One of the founders of the Pirate Bay is kicking off a venture that aims to help websites generate cash.
Called Flattr, the micropayments system revolves around members paying a fixed monthly fee.
At the end of each month that cash will be divided among participating sites a Flattr member wants to reward.
Members might want to reward a band that made a track they liked, the author of a story they enjoyed or a site that gave useful advice.
Participating sites will sport a Flattr button in the same way that many have clickable icons that let visitors send information to friends or refer something they find interesting to sites such as Digg and Redditt.
"The money you pay each month will be spread evenly among the buttons you click in a month," said Mr Sunde.
"We want to encourage people to share money as well as content," Mr Sunde told the BBC. "It's a test to see if this might be a working method for real micropayments."
The minimum Flattr wants people to pay each month is 2 euros (£1.73) but members can pay more if they want to.
"That way you have control over your monthly spending on content, and you can rather help many people than just a few," he said.
Many micropayment systems had not proved popular, he said, because they were too cumbersome to use regularly.
Mr Sunde said he hoped it proved popular among the vast number of niche sites run by passionate amateurs that have a small, dedicated audience but which struggle to cover their operating costs.
Initially, Flattr plans to take a 10% cut of any cash paid as an administration fee. But, said Mr Sunde, it hopes to push that percentage lower as people sign up.
"We're not really in this for becoming rich," he said. "We're doing it to change things and making people get money they never got before."
"I know that people are nice enough," he said. "People love things and they want to pay."
Flattr is currently in a closed trial but hopes to be ready to launch by the end of March 2010. It is seeking partners looking to generate some cash from their content.
Mr Sunde said the idea for Flattr came to him about five years ago but could not pursue it because of "other things that took massive amounts of time".
"I wanted to find an one-click way to pay for content," he said. "I wanted it to be based on the idea that different people have different financial situations," he told the BBC. "So doing it in a flat rate manner was the only way."
The "other things" included The Pirate Bay website that pointed people towards copyrighted content such as music tracks and videos. Mr Sunde and three other administrators of the site were pursued in Sweden's courts by film and video game makers.
In April 2009, the four were found guilty of aiding copyright theft and were sentenced to one year in prison and fined 2.7m euros (£2.35m). Final appeals from both sides of the case are due to be heard in early 2010.
The Triffids were a 1980s Australian folk-pop band whose frontman, David McComb, died in 1999. On April 5, Domino will release Come Ride With Me... Wide Open Road: The Best of the Triffids, a career-spanning eight-disc box set, and a single-disc best-of called Wide Open Road: The Best of the Triffids. Also, the surviving members of the band will reunite and team up with some guests to pay McComb tribute at a few European shows in April.
BBC Persian Television is one of the channels being jammed by Iran
Three major international broadcasters have strongly condemned Iran for its "deliberate electronic interference" in their broadcasts.
The BBC, Deutsche Welle and Voice of America said the jamming began on Thursday as Iran marked the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.
They said Iran was broadcasting freely around the world while denying its own people programmes coming from outside.
Earlier, the US accused Iran of using a "near-total information blockade".
A state department spokesman said there were strong indications that the telephone network had been taken down, SMS messages blocked, and internet communication "throttled".
"Iran has attempted a near total information blockade," PJ Crowley said.
We will not stop broadcasting accurate and impartial news and current affairs into Iran
Joint statement by the BBC, Deutsche Welle and Voice of America
"It is clear that the Iranian government fears its own people."
White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs meanwhile said that the web giant, Google, and other internet service providers had been "unplugged" in Iran.
Reporters Without Borders says the blocking of Google's Gmail e-mail system takes the drive to control cyber-space to a new stage.
But the organisation claims that most Iranian internet users know how to sidestep censorship and access blocked websites.
Correspondents say a number of governments - notably China and Burma, as well as Iran - make strenuous efforts to block modern internet communications among their opponents. 'Accurate and impartial'
The BBC, Deutsche Welle and Voice of America said the Iranian authorities' jamming was affecting services on the Hotbird satellite, which covers audiences across Europe and the Middle East.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a rally Iran was now a "nuclear state"
These include BBC Persian Television, the Voice of America Television Channel in Persian and Radio Farda; and Deutsche Welle's Television and Radio services. BBC World News - the English-language channel - was also jammed.
