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“It is almost a certainty that the editor of WikiLeaks will be turned over to the United States if he is extradited to Sweden”

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Seventies disco icon Bobby Farrell, singer and dancer with the chart-topping group Boney M, died aged 61 in a Russian hotel room Thursday while on tour, his agent and investigators said.
The flamboyant performer known for his energetic dance moves "was found dead in his bed," in a hotel room in Saint Petersburg, agent John Seine told AFP by telephone from Heemstede in north Netherlands, adding: "the cause of death is not known."
Seine said Farrell had given a performance in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday, but "they told me that he was not feeling well."
"This morning, he did not wake up."
The Saint Petersburg investigative committee of prosecutors confirmed to AFP that the entertainer was found dead in his bed by an employee of the Ambassador Hotel on Thursday morning.
"There were no signs of a violent death," the committee said, adding: "The investigation continues".
Saint Petersburg news site Fontanka.ru reported that Farrell had come to the Russian city on Wednesday to take part in a corporate event, but reported feeling ill during his performance.

Read On

Woman dials 999 to report snowman theft in Kent

A woman who dialled 999 to report the theft of a snowman from outside her home has been branded "completely irresponsible" by Kent Police.

The force said the woman, from Chatham, thought the incident required their involvement because she used pound coins for eyes and teaspoons for arms.
During the call the woman said: "It ain't a nice road but you don't expect someone to nick your snowman."
Kent Police said officers had given her advice on real 999 emergencies.
The force said the call was made at the same time as operators fielded thousands of other phone calls about the heavy snowfall and sub-zero temperatures in the county.
During the conversation she said: "There's been a theft from outside my house.
"I haven't been out to check on him for five hours but I went outside for a fag and he's gone."
When she was asked who had gone, the woman replied: "My snowman. I thought that with it being icy and there not being anybody about, he'd be safe."
She was then asked whether it was an ornament, and answered: "No, a snowman made of snow, I made him myself.

"It ain't a nice road but at the end of the day, you don't expect someone to nick your snowman, you know what I mean?"

The operator then told her she had rung an emergency line and she should not be calling it to report the theft of a snowman.
Ch Insp Simon Black said: "This call could have cost someone's life if there was a genuine emergency and they couldn't get through.
"It was completely irresponsible.
"We have spoken to her and advised her what is a 999 call, and this clearly was not."
Audio @'BBC'

REpost: Brion Gysin's illustrations for 'Time' by William S. Burroughs (1965)

William S. Burroughs created his own version of Time magazine in 1965.
It included a cover taken from the authentic 'Time' (November 30, 1962) which was then collaged over by Burroughs with a reproduction of a drawing, four drawings by Brion Gysin and twenty-six pages of typescript comprised of cut up texts and various photographs serving as news items.
Time was bootlegged in 1972 by Roy Pennington as an 'Urgency Press Rip Off'.
According to Maynard & Miles, Pennington published this bootleg edition for sale at the Bickershaw Festival.

My late friend Mike Hart (from Compendium Bookshop in Camden Town London) had a copy of this as well as Burrough's 'Mayfair Academy Series More or Less' (also published by 'Urgency Press Rip Off').
I hope that after Mike passed away his amazing collection of books and records found a good home (tho' if his son Stephen is anything like his Father, they will be in safe hands).
Back in the 70's in London I had actually managed to collect most of the original issues of 'Mayfair' from the couple of years or so that contained Burrough's column.
Most (but not all) of them were collected in such anthologies as 'Port of Saints' & 'Exterminator!'

If there is anyone out there who has a copy of either of these and wouldn't mind photo-copying or scanning the contents...well I would be eternally grateful!

Full story & scans of 'Time' available at 'Reality Studio' here.

