Sunday, 1 November 2009
The Woodentops - Love Train (Roskilde 1987)
Hope it went brilliant Rolo!
Lots of Woodentop's music
HERE
(I was really lucky to catch the sixth gig by The Woodentops & the original bass player James moved in to our house in Peckham. Rolo gave me a copy of their first demo tapes and well, well etc...Wish that I could have been there in London the other night)
Lots of Woodentop's music
HERE
(I was really lucky to catch the sixth gig by The Woodentops & the original bass player James moved in to our house in Peckham. Rolo gave me a copy of their first demo tapes and well, well etc...Wish that I could have been there in London the other night)
Saturday, 31 October 2009
Indian engineer 'builds' new glaciers to stop global warming
Chewang Norphel, 76, has "built" 12 new glaciers already and is racing to create five more before he dies. By then he hopes he will have trained enough new "icemen" to continue his work and save the world's "third icecap" from being transformed into rivers. 
Maverick Minimalist: How Bill Laswell Takes Bass Into the Future—One Dub Ostinato at a Time (2002)
If there is a border that bass will not cross, Bill laswell doesn’t know it. Since his breakout moment on Herbie Hancock’s 1983 mega-hit “Rockit,” the New York visionary has lent his production, remix, and conception skills to nearly 1,000 albums across a dizzying array of labels and categories. More than any other icon in the short history of the electric bass, Laswell has developed a subgenre all his own: bass-heavy musical cross-pollinations on the cutting edge of turntable, ambient, dub, world music, and drum-n-bass innovations.
RePost - Grateful Dead - Dark Star (Halloween 1991)
Here is the Grateful Dead with 'Dark Star>Jam>Drums>Space>Dark Star' followed by a version of the Stone's 'The Last Time' from the 31st of October 1991 at the Oakland - Almeda Coliseum.
More 'Dark Stars' here, there and everywhere.
Strangers Family Band EP
Formed in Orlando, FL in the summer of 2007, Strangers Family Band--a five-piece consisting of members in their early twenties--gained recognition and a following from their intense live shows and unique take on psychedelia. The experience transports the listener from ominous vaudevillian progressions ('Beware The Autumn People') to ukulele strummed pop a'la Sgt. Pepper ('No One Sees Her') to North Indian raga-influenced drone ('Strange Transmission') like an uninterrupted stream of consciousness. A full sensory experience is characteristic of their live performances, which include cascading oil and water projections and the frequent accompaniment of a horn section. The influence of Ashbury-Haight's acid rock, NYC's Factory heyday, and the British psych explosion are evident in their sound. These comparisons do not hold the band down to the limitations of throw-back 'retrodelia' however; instead, the band expounds upon the influence of its predecessors, establishing themselves as new, modern innovators rather than mere revisionists. Comparisons to Syd Barrett, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Doors, and the Beatles have been made as reference points. They have also been compared to The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Black Angels, and The Entrance Band.1.
Girl I've Been Taken 04:23
2.
Wooden Hands 03:55
3.
No One Sees Her 04:28
4.
Strange Transmission 07:03
5.
Tangerine 01:58
6.
Beware The Autumn People 04:43
Get it
HERE
Cannabis row drugs adviser sacked
The UK's chief drugs adviser has been sacked by Home Secretary Alan Johnson, after criticising government policies.Professor David Nutt, head of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, criticised the decision to reclassify cannabis to Class B from C.
He accused ministers of devaluing and distorting evidence and said drugs classification was being politicised.
The home secretary said he had "lost confidence" in his advice and asked him to step down.
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) is the UK's official drugs advisory body.
Following his sacking, Prof Nutt told the BBC he stood by his claim that cannabis should not be a Class B drug, based on its effects.
He described his sacking as a "serious challenge to the value of science in relation to the government".
And he denied that he had been trying to undermine the government's policies on drugs.
"I am disappointed because, to be honest, all I was trying to do was help. I wasn't challenging the government," said the former adviser.
"We can help them. We can give them very good advice, and it would be much more simpler if they took that advice rather than getting tangled up in other sorts of messages which frankly really do confuse the public."
