'McCarthyism'???
Normally I would put links to show the difference between 'communism' & 'fascism' but it is a waste of my mental energy...
'Infromed' ?
WTF?
Melbourne’s own Luke Brown (Leslie Salvador) and Thomas Henderson have come together for a new side project: Negativ Magick. The boys have handed us a mix which is absolute quality as always. Very dark, 80’s – early 90’s dark wave, industrial, goth and new beat. Its not your average mix, this is inky, deep and very mature. This one calls for a bit of audience participation too, we’re not going to post the tracks, just the labels so you can do a bit of digging and discover some new shit for yourselves.
Gordon Brown has said he was sorry for the "appalling" way World War II code breaker Alan Turing was treated for being gay.A petition on the No 10 website had called for a posthumous government apology to the computer pioneer. In 1952 Turing was prosecuted for gross indecency after admitting a sexual relationship with a man. Two years later he killed himself.
The campaign was the idea of computer scientist John Graham-Cumming. He was seeking an apology for the way the mathematician was treated after his conviction. He also wrote to the Queen to ask for Turing to be awarded a posthumous knighthood. The campaign was backed by Ian McEwan, scientist Richard Dawkins and gay-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. The petition posted on the Downing Street website attracted thousands of signatures. Mr Brown said: "While Mr Turing was dealt with under the law of the time and we can't put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him."
National legacy
He said Mr Turing deserved recognition for his contribution to humankind. In the statement he said: "So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan's work I am very proud to say: we're sorry, you deserved so much better."
Organisers of the petition welcomed the move and Mr Turing's three nieces said they were "delighted" and "very glad" to see the injustice recognised. Alan Turing was given experimental chemical castration as a "treatment" and his security privileges were removed, meaning he could not continue work for the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). Alan Turing is most famous for his code-breaking work at Bletchley Park during WWII, helping to create the Bombe that cracked messages enciphered with the German Enigma machines.
However, he also made significant contributions to the emerging fields of artificial intelligence and computing. In 1936 he established the conceptual and philosophical basis for the rise of computers in a seminal paper called On Computable Numbers, while in 1950 he devised a test to measure the intelligence of a machine. Today it is known as the Turing Test. After the war he worked at many institutions including the University of Manchester, where he worked on the Manchester Mark 1, one of the first recognisable modern computers. There is a memorial statue of him in Manchester's Sackville Gardens which was unveiled in 2001.
Sitting at the control desk of Massive Attack's studio, which lurks on an unprepossessing Bristol industrial estate, Robert "3D" del Naja lets out a sigh. No, he says, the album isn't exactly finished yet. Actually, he can't exactly say how finished it is. Six years after Massive Attack last released an album, its followup is "in a kind of state of flux". It's nearly done. They've had a lot of collaborators in. There was Guy Garvey from Elbow, Damon Albarn, Tunde Adebimpe from TV On the Radio and the California singer Hope Sandoval, the last of whom seems to have left what you might most politely describe as a lasting impression. "You ever seen 'Ope Sandoval?" asks the other half of Massive Attack, Grant Marshall, in his soft West Country burr, before exhaling heavily. "Fuckin' 'ell, mate."
The meeting was tense. The six recruits, from immigrant communities in France and Belgium, had decided to confront their al-Qaida handler. Before leaving their homes, they had watched al-Qaida videos on the internet and seen massed battalions of mujahideen training on assault courses, exciting ambushes and inspiring speeches by Osama bin Laden. Now they had spent months in Pakistan's rugged frontier zones and had done nothing more than basic small arms training, some physical exercise and religious instruction. They had been deceived, they complained to the Syrian militant looking after them. The videos had lied. Their handler was unapologetic. The flashy videos were a "trick" that served a dual purpose, he told them, "to intimidate enemies and to attract new recruits – propaganda."
A conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
