone an “ugly pig” is ever a relevant retort.
Outside of his public harassment, Corgan took the feud to Facebook, reportedly sending Ever nasty messages about her post, proving that Corgan doesn’t take well to criticism:
you ugly piece of shit...if i ever run into you, anywhere, at anytime, for as long as i live, i will knock your fucking lights out. don’t ever come near me, and if i hear even one more peep out of you in public about me, or the band, or the members of the band, i am gonna sue you for so much you’ll never be able to afford so much as to even make a fucking guitar cable.
Calling Corgan’s tweet about her stolen pedal idea libelous, Ever suggested that Corgan’s fuming was only going to make matters worse for him and his proposed lawsuit. The short reply from Ever sent Corgan into an even less comprehensible retort, where he wrote:
you fucked up, you know it, so eat shit, shut the fuck up and accept you’ve attacked someone who tried to HELP YOU. but addicts and self-destructive people like you who HATE THEMSELVES must turn their hate out. if this is what you have to do to not kill your unhappy self, well then i’d say it was a wise decision. beyond that, you are fucking lame, dumb, and so so ugly.
With assault threats now thrown into the mix, Ever posted a nearly 20-minute Youtube video explaining her side of the story—paying special attention to transgender rights and the disrespect Corgan had shown for them.

Anna Gross @'A.V. Club'

