Ian Dury - Lord Upminster
2 hours ago
Monday, 15 November 2010
"╚◎ש≡ will kiss you on the mouth and then piss on yr feet" and there was me thinking it was the other way round...
Sunday, 14 November 2010
Message:
I welcome the release of fellow Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and extend my appreciation to the military regime in Burma. I extend my full support and solidarity to the movement for democracy in Burma and take this opportunity to appeal to freedom-loving people all over the world to support such non-violent movements.
I pray and hope that the government of the People's Republic of China will release fellow Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo and other prisoners of conscience who have been imprisoned for exercising their freedom of expression.
The Dalai Lama
Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina
While the Bush administration fabricated evidence of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction as a justification for war, the U.S. federal government has been sitting on the evidence of a looming nuclear nightmare in one of the most populated areas on the eastern seaboard. Storage pools of hazardous nuclear waste have converted the Shearon Harris facility in North Carolina into a ticking atomic clock.
One of the most lethal patches of ground in North America is located in the backwoods of North Carolina, where Shearon Harris nuclear plant is housed and owned by Progress Energy. The plant contains the largest radioactive waste storage pools in the country. It is not just a nuclear-power-generating station, but also a repository for highly radioactive spent fuel rods from two other nuclear plants. The spent fuel rods are transported by rail and stored in four densely packed pools filled with circulating cold water to keep the waste from heating. The Department of Homeland Security has marked Shearon Harris as one of the most vulnerable terrorist targets in the nation.
The threat exists, however, without the speculation of terrorist attack. Should the cooling system malfunction, the resulting fire would be virtually unquenchable and could trigger a nuclear meltdown, putting more than two hundred million residents of this rapidly growing section of North Carolina in extreme peril. A recent study by Brookhaven Labs estimates that a pool fire could cause 140,000 cancers, contaminate thousands of square miles of land, and cause over $500 billion in off-site property damage.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has estimated that there is a 1:100 chance of pool fire happening under the best of scenarios. And the dossier on the Shearon Harris plant is far from the best. In 1999 the plant experienced four emergency shutdowns. A few months later, in April 2000, the plant’s safety monitoring system, designed to provide early warning of a serious emergency, failed. And it wasn’t the first time. Indeed, the emergency warning system at Shearon Harris has failed fifteen times since the plant opened in 1987.
In 2002 the NRC put the plant on notice for nine unresolved safety issues detected during a fire prevention inspection by NRC investigators. When the NRC returned to the plant a few months later for reinspection, it determined that the corrective actions were “not acceptable.” Between January and July of 2002, Harris plant managers were forced to manually shut down the reactors four times. The problems continue with chilling regularity. In the spring of 2003 there were four emergency shutdowns of the plant, including three over a four-day period. One of the incidents occurred when the reactor core failed to cool down during a refueling operation while the reactor dome was off of the plant—a potentially catastrophic series of circumstances.
Between 1999 and 2003, there were twelve major problems requiring the shutdown of the plant. According to the NRC, the national average for commercial reactors is one shutdown per eighteen months. Congressman David Price of North Carolina sent the NRC a report by scientists at MIT and Princeton that pinpointed the waste pools as the biggest risk at the plant. “Spent fuel recently discharged from a reactor could heat up relatively rapidly and catch fire,” wrote Bob Alvarez, a former advisor to the Department of Energy and co-author of the report. “The fire could well spread to older fuel. The long-term land contamination consequences of such an event could be significantly worse than Chernobyl.”...
Continue reading
Jeffrey St. Clair @'VoltaireNet'
Saturday, 13 November 2010
What did you expect?
George Bush Book 'Decision Points' Lifted From Advisers' Books
Also love that John Howard's three mentions turn him from the man of steel to a tin soldier!
Uncle Sleazy says:
X-Industrial
Well the writing has been on the wall all along, but after the TG show in Hoxton London a week ago, which was relatively painless, enjoyable, and even began to pay off some of the cost of tickets, Genesis decided to move, first hotels, and then cities, un-announced, making herself unavailable for the remaining tour dates, and leaving the rest of TG and all the promotors and fans in a certain amount of a quandry.
Either we could bow to Gen's seemingly senseless and out-of-the-blue decision and pull the tour completely, and so be jointly responsible for all the money paid out, to get us to London, and round Europe, put us up in in hotels etc, or we could play the remaining shows as best we were able (albeit at a reduced fee since Genesis chose not to be there) to lessen our joint losses....
Fortunately, to our great gratitude, and the relief and appreciation of the fans who showed up (amounting to some 99% of ticket holders - very few were only there to see Gen it seems), what Chris, Cosey and I did as X-TG was greeted with just as much enthusiasm as TG had been in the past.
Apparently the public share our interest in "Chamber Music for the Coming Hard Times", and, despite missing the jumping-up-and-down-encore factor led by our undoubtly-skillful and curious looking, trans-dressing (though not trans-gendered) figure head - everyone said X-TG was just as good, if not better, than the old style TG.