Prof Nutt said he was not prepared to "mislead" the public about the effects of drugs in order to convey a moral "message" on the government's behalf.
Earlier this week Prof Nutt used a lecture at King's College, London, to attack what he called the "artificial" separation of alcohol and tobacco from illegal drugs.
The professor said smoking cannabis created only a "relatively small risk" of psychotic illness.
Phil Willis MP, chairman of the science and technology select committee, said he would write to the home secretary to ask for clarification as to why Prof David Nutt had been sacked "at a time when independent scientific advice to government is essential".
"It is disturbing if an independent scientist should be removed for reporting sound scientific advice," he said.
Public concern over the links between high-strength cannabis, known as skunk, and mental illness led the government to reclassify cannabis to Class B last year.
In the past, Prof Nutt has also claimed that taking ecstasy is no more dangerous than riding a horse.
In a letter, the home secretary wrote: "I cannot have public confusion between scientific advice and policy and have therefore lost confidence in your ability to advise me as chair of the ACMD.
"I would therefore ask you to step down from the Council with immediate effect."
In his reply, Prof Nutt said he was "disappointed" by the sentiments expressed by Mr Johnson.
He added: "Whilst I accept that there is a distinction between scientific advice and government policy there is clearly a degree of overlap.
"If scientists are not allowed to engage in the debate at this interface then you devalue their contribution to policy making and undermine a major source of carefully considered and evidence-based advice."
'Disgraceful' decision
Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said the sacking had been "an inevitable decision" after Prof Nutt's "latest ill-judged contribution to the debate".
But Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said the decision to sack the adviser had been "disgraceful".
"What is the point of having independent scientific advice if as soon as you get some advice that you don't like, you sack the person who has given it to you?" he said.
Mr Huhne said if the government did not want to take expert scientific advice, it might as well have "a committee of tabloid newspaper editors to advise on drugs policy".
Similarly, Claudia Rubin from Release - a national centre of expertise on drugs and drugs law - said the expert should not have been penalised.
Cannabis reclassification
"It's a real shame and a real indictment of the government's refusal to take any proper advice on this subject," she said.
And Prof Colin Blakemore, professor of neuroscience at Oxford University and former chief executive of the Medical Research Council, said the government could not expect experts who serve on its independent committees not to voice their concern if the advice they give is rejected.
"I worry that the dismissal of Prof Nutt will discourage academic and clinical experts from offering their knowledge and time to help the government in the future," he said.
Possession of Class B drugs carries a maximum sentence of five years in jail while possession of Class C drugs carries a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment.
In 2004, then Home Secretary David Blunkett had approved the reclassification of cannabis from Class B - which it had been since 1971 - to Class C.
But in 2008, Jacqui Smith announced that she would reverse the 2004 decision and put cannabis back into category B.
The decision was taken despite official advisers recommending against the change.
Ministers said they wanted to make the move as a precautionary measure.
Friday, 30 October 2009
Internet addresses set for change
The internet regulator has approved plans to allow non-Latin-script web addresses, in a move that is set to transform the online world.The board of Icann voted at its annual meeting in Seoul to allow domain names in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts.
More than half of the 1.6 billion people who use the internet speak languages with non-Latin scripts.
It is being described as the biggest change to the way the internet works since it was created 40 years ago.
"Do I have the right to refuse a search?"
“Do I have the right to refuse this search?” This is a question I heard many times during my law enforcement career. Often my answer was no. But occasionally it would be “yes,” followed by an admonition to have a good day. For the last half of my career, I would have documented each interaction, whether or not it involved an arrest. I would have written down the nature and length of the interaction, the gender, race, and age of the person, and the outcome of the contact (arrest, citation, etc.). I carry the baggage of this history with me as I’ve traveled over the last eight years, mindlessly placing my luggage on the conveyer belt and removing my shoes for TSA inspection.Recently, something changed.
Excellent article written by Deirdre Walker. She retired recently as the Assistant Chief of the Montgomery County, Maryland, Department of Police. She spent 24 years as a police officer.
(Thanx Lochie!)
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