"We condemn any jamming of these channels. It contravenes international agreements and is interfering with the free and open flow of international transmissions that are protected by international treaties," the broadcasters said in a joint statement.
"The Iranian authorities are using the same satellite services to broadcast freely around the world including broadcasts in English and Arabic; at the same time they are denying their own people programmes coming from the same satellites from the rest of the world," they added.
Footage said to show a policeman beating a protester
On Thursday, a day-long security clampdown in the Iranian capital Tehran succeeded in preventing large-scale opposition protests as the nation commemorated the Islamic Revolution.
The opposition turnout was dwarfed by huge crowds at the state-run celebrations in the centre of Tehran.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the rally, saying Iran was now a "nuclear state" and had produced its first stock of 20% enriched uranium.
But the White House said the assertion was based more on politics than science.
With much buzz surrounding Gil Scott-Heron'snew album, here's a half hour bootleg featuring four kicking tracks from a 1986 live show at the Glastonbury Festival, originally broadcast on the BBC. Here we capture GSH somewhere in the middle of his 12 year hiatus between "Moving Target" and "Spirits", but he's in fine voice and spirit.
Keyboardist Kim Jordan switches between synth and piano, and she contributes some particularly fine piano solos - she was a member of Gil's touring band for 12 years, also appearing on the live "Minister of Information" album and "Spirits", both in 1994.
Also appearing on those albums was the Turrentine-ish saxophonist Ron Holloway, who also played on"Moving Target" from which both "Blue Collar"and "Washington DC" appear live here. He went on to record some albums for Milestone in the 90s, including 1998's "Groove Update"which features GSH on new versions of "Three Miles Down"and "We Almost Lost Detroit". That album also featured drummer Rodney Youngs from here.
Joe Phillips' guitar adds a blues sensibility to the proceedings, occasionally rocking things out a little too much for me, but holding back (or held back) enough to not ruin things. Bassist Robbie Gordonplayed with GSH from 1978 until 1994. He released a solo album called "Still Growing" in 1996, which included an unusual straight-ahead acid jazz version of Gil's classic song "B-Movie".
Best anecdote about this gig comes from the blog Look on the Nice Side, and I quote :
"I once had a pee on a fence next to him at Glastonbury festival, right after he’d just come off stage. And when I asked him if he didn’t have a hospitality area backstage and his own posh toilets, he shrugged and sad, “Yeah man, but I like to pee with the people”.
My tuppence worth - is that it is SO good to see Gil Scott-Heron back on top of things (musically and I hope personally!)
I will never forget seeing him at Womadelaide in 1993 (I think) when his lateness coming on stage was really pissing off the mostly ignorant crowd, causing Andy Glitre (as the MC) to ask for calm saying that this is "Gil Scott-Heron, that we are talking about!" and as we all know the man is truly an original!
PS:
From a comment by Jamie just left over at 'Never Enough Rhodes':
"I was at this gig as a young, wide-eyed first-time Glastonbury festival-goer. I was 16 years old, I'd just left school two days previously and had just had the best weekend of my life up to that point. What this tape omits is that 'Johannesburg' was aborted initially due to the lack of crowd response. Gil had asked the crowd to sing along with the chorus and he'd explained, patiently, that if we didn't sing up he wasn't going to do it. Cue the first 'What's the word?' bit and a fairly lacklustre response from the crowd. Gil cut the band and gently mocked our poor singing. I remember him saying something along the lines of 'OK, I know you were probably too busy pulling on a joint and missed it but this time you've gotta sing up'. The next chant of 'JOHANNESBURG!' you can hear on the recording...."
Italian photographer Pietro Masturzo's World Press Photo of the Year 2009, shows women shouting on a rooftop in protest at the presidential election results in Tehran on June 24, 2009.(Pietro Masturzo/Associated Press)
Celeste Headlee sits down for an after-air conversation about the first mass-market rap single, "Rapper's Delight," which was released by The Sugarhill Gang 30 years ago this week. She's joined by hip hop musician Paul Miller (better known as DJ Spooky) and Keith Shocklee, who produced Public Enemy with The Bomb Squad. (Thanx Stan!)
