Eh???

Since when has drawing with fugn Wolves been 'progressing'???

CIA Man Retracts Claim on Waterboarding

Well, it's official now: John Kiriakou, the former CIA operative who affirmed claims that waterboarding quickly unloosed the tongues of hard-core terrorists, says he didn't know what he was talking about.
Kiriakou, a 15-year veteran of the agency's intelligence analysis and operations directorates, electrified the hand-wringing national debate over torture in December 2007 when he told ABC's Brian Ross and Richard Esposito  in a much ballyhooed, exclusive interview that senior al Qaeda commando Abu Zubaydah cracked after only one application of the face cloth and water.
"From that day on, he answered every question," Kiriakou said. "The threat information he provided disrupted a number of attacks, maybe dozens of attacks."
No matter that Kiriakou wearily said he shared the anguish of millions of Americans, not to mention the rest of the world, over the CIA's application of the medieval confession technique.

  The point was that it worked.  And the pro-torture camp was quick to pick up on Kiriakou's claim.

"It works, is the bottom line," conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh exclaimed on his radio show the day after Kiriakou's ABC interview. "Thirty to 35 seconds, and it works."
A cascade of similar acclamations followed, muffling -- to this day -- the later revelation that Zubaydah had in fact been waterboarded at least 83 times.
Had Kiriakou left out something the first time?
Now comes John Kiriakou, again, with a wholly different story. On the next-to-last page of a new memoir, The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror (written with Michael Ruby), Kiriakou now rather off handedly admits that he basically made it all up.
"What I told Brian Ross in late 2007 was wrong on a couple counts," he writes. "I suggested that Abu Zubaydah had lasted only thirty or thirty-five seconds during his waterboarding before he begged his interrogators to stop; after that, I said he opened up and gave the agency actionable intelligence."
But never mind, he says now.
"I wasn't there when the interrogation took place; instead, I relied on what I'd heard and read inside the agency at the time."

@'FP'

(What they're) just sayin'

adamb303 RT @simorobo: I hope they make a pocket version of the Apple tablet and it allows me to make calls with it. That would be useful! less than 20 seconds ago from web
 Cokebear17 RT @JonProject: Yo Steve Jobs, I'm really happy for ya and Imma let you finish, but Tylenol was the best #tablet of all time! Of all time! less than 20 seconds ago from Echofon
schooligan RT @TheOnion: Frantic Steve Jobs Stays Up All Night Designing Apple Tablet http://onion.com/9eSVOg less than 20 seconds ago from twitterfeed
IMAO_ RT @basilsblog: All I want to know about the new Apple tablet: Will it run Google Wave? less than 20 seconds ago from Seesmic
Payah @Mashable Moses+tablet=new Law, Eve+apple=guilty pleasure, Payah+apple tablet=guilty pleasures made Legal http://mashable.com/apple-tablet less than 20 seconds ago from web

My shoes (in the 60's) had a compass in them...and left animal footprints!

Wilco with Phil Lesh 5/29/99 Calaveras, CA

Wilco (w/ Phil Lesh) - Ripple
(Downloadable SBD @256)

("One of our favourite songs...")

Dirty Three - Authentic Celestial Music (Recovery 1998)

Somewhere I do have a cassette I bought at one of the first Dirty Three gigs (of one of their first sessions) which I don't think has surfaced on the blogosphere...let me rummage...

Coming soon...

This is the best thing ever....

Photos tomorrow!

Nanodrugs rule OK!

The day when patients can “swallow their doctor” has come a step closer with the development of a submicroscopic nanoparticle that acts as an intelligent pill to deliver drugs when and where they are needed in the body.

Each nanoparticle is built to target a specific part of the body and to release their drugs in a controlled manner over a given period of time. They are so small that millions of them could be injected into the bloodstream without harming healthy tissues.

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge have designed the first nanoparticles designed to target the walls of the arteries around the heart. They bind specifically to the proteins that only stick out from the inner lining of the these blood vessels when they are damaged.

Once the nanoparticles take up position in the diseased arteries they are programmed to release small quantities of drugs over several weeks or months to help cardiovascular patients to recover without exposing other parts of the body to much higher doses of potentially toxic drugs.

The development comes 50 years after a prophetic lecture by the brilliant American physicist Richard Feynman entitled “there is plenty of room at the bottom” where he described possible developments in nanoscience that could one day lead patients to “swallow the doctor” in the form of tiny robotic pills that could carry out internal surgery under autonomous control.

Professor Robert Langer of MIT, who in 2008 won the prestigious Millennium Technology Prize for his medical innovations, said that initial tests carried out on laboratory rats suggest that nanoparticles could be used to treat atherosclerosis and other inflammatory cardiovascular diseases.