Once upon a life: George Pelecanos

My father's diner, the Jefferson Coffee Shop, was a simple, 27-seat affair in Washington DC, open for breakfast and lunch – coffee and eggs in the morning, cold cuts and burgers in the afternoon. It was the size of a small train car, with 13 stools covered in orange vinyl, four booths along one wall, a cigarette machine, an open kitchen and a counter illuminated by overhead lamps that my father and I had hung one Saturday. My dad bought the place in 1965, after various jobs in carry-outs and soda fountains, and a stint working for my grandfather at Frank's Carryout, a soul-food eatery and beer garden. The Jefferson, on 19th Street, was my father's pride. I still have a cherished photo of him in his apron, standing over the grill, spatula in hand, smiling. Pete Pelecanos was never happier than when he was running his magazi.
I started working for my dad as a delivery boy when I was 11 years old. At the diner, our all-black crew consisted of a grill woman, one waitress, a sandwich maker and a dish washer. Southern soul and gospel played on the radio all day long, giving me my music education. The lunch counter was an uncrossed line, with mostly white professionals on one side, blacks and Greek-Americans on the other. Intellectually, I was too young to understand the dynamic, but on a gut level I knew where I stood.
As happens for many fathers and sons, we grew apart as I hit my teens. My personal profile was not atypical for the blue-collar neighbourhood where I was raised. I played pick-up basketball, drove a muscle car, listened to funk, rock and soul, attended many concerts, chased girls, drank beer, smoked weed until my head caved in, and underperformed at my school, where half of the kids did not go on to college. I was pulled over by the police many times, got in fights and found all kinds of trouble. When I was 17 I accidentally shot a friend in the face with a .38 Special police handgun that my father had bought on the black market. I was skipping school at the time in my parents' house. When my dad walked through the door that night, he dropped the bags he was carrying as he saw my friend's blood splashed upon the living room walls.
I don't know what my father thought of me then, but it's safe to say that he was not proud. He was a tough, handsome guy, an ex-Marine who had fought in the Pacific, but quiet, with nothing to prove. I was a skinny dude with a shoulder-length, white-boy Afro, sporting flannel shirts, ripped Levi's and suede Pumas. I could not have been what he had hoped for in a son. I know he loved me; I also know that I must have been a tremendous disappointment to him at the time. Inwardly, I wanted to please him, but I was who I was.
In December 1975, after a dance, my dad took a bunch of friends over to the Jefferson to cook them a late-night breakfast. I witnessed his joy as he prepared the food, but as I watched him perspiring through his shirt I thought: he's working too hard. A couple of days later, at the age of 54, he had a heart attack.
My mother sat me down in the kitchen of our split-level home. We had no insurance for our business, no savings, and probably little in the way of health insurance. I was to quit university and take over the running of the diner. Though I hadn't worked there in years, I had to summon what I remembered and make it happen. There wasn't any choice. I was about to become the breadwinner for my family and I was 18 years old. The next day, I took over the business.
It was rough going at first. I had to be up to greet the ice man and the bread man at 5.30am. I had to manage our adult crew, and I was not much more than a kid. I had to learn every aspect of the business and work every station, because we were often short-handed. And I had to learn how to deal with customers.
Every night I took the cash home and gave it to my mother. I was never paid a dime. It wasn't unjust: after paying the food brokers and staff, there was no money left. I began to understand that my father had worked so hard all those years for very little in return. His diner paid the bills, kept the roof over our heads and fed us, but there was nothing extra for him. There would be no extra for me.
It sounds like hardship but actually it was fun. I didn't want to be a student, and this was my way out. I was told by a customer that I should take the place over permanently, as "your people are good at running restaurants". The ethnic slag aside, he was right. It did feel natural. I turned 19 and began to inhabit my role of junior businessman. I enjoyed the company of a downtown secretary who was 13 years my senior. I got used to waking up in darkness after a few hours' sleep. Sometimes, when I had partied with my friends deep into the night, I didn't sleep at all. I took pride in making it into work at the appointed hour.
My favourite time was just before dawn, driving to work on 16th Street in my gold Camaro, the windows down, smoking a Marlboro Menthol, listening to the glorious music coming loud from my Pioneer 8-track deck and speakers: Springsteen's Born to Run, Mayfield's Super Fly, Al Green's Call Me, Bowie's Station to Station. The tunes made movies in my head and jacked up my imagination. I had a crazy idea that I might write stories some day, perhaps make films. But how would an unconnected Greek kid get there? If my plan was naive, it didn't matter. The dream sustained me.
Later that summer, when my father returned to work, I took off with my pal Steve Rados and wandered around the south on various adventures of the mind and flesh. That year – 1976 – was the most thrilling of my life. And, I know now, the most important.
Many fathers and sons never get to reconcile their differences or come to an understanding that fills the gap between love and expectations. I'm forever grateful to have had the opportunity to prove myself to my dad. After I took over the diner, the look in my father's eyes went from disappointment to respect. He never even had to say it – I knew. Not that I had matured by leaps and bounds. Nine years later, months before I got married, I was arrested for assault, fleeing and eluding the police, driving on the sidewalk and other charges after a fight in a parking lot, fuelled by alcohol and adrenaline and culminating in a high-speed chase. So, yeah, it took me a long time to grow up. But to my father, even with all my nonsense, I was a man.
Every so often I take the metro down to Dupont Circle, walk into the old diner and have a seat on one of the orange stools. The current owner has switched the menu to gourmet fare and changed the name, but the space is unchanged. The lights my father and I installed still hang over the counter. I order my food, eat my meal and look towards the grill, where I can see my baba in his apron, spatula in hand, flipping burgers and smiling. I'm not having visions; I'm visiting my dad.
@'The Guardian'

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Sheep Walking?