Boredom Enthusiasts Discover the Pleasures of Understimulation

Wired journalists deny cover-up over WikiLeaks boss and accused US soldier

The Julian Assange Investigation - Let's Clear the Air of Misinformation

Christmas with Julian

Bianca Jagger last week launched a fierce attack on the Guardian for carrying my story about the evidence collected by Swedish police who have been investigating the claims of sexual assault by the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange.
At the heart of her attack is a repeated claim that we failed to publish exculpatory evidence contained in the police file. Those who have read her piece will have noticed that she does not cite one single example of this missing information. There are two reasons for this. First, she does not know what is in that police file, because she has not read it. Second, if she had, she would know that her claim is simply not true.
The Guardian went out of their way to include exculpatory material, not just from the police file but also from previous comments made by Assange and his lawyers. They also sent Assange's lawyer a list of all the key points and delayed publication for days so that he had a chance to respond. Our story contains literally hundreds of words whose sole purpose is to reflect Assange's position.
Jagger also insists that she has a right to know who leaked the file to the Guardian and says that the leak was part of "an obvious effort to conduct a smear campaign" against Assange. Setting aside for a moment the head-splitting hypocrisy that a supporter of WikiLeaks wants to hunt down the source of a leak, there are two similar problems with this claim. First, Jagger has no idea who leaked that file (and made no attempt to find out). Second, if she did know, she would discover that the source had no intention of smearing Assange in any way.
I am not going to serve up that source's identity to satisfy Jagger's temper. A police file like that gets widely distributed. It happened to make its way quite legitimately into the hands of somebody I have come across in the past. This person has absolutely no connection with the Swedish prosecutor or the Swedish police or any other individual or organization with any kind of antipathy to Assange. The source passed it on, and I got it translated...

Continue reading

Nick Davies @'HuffPo'

Oh dear:

"..the first time I have cut off a source in 34 years as a reporter..."

RIP 'Rosie'

Geraldine Doyle, 86, dies; one-time factory worker inspired Rosie the Riveter and 'We Can Do It!' poster

Radiohead Charity Pay-What-You-Want DVD On BitTorrent

In January 2010, in response to the emerging tragedy from the earthquake in Haiti, Radiohead performed before a limited audience at a charity concert in the United States. Since that performance, footage of the event has been painstakingly compiled by fans and now a twin DVD has been released, endorsed by the band. All proceeds are going to charity and the fastest way of acquiring it? BitTorrent of course.

In 2007, UK band Radiohead went against the grain by offering their latest album to the masses via the Internet in a pay-what-you-want model. Their seventh studio album, combined physical and digital sales went on to break the 3 million copy barrier.
Now the band are back supporting a similar but completely altruistic model, this time for a DVD. In January 2010, Radiohead performed at the Haiti Relief concert at the Henry Ford theater in Los Angeles and the event was filmed and its audio recorded, not by the band or show organizers, but by their fans.
Understandably, that footage went on to be scattered far and wide but thanks to the work of three fans – inez, formengr, andrea – the video and audio has been painstakingly collated to make a two DVD set of the event, which was limited on the day to just 1,400 people present. The trio then decided to make the work available on the Internet for the masses, but supported by a great idea to help those in need.
“It was a SPECIAL show with a SPECIAL purpose – to raise badly needed funds for those who lived through the devastation. And it seemed only appropriate that the DVD should carry on some of these goals,” inez explains.
So plan in hand, inez approached Radiohead for their approval and to find out which charity they would like donations to go to. The band chose Oxfam to handle donations on behalf of Haiti.
Normally with a charity product a whole bunch of funds would go to producing a physical product and then getting it delivered all over the world, but with the magic of BitTorrent none of that is necessary. In fact, even the online distribution costs come to almost nothing meaning that every penny goes in the right direction.
Inez has chosen a handful of trackers to distribute the DVD including the signup only Zombtracker and the one the majority of BitTorrent users will recognize, KickassTorrents.
The official Oxfam donation link can be found here.
Please download and give generously.
Enigmax @'Torrent Freak'