“This is a very exciting example of nanotechnology and cell targeting in action that I hope will have broad ramifications,” said Professor Langer. The study was published yesterday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Each particle is just 60 nanometres across – 60 billionths of a metre – and consists of three layers. The inner core contains the drug in question bound to a long-chained molecule, or polymer. A middle layer made of fatty material separates this core from the outer coating of a polymer that protects the particle as is travels in the blood stream.

The scientists have called the particles “nanoburrs” because of their resemblance to the hook-covered seeds designed to stick to passing animals. Each nanoburr is armed with protein fragments to recognise and stick to the proteins of the target tissues.

Once the nanoburr has stuck to the cells in question, they slowly release the drug within their core. The scientists said they can time the rate and length of drug-release phase to suit a doctor’s treatment regime.

Omid Farokhzad of Harvard Medical School, who was part of the research team, said that the surgical insertion of devices called stents, which keep blood vessels open, has already been used to release drugs slowly.

“Here we take a big leap forward by developing nanotechnologies that can do the same thing without interventional techniques that commonly involve taking a patient to the cardiac catherisation lab where stents are placed,” Professor Farokhzad said.

“These particles can be administered intravenously and they are targeted and will find their way to the damaged vascular tissue, and from our experience with stents, we know once the drug gets there and released over about many days that it will work,” he said.

“We're in early stages of exploring this technology and we expect at least another two years of research and development before starting any clinical trials.

“This can be used for any disease where vascular damage or vascular permeability is a commonly observed part of the pathology. This includes almost all solid tumours and most inflammatory diseases such as Inflammatory bowel disease,” Professor Farokhzad added.

“It's another example of the huge impact that nanotechnology will have on medicine. You can rationally design therapeutics that are targeted and release their drugs in a pre-programmed way and these may go far beyond our current state-of-the-art approaches in safety and efficacy,” he said.

@'The Independent'

From Manchester with love...

A New Indie Rock+Roll Club & Live venue...
ARRIVES FRI 5th Feb
The Opening Weekend – Friday 5th Feb / Saturday 6th Feb
Friday 5th February – Peter Hook’s The Light
A one-off performance by “Peter Hook’s “The Light”, a Manchester supergroup put together specially for the occasion featuring Mani (Stone Roses), Rowetta (Happy Mondays), Howard Marks and other special guests, performing rare Joy Division and New Order tracks, and a hits retrospective from Hookys previous bands Monaco, Revenge, NewOrder, Joy Division and the first ever debut of his new material with FREEBASS.
Entry: £22.50 (very limited tickets) for gig 7pm – 11.00pm // £8.50 Club
Afterparty (Entry after 11.00pm ONLY)
PLEASE NOTE -TICKETS WILL GO ON SALE AT
http://www.facebook.com/l/dd834;www.FACTORYmanchetser.com
FRIDAY THE 29TH JANUARY
12.00 MIDDAY
Website now fully Live
Saturday 6th February – Stonelove / Haçienda Presents Launch Party
With a very special live act – to be announced
Register at http://www.facebook.com/l/dd834;www.FACTORYmanchester.com for details and tickets.
+ Hacienda presents  with Hooky and Shaun Ryder. The original Salford hell raiser returns to the Factory Building for his tear up the decks. Stonelove  / Hacienda presents a club event allowing Manchester’s clubbing cognoscenti an opportunity to check out the three separate arenas. Original Haçienda indie club Stonelove returns to Manchester to begin its weekly residency downstairs, whilst Room 2 hosts a soundtrack of 70s New York City Funk & 80s Electro Pop. The Boardroom is handed back to the original Rockstars as FAC51 The Haçienda begins its Saturday night residency “Haçienda Presents” at The Factory, taking over the board room with a selection of Mancunian rock legends supervised by Hook.

The Woodentops - then & now!

‘Piracy Isn’t Killing Music’ Radiohead’s Guitarist Says

Last year, Radiohead expressed their growing discomfort with record labels that abuse copyrights for their own benefit, while harassing their fans. In a recent interview, Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien said that he doesn’t believe piracy is killing the music industry, but that the industry will kill itself if it doesn’t adapt to the digital age.