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Sunday 28 August 2011

Paul D. Miller

Notting Hill carnival curfew plan is 'pie in the sky' warn police on ground

Notting Hill carnival's sound systems must be shut down by 7pm this year. Photograph: Tom Oldham/Rex Features
As record numbers of officers are deployed on Sunday to police the Notting Hill Carnival, there is confusion over how a proposed "curfew" is to be enforced, with rank-and-file officers saying they have not received adequate instruction on how to clear the streets following the event's early closure.
In the wake of the London riots, carnival organisers are to proceed on the condition that the parade of floats will finish by 6.30pm, and the static sound systems will be turned off by 7pm – hours earlier than usual – to minimise the potential for disorder after dark.
However Metropolitan Police Federation vice-chairman John Tully said that hopes of clearing Notting Hill's streets so early were "pie in the sky" and could create potential flashpoints.
"We need direction – we being the rank-and-file officers that I represent – about when we are given an instruction from senior officers to clear the street what they actually mean by that?" he said. "We have no definition. If we go in heavy handed and a few people get cuts and bruises or injured, then my members are up in court on an assault charge. When we are told to clear the streets, we should get the backing of not just our managers but the politicians as well.
"I don't think it's achievable because of the volume of people who are going to be there and who don't want to go home. If they want to carry on, there is the potential for problems."
Tully also voiced wider concerns among colleagues that police officers were increasingly seen as a legitimate target by those who felt abandoned by the state: "Just look at Edmonton [north London] two nights ago when a police van was petrol bombed for no reason. That's an indication of how tense the streets of London are. In the current climate, there is obviously a worry that there could be a potential flashpoint."
He cited a meeting in Tottenham last week, where the first of the UK riots began following the shooting of Mark Duggan, in which there was a sense of fury among locals who had turned up.
"There was an atmosphere of absolute hatred towards the police and the establishment – the government – because they feel abandoned, the cuts in youth services, the cuts right across the board."
Commander Steve Rodhouse, the Met's spokesman for the carnival, said he remained confident that the early closing time of 7pm would prove effective and diminish the potential for trouble: "Carnival ends at 7pm and that is certainly our intention.
'We would hope that, combined with licensed premises closing at least between 7pm and 9pm, will be helpful in terms of encouraging people to leave the area and return it to normal for residents and businesses."
Organisers believe the latest festival will not only be safe but as memorable as the event the year after the 1976 riots at the carnival, which left 100 police injured and saw scores arrested.
Ancil Barclay, Notting Hill Carnival director, said: "People have said to me that the best carnival they can remember was the year after the Notting Hill riots and we are hoping that this will be the same. We need to demonstrate to the world that we can deliver. People are looking forward to making this a successful carnival."
Barclay said that crime at the carnival was decreasing: "Met commanders have said that you're likely to be safer in the carnival than in the West End on a Friday night." He added that local residents were acting as the "eyes and ears" of the community to help identify any potential troublemakers.
So far, more than 2,000 people have been arrested in connection with this month's riots, while another 40 have been detained following pre-emptive raids under Operation Razorback designed to prevent troublemakers attending the carnival.
However, last week Scotland Yard said up to 30,000 people were suspected to have been involved in the arson, looting and violence during the riots.
About 16,000 officers will be on hand in the capital during the duration of the carnival. Up to a million people are expected to attend on both days, the majority on Monday, with the weather forecast predicting sunny intervals.

'Preparing the show brings us all together'

Rosalind Thomas, 39
The costume-maker from Paddington has helped with the carnival outfits. This year the colour scheme is red.
"I've been coming to the pre-carnival preparations since I was a baby. Sometimes there is so much to organise for a mas band that people sleep beside their costumes because of all the things that need to be completed. Preparing the show brings the whole community together; we have all generations from children to grandparents and teenagers – our junior king is 17 and junior queen is 16 – under one roof. It's an important time for us, celebrating all the Caribbean islands, all the community, everyone."
Nolan Simmons, 68
A carnival "king", for the last month he has travelled from south London to Notting Hill to help make his costume, a 20ft devil. He has been king of Elimu Paddington Arts Mas band for 30 years.
"We build the costumes from scratch, it takes time. This year I have my leg, so I'm a little worried. We'll have to see how I get on. I also have to dance with the costume on, but this year is a big carnival – the dry run for the 2012 Olympics. "A lot of things have changed since I've been doing this. We used to have police assigned to the band. They would have a great time – maybe, it was felt, too much of a good time. We also used to be able to go wherever we wanted, but now it is much more regulated."
Angela Badal, 40
The primary school teacher from Peckham works as a volunteer in the headquarters of the carnival organisers. She dedicates the bulk of the school holidays to helping organise the carnival.
"I love carnival. I have been coming since I was two or three. My parents are from Trinidad and I used to make costumes for the fancy dress shows at school and would win every year, then I would wear them at the carnival. Because of what has been going on, I really believe it is going to be very safe because of the number of stewards and police. It is a chance for everybody in London to show that we can come together, enjoy ourselves and be peaceful."
Mark Townsend @'The Guardian'