Firstly, I must apologize for the lateness of this post, but I assure you, I have a LEGIT excuse. The Swine Flu floating amidst the airwaves of general Somerset West/Stellenbosch surroundings made it hard, nay, impossible for me to leave the house or do anything of value these last few weeks.
But before this whole flu pandemic, there was a time of peace; a time of tranquil beauty. A time in which close friends, all brothers and sisters in arms, left their homes and journeyed to Klein Libertas Theatre in Stellenbosch to see a… well… I’m not quite sure what you’d call them. And therein lays their appeal.
Die Antwoord sprung out of nowhere. They really did. Okay, so there was Max Normal and then Max Normal TV, but none of that really came close to the intensity and general vibe that Die Antwoord has so successfully captured.
It seems as if Die Antwoord have found a niche in the South African market; a gap somewhere between black, white and coloured people, in which to slip their hilarious skits, filthy Afrikinglish rap lyrics and super smooth attitude. The public are eating it up. I still maintain that another reason they are gaining momentum at such a rate is the fact that their album is available for free download and viral distribution, greatly increasing their coverage. Have you noticed the recent upsurge in aggressive Afrikaans wannabe-gangsters screaming ‘FOK JOU’ out their car windows? Die Antwoord has nothing to do with that…
Upon arrival at Klein Libertas I made my way straight to the bar and then into the building where the gig was to be held. One of the things I love so much about Die Antwoord is the effort they go through in stage-design and lighting. There had to be at least five strobe lights mounted at strategic locations on the walls and stage (if not more), smoke machines, and those SMART light things that like… change colour and shit bru; effectively making the venue an epileptic’s nightmare.
I walked into the venue to the sonic-genius of DJ Solarize, possibly one of the most interesting people I’ve ever not met in my life.
DJ Solarize (Leon Botha) was born with Progeria (rapid aging syndrome) but don’t let that alter your view on him. This guy ROCKS the decks like a jedi-master. Not only that, but upon looking into Solarize’s other projects, you will notice that he is all kinds of genius. No shit. Check his art out on Facebook – Leon ‘Solarize’ Botha I hope to see more of Solarize in the future.
Before long, and strategically placed at a point in the night where people are at a respectable level of drunkness (there is such a thing), Die Antwoord decided to make their appearance on stage, to the (adoring?) screams of about 200 Stellenboschians (official collective noun from now on).
Waddy Jones (now known solely as ‘Ninja’) and Yo Yo Yo Yo-landi Visser walked on stage, evidently in full character, ready to rock. Ninja took the stage with his back facing the audience and started with something along the lines of:
“I am black. I am white. I am coloured. I am English. I am Afrikaans. I am Xhosa. All FUCKED into one person.” Ninja
Despite the tongue-in-cheek-ness of it (only reinforced by Yo-landi’s cheeky: “whatever…” in reply) it was still pretty epic; not only that, but it also pretty much sums up their entire act.
Which brings me to my next point: this is not a band; so much as it is a performance. And I, for one, love it. It’s hard not to love it, or at least appreciate it. The characters these guys have all conjured up for themselves are so believable and genuine; whether or not they’re 100% ‘the truth’? Perhaps we’ll never know.
For example, Ninja, is just laaik, THE most hardcore, zef, gangsta-rapper this side of the equator, but every now and then (not often, mind you, these guys are GOOD at what they do) you can see him break character very briefly.
One such moment was half-way through their set when the band invited some crazy peeps onto stage for the most-zef-dressed competition; I’m not too sure how it happened, but a large topless guy decided, this would now be the perfect time to behave like a dick. So he hopped up on stage to start causing problems with anyone within reaching distance and eventually, inevitably, people got pissed-off; Ninja being one of them. Now there was the problem that there was a fat, drunken dude on stage, and the only feasible way of getting him off was to push him, which would also lead to possible future court cases. So the band was stuck with the mission of trying to get him off safely (obviously the guy wanted to stage dive… would it be any other way?)…
Needless to say he ended up stage-diving anyway, during which you could see a brief moment of worry in Waddy Jones’ and Yo-Landi Visser’s eyes. The crowd parted like a monumental divorce and he landed flat on the floor, stomach-first. No damage done.