In an attempt to take a stand against the labels, several well known artists including Radiohead formed the Featured Artists Coalition last year, a lobby group that aims to end the extortion-like practices of record labels and allow artists to gain more control over their own work.
Radiohead and others are unhappy with the fact that the labels, represented by lobby groups such as the RIAA and IFPI, are pushing for anti-piracy legislation without consulting the artists they claim to represent. Radiohead, who used BitTorrent to leak one of their songs, went as far as being willing to show up as a witness against the RIAA in court.
In a new MIDEM interview, Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien stands up for file-sharers once again, stating that piracy is not killing the music industry in his view.
O’Brien is no stranger when it comes to piracy. “There’s a very strong part of me that feels that peer-to-peer illegal downloading is just a more sophisticated version of what we did in the 80s, which was home taping,” he said, something the music industry strongly discouraged at the time.
“If they really like it, some of them might buy the records,” he said, adding that if they don’t buy the albums they might buy a concert ticket, t-shirt or other merchandising.
“I have a problem about it when people in the industry say ‘it’s killing the industry’, it’s the thing that’s ripping us apart’,” O’Brien said, adding: “I don’t believe it actually is.”
According to O’Brien the music industry is using analogue business models in a digital age. “You’ve got to license out more music, more Spotifys, more websites selling more music. You’ve got to make it slightly cheaper as well to get music in order to compete with the peer-to-peers.”
Radiohead’s guitarist says he’s surprised that the music industry is still struggling with the digital transition, and urges the labels to “move quicker” and get their content out there at a fair price.

@'Torrent Freak'

UK piracy letter campaign 'nets innocents'

More than 150 people have approached consumer publication Which? Computing claiming to have been wrongly targeted in crackdowns on illegal file-sharing.
ACS:Law has sent thousands of letters to people claiming they have illegally downloaded material and offers them a chance to settle by paying around £500.
Which? says it has been approached by some - including a 78 year-old accused of downloading pornography - who have no knowledge of the alleged offence.
ACS:Law said its methods were accurate.
The London based firm said that it would send more letters soon.
However, since the latest letters were sent two weeks ago, ten new people have come forward saying they have been wrongly accused.
One told Which?: "My 78 year-old father yesterday received a letter from ACS Law demanding £500 for a porn file he is alleged to have downloaded.
"He doesn't even know what file-sharing or BitTorrent is so has certainly not done this himself or given anyone else permission to use his computer to do such a thing."
'Wrongly targeted'
Which? Computing estimates that 50,000 letters have been sent so far and is concerned that too many innocent people are being wrongly accused.
"Innocent consumers are being threatened with legal action for copyright infringements they not only haven't committed, but wouldn't know how to commit," said Matt Bath, technology editor of Which?
Many "will be frightened into paying up rather than facing the stress of a court battle", he added.

It has been said that we have no intention of going to court but we have no fear of it Andrew Crossley Lawyers target 'pirates' for cash Games firms 'catching' non-gamers

He advised people who believe they have been wrongly targeted to "rigorously deny it and, if possible, provide physical evidence of where they were when the infringement took place".
He also advised them to contact Which with the details of their case.
Andrew Crossley, of ACS:Law, said that some cases had been dropped although he declined to give numbers.
He said that he is convinced the method used to detect the IP address used for illegal downloads is foolproof.
"We are happy that the information we get is completely accurate," he said.
He said the letters do not accuse individuals.
"We explain that an infringement has taken place but it may not be the account holder who has done it," he said.
He advised those who believe they have been wrongly accused to seek out the "advice of a technical expert or the citizens' advice bureau".
But he warned that people "shouldn't just think that writing and saying they didn't do it will be sufficient".
Mr Crossley said the majority of illegally shared content was music with only 10% being adult content.
'More letters'
He told BBC News that the law firm had a range of clients that it was representing, including German content firm DigiProtect.
The company is based in Frankfurt and brands its business with the motto "turn piracy into profit".
It has represented a range of rights holders in the past including the German techno band Scooter.
It tracks down alleged pirates by logging the individual Internet Protocol, or IP, address of internet users logged on to file-sharing networks.
It then applies to the High Court to force broadband companies to release the physical contact details of customers matched to those addresses.
ACS:Law is currently under investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Mr Crossley said that the law firm planned to send "lots more letters" this year although conceded that none of the current 10,000 actions had yet come to court.
"It has been said that we have no intention of going to court but we have no fear of it," he said.
Some are already in the process of going to court, he told BBC News, although the majority of the accused settle out of court.
Mr Bath is not convinced.
"These cases have been pending for a long time. I suspect that if they went to court it would be very difficult to proof beyond doubt that a particular individual was responsible for downloading the illegal content," he said.

@'BBC'

Man rescued from Haiti rubble two weeks after quake

A man has been pulled alive from the rubble in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince - two weeks after the earthquake that destroyed the city.

US troops rescued the man from the ruins of a building in the centre of the city, and he was taken to hospital.
He had been trapped under the rubble for 12 days, the US military said, and was severely dehydrated.
The rescue comes 14 days after the 7.0-magnitude quake, which killed as many as 200,000 people.