On her website Genesis is keen to point out she only left THAT tour and still considers herself part of TG. For anyone that is interested, her included, I can confirm that TG will continue to complete all existing contracts, sales, ongoing negotiations and the recording/delivery obligations already in place, but it's clear neither Gen nor the rest of TG have the interest, time, energy (or even spare cash) to risk pursuing further live performances together, fraught as they are with the possible problems we all suffer from: concerns about health, unequal treatment or contribution, availability of the appropriate medications for pain, stress or lack of sleep, not to mention our own outside/personal commitments...
Also about the future of TG live, I do not regard it as possible for any changed band or variation of personel to perform live as Throbbing Gristle without all the original four of us on stage. If Chris, Cosey and I play live together again it will be as X-TG to make it clear it is a new entity, despite its Provenance which will draw on our own individual work and interests, just as much as any TG reference, which feel to me at least, tired, though the approach to music composition, remains as unique and exclusive to us, as any band I have ever come across....
I for one bear Genesis no ill will, though it would be nice to recieve some communication explaining what happened, rationally, and accepting that her precipitous actions had consequences for all of us, even though I am still several thousand pounds worse off than when we all agreed to do these dates...Money I can ill-afford to lose at this point...
As luck would have it, the "doors" Genesis opened by flying home, and out of the way unexpectedly, have revealed hitherto unseen paths into the future that are both interesting, exciting, as well as being ones I would probably not have pursued, if I'd just been Harry Pottering around in Bangkok with my HouseBoys...
So I thank you all for that, from the bottom of my heart!
Sathu, Sathu, Sathu....
Nobody knows the future, after all.... All we can do is try to make it as enjoyable, inspiring, helpful, encouraging and illuminating for everyone as possible, in the time that we have left.
In my book that means not only remembering the past and music of 30 years ago, (whether or not it's good enough to satisfy drunken Americans!) BUT NOT REPEATING IT, no matter how easy.
best2all
Nigerian films to undergo censorship in Uganda
A new law which will subject all films entering Uganda to censorship has been suggested by Member of Parliament Sarah Wasike Mwebaza, who has appealed to government to institute a special regulatory body to check and regulate films and the content of movies imported into the country.
"The regulation of the content of especially Nigerian movies will help rid the country of harmful practices like child sacrifices, witch craft, violence and kidnaps among others which negatively influence morals for Ugandans" she argued.
Sarah Wasike Mwebaza believes that there is sufficient evidence showing that Ugandans are copying witchcraft behaviour from Nigerian movies which are now easily accessible around the country.
Wasike who is also a member of the parliamentary committee on Gender, Labor and Social development committee said "The movies currently watched by adults and children have widely contributed to societal moral decay, They have led to increase in prostitution, murder and violence cases."
Wasike urged parents and guardians to always scrutinize movies before availing them to kids to watch. She also called upon parents, teachers to be vigilant with their children against strangers.
The minister of ethics and integrity, James Nsaba Buturo said that a bill on pornography and movies will will soon be tabled in parliament and will deal with Wasike’s concerns.
According to James Nsaba Buturo, obscene movies "will soon be history" in the country if the bill is passed because they will not be allowed in.
The anti-pornography bill seeks to impose heavy fines or a 10-year jail sentence or both on any person found guilty of dealing in pornographic materials.
The minister also warned that a section of the new legislation will deal with activities on the internet. Internet owners will be liable to 5 years imprisonment if found guilty.
Early September, Mr. Buturo had been quoted saying: "Pornography breeds homosexuality. I am happy that finally a bill to curb pornography in Uganda is out to punish the promoters of the vice. The draft bill is already in cabinet for discussion"
In October 2009, an Anti-Homosexuality Bill was tabled in parliament by member of parliament David Bahati. The proposed law sought the death penalty against people convicted of aggravated homosexuality with minors and those who knowingly infect others with HIV.
The proposed anti-homosexual legislation, which also urged parents and school authorities to disclose any child believed to be gay, was criticised by the international community, including U.S. President Barack Obama, the Netherlands, the UK, France, Canada and Sweden which threatened to cut financial assistance.
Geof Magga @'Afrik-News'
♪♫ Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Watching The Detectives (Live at Eric's)
(Thanx Leisa!)
My fave club in the world!
Think I may still have my membership card somewhere in storage.
Didn't see this gig but the first time I saw him was pre band at The Watermill Hotel in Paisley and then also a great night in the company of Allan Jones from (MM/Uncut) at the Live Stiff''s tour in Glasgow which carried on way into the wee hours back at the hotel. Oh and thank you Floyd for stealing my tour itinerary that had been signed by Nick Lowe, Ian Dury, Dave Edmunds, Wreckless Eric. Larry Wallis, Costello et al.
Bastard!
My fave club in the world!
Think I may still have my membership card somewhere in storage.
Didn't see this gig but the first time I saw him was pre band at The Watermill Hotel in Paisley and then also a great night in the company of Allan Jones from (MM/Uncut) at the Live Stiff''s tour in Glasgow which carried on way into the wee hours back at the hotel. Oh and thank you Floyd for stealing my tour itinerary that had been signed by Nick Lowe, Ian Dury, Dave Edmunds, Wreckless Eric. Larry Wallis, Costello et al.
Bastard!
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