I would just like to extend a big ‘FUCK YOU’ to that guy. You were inches away from landing on me. If you can’t behave like a human you don’t deserve to be one. Okay: rant-over.
All-in-all, the gig was pretty-much flawless. The sound and lighting was superb, the performance from the band members individually and as a group was amazing (guests included the pirate-like swagger of Afrikaanse romantiese rap superstar uit die rowwe gange van N1 City, Jack Parow, and new-comer, Isaac Mutant, probably one of the best flow-rappers there on the night).
Once Die Antwoord had left the stage to the grief of their dedicated Stellenbosch fanbase, the stage was once again populated by two guys wearing matching Steri-Stumpie T-shirts. I, for one, thought this was hilarious. They were the ‘Wedding DJs’ and I’m sure they were very good, but alas, I decided to revisit the bar, in hopes of re-lubricating my mouth after all the screaming during Die Antwoord.
Never a dull moment whilst at a ‘Die Antwoord’ gig, and I went home feeling satisfied, with the new ambition of learning Afrikaans better, in hopes of actually being able to sing along to their anthem-like choruses next time.
Though there have been many posthumous releases from Jimi Hendrix's archives since his tragic death, the recently-announced 'Valleys of Neptune' isn't meant to be a "lost" album. Rather, it's a look at the creative period in Hendrix's life between the 1968 release of 'Electric Ladyland' and his legendary appearance at Woodstock the following summer.
"In the aftermath of 'Electric Ladyland,' he made a series of recordings with the original Experience," co-producer, author and Experience Hendrix catalog director John McDermott tells Spinner. "When they effectively stopped working as a three-man recording unit, he brought in [bassist] Billy Cox -- this album captures that transition. We don't want to over-dramatize it. This is that missing period of time."
The dozen tracks on 'Valleys of Neptune' reflect a time where Hendrix, finding his way with a new band while fighting contractual problems, was blossoming creatively. Featuring reworked hits like 'Fire' and 'Red House' as well as fully-realized songs that have never officially been released, the album shows that Hendrix was embarking in a new direction, one that would later be heard on 'Band of Gypsys.' While the album is due out on March 9, check out Spinner's exclusive premiere of the title track below to hear what McDermott refers to as a "snapshot" into a part of Jimi's life that's rarely been heard.
Scientists have identified areas of the brain that, when damaged, lead to greater spirituality. The findings hint at the roots of spiritual and religious attitudes, the researchers say.
The study, published in the Feb. 11 issue of the journal Neuron, involves a personality trait called self-transcendence, which is a somewhat vague measure of spiritual feeling, thinking, and behaviors. Self-transcendence "reflects a decreased sense of self and an ability to identify one's self as an integral part of the universe as a whole," the researchers explain.
Before and after surgery, the scientists surveyed patients who had brain tumors removed. The surveys generate self-transcendence scores.
Selective damage to the left and right posterior parietal regions of the brain induced a specific increase in self-transcendence, or ST, the surveys showed.
"Our symptom-lesion mapping study is the first demonstration of a causative link between brain functioning and ST," said Dr. Cosimo Urgesi from the University of Udine in Italy. "Damage to posterior parietal areas induced unusually fast changes of a stable personality dimension related to transcendental self-referential awareness. Thus, dysfunctional parietal neural activity may underpin altered spiritual and religious attitudes and behaviors."
Previous neuroimaging studies had linked activity within a large network in the brain that connects the frontal, parietal, and temporal cortexes with spiritual experiences, "but information on the causative link between such a network and spirituality is lacking," explains lead study author, Urgesi said.
One study, reported in 2008, suggested that the brain's right parietal lobe defines "Me," and people with less active Me-Definers are more likely to lead spiritual lives.
The finding could lead to new strategies for treating some forms of mental illness.
"If a stable personality trait like ST can undergo fast changes as a consequence of brain lesions, it would indicate that at least some personality dimensions may be modified by influencing neural activity in specific areas," said Dr. Salvatore M. Aglioti from Sapienza University of Rome. "Perhaps novel approaches aimed at modulating neural activity might ultimately pave the way to new treatments of personality disorders."