HAITI'S REMARKABLE SURVIVORS Emmannuel Buso, 21 - rescued after 10 days Marie Carida, 84 - saved after 10 days Mendji Bahina Sanon, 11 - trapped for eight days Lozama Hotteline, 25 - pulled out after seven days Elisabeth Joassaint, 15 days - buried for seven days, half her life Ena Zizi, 69 - rescued after seven days Haiti quake: Survivors' stories

Haiti has been rattled by at least 50 tremors since the original quake.
The survivor, a man in his 30s, was pulled from the ruins covered in dust and wearing only underpants.
"He was buried in the rubble for 12 days. The man had a broken leg and severe dehydration," a statement from the US military said.
Although he had been trapped by an aftershock rather than the initial earthquake, the man is the longest survivor so far under the rubble.
On Saturday, Haiti's government declared the search and rescue phase for survivors over.
It is estimated more than 130 people have been pulled alive by rescue teams in the Haitian capital since the quake.
However, many more have been rescued by ordinary Haitians, often with their bare hands.
Aid call
Earlier, Haitian President Rene Preval made an urgent appeal for more tents to house up to a million people left homeless by the tremor.

More than 130 people have been pulled alive from the ruins in Port-au-Prince

Mr Preval said 200,000 tents were needed before the expected start of the rainy season in May.
His call came as donor nations and organisations met in Montreal, Canada, to assess the aid effort.
Mr Preval, who lost his house in the quake, is planning to move into a tent on the lawn of the destroyed National Palace in the centre of the capital.
The Haitian government wants to relocate some 400,000 people, currently in makeshift camps across the capital, to temporary tent villages outside the city.
But aid workers warned that if the camps were too big they could pose security problems, including robberies, rapes and gang activities.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she "resented" criticism of American assistance to Haiti.
She pinpointed some media outlets which had "either misunderstood or deliberately misconstrued what was a civilian and military response.

@'BBC'

Cop Refusing to Arrest Medical Cannabis Users!

From Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Member Brad Jardis, a 10+ year veteran of the NH police force (and probably the most courageous cop I’ve ever known):

Hello everyone.
As you all know, I have been cleared for duty and will be reporting back shortly. I have been re-reading the NH Constitution carefully so that when I return I am well versed.
I have come to a conclusion in reading the document I am sworn to defend: It is unconstitutional for the state to take action against a sick person who decides to use Marijuana to treat a medical condition.
I will never arrest a person who possesses, uses, grows marijuana to treat a medical condition……. and neither should any other NH LEO who intends follow his or her oath. I won’t even take it from them.
Legal argument in support of my declaration (quite simple):
-/-
1. Short of fellating the entire NH General Court and the Governor, political activists in this state have done everything to present FACTUAL evidence to support allowing sick people to use a natural substance to ease suffering. I personally have begged the General Court to not make me arrest sick people.
2. Chief DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis Young ruled in 1988:
“Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious for the DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of the substance.”
3. Fourteen other states (and DC) allow the sick and dying to use Marijuana as medicine to alleviate suffering.
4. Article 10 of the NH Constitution reads as follows:
Quote
[Art.] 10. [Right of Revolution.] Government being instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security, of the whole community, and not for the private interest or emolument of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.
5. Government prosecuting a sick person for using a scientifically proven safe substance does not “benefit,” or “protect(…),” any community.
6. Government prosecuting a sick person for using a scientifically proven safe substance IS in-fact the emolument of a class of men: pharmaceutical companies. This is proven by evidence of pharmaceutical companies fighting against medical Marijuana laws. You cant grow Oxycontin in your living room, now can you?
7. A sick person continuing to suffer because a state law forbids them to use a scientifically proven safe therapeutic substance IS “absurd.”
8. A sick person continuing to suffer because a state law forbids them to use a scientifically proven safe therapeutic substance IS “slavish.”
9. A sick person continuing to suffer because a state law forbids them to use a scientifically proven safe therapeutic substance IS “destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.”
-/-
Conclusion: I won’t do it. Ever. Take your unconstitutional law and stuff it.
You know who I am, you know where I work, and I am not afraid of any of you. My word, my oath, is to the people: not the tyrants who want them to suffer.
- Bradley

Pull My Daisy

A short 1959 film that typifies the "Beat Generation". Directed by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, Daisy was adapted by Jack Kerouac from the third act of a never-completed stage play entitled Beat Generation. Kerouac also provided improvised narration. It starred Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Larry Rivers, Peter Orlovsky, David Amram, Richard Bellamy, Alice Neel, Sally Gross, Delphine Seyrig and Pablo Frank, Robert Frank's then-infant son. Based on an incident in the life of Neal Cassady and his wife Carolyn, Daisy tells the story of a railway brakeman whose painter wife invites a respectable bishop over for dinner. However, the brakeman's bohemian friends crash the party, with comic results. Originally intended to be called "The Beat Generation" the title "Pull My Daisy" was taken from the poem of the same name written by Kerouac, Ginsberg and Neal Cassady over the 40's and 50's. Part of the original poem was used as a lyric in David Amram's jazz composition that opens the film.

Pull My Daisy: A Bebop Revolution