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Scary Crazemas
2 hours ago
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
In 'Free Libya': Hey, Who, Exactly, Is in Charge Here?
Scores of newly minted revolutionary officials — middle-aged volunteers from the city's professional and business classes — have many meetings but appear to make few decisions. They hold press conferences in what used to be a courtroom, while about a dozen opposition spokesmen roam the halls trying to be helpful but often offering conflicting information. Trucks full of eggs and baby formula arrive at the courthouse doors without an apparent system for delivering them to the needy and without clear reports of shortages. And though spirits are high, especially among the young volunteers sporting Che Guevara–style berets, the institutional vibe is more like that of a steering committee of a future liberal-arts college than of a guerrilla movement gearing up for a long fight. "The problem is that we don't have anyone with any political experience whatsoever," says Iman Bugahaighis, a professor of dentistry now acting as an unofficial spokesperson. "We didn't have any institutions other than regime. That was part of Gaddafi's plan: to make everyone loyal only to him."...
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Paris Underground
Paris, City of Light, really is a tale of two cities. One of them is above ground, with its beloved Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. That's the city the world sees. And then there's the city very few us will ever see -- an underground Paris, the 'souterrain.' NPR's Jacki Lyden and National Geographic photographer Stephen Alvarez teamed up to see what lies below. (Photographs by Stephen Alvarez/National Geographic)
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange applies to trademark his name
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange: following in the footsteps of Sarah Palin. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PAJulian Assange, the embattled WikiLeaks founder fighting extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape and sexual assault, has applied to trademark his name.
The 39-year-old computer hacker – who will shortly be extradited to Sweden to contest the charges unless he wins an appeal on Thursday, 3 March – wants to protect his name for use in "public speaking services" and "entertainment services", it has emerged.
Assange becomes the latest high-profile figure seeking to trademark his name. Sarah Palin, who famously likened Assange to an al-Qaida operative, has applied for similar protection for both herself and her daughter, Bristol Palin.
Assange applied for the trademark on 14 February through his London-based law firm Finers Stephens Innocent. If granted, he will own the trademark to his name for the purposes of "news reporter services", "journalism", "publication of texts other than publicity texts" and "education services".
Assange has long vowed to clear his name of the allegations, which he denies. Earlier this month he said that the charges, made in August last year, had applied a "black box" to his life. "On the outside of that black box has been written the word rape. That box has now, thanks to an open court process, been opened. I hope in the next days you will see that the box is in fact empty."
The combative Australian, described by foes as a terrorist and by friends as a freedom fighter, also looks set to feature as the central subject in a movie about the whistleblowers' site he set up in 2006. Studio executives last month secured the screen rights to the biography of Assange by award-winning Australian writer Andrew Fowler, The Most Dangerous Man in the World.
Josh Halliday @'The Guardian'
Assange applied for the trademark on 14 February through his London-based law firm Finers Stephens Innocent. If granted, he will own the trademark to his name for the purposes of "news reporter services", "journalism", "publication of texts other than publicity texts" and "education services".
Assange has long vowed to clear his name of the allegations, which he denies. Earlier this month he said that the charges, made in August last year, had applied a "black box" to his life. "On the outside of that black box has been written the word rape. That box has now, thanks to an open court process, been opened. I hope in the next days you will see that the box is in fact empty."
The combative Australian, described by foes as a terrorist and by friends as a freedom fighter, also looks set to feature as the central subject in a movie about the whistleblowers' site he set up in 2006. Studio executives last month secured the screen rights to the biography of Assange by award-winning Australian writer Andrew Fowler, The Most Dangerous Man in the World.
Josh Halliday @'The Guardian'
Jane Russell RIP
Former Hollywood actress and sex symbol Jane Russell has died the age of 89.
The brunette was discovered by eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, who cast her in his 1941 Western The Outlaw.Some of her most memorable parts include the The Paleface (1948) with Bob Hope and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) with Marilyn Monroe.
She died on Monday at her home in California of a respiratory-related illness, her daughter-in-law confirmed.
"She always said I'm going to die in the saddle, I'm not going to sit at home and become an old woman. And that's exactly what she did, she died in the saddle," Etta Waterfield said, recounting that Russell had remained active in her local community until illness intervened in recent weeks.
Russell married three times and adopted three children.
After experiencing problems during the adoption process, she founded World Adoption International Agency, which has helped organise the adoptions in the US of tens of thousands of children from overseas.
@'BBC'
ggreenwald Glenn Greenwald
A nice, clear, bright reminder that Paul Wolfowitz is one of the most repellent people on the planet: http://is.gd/KctlRa
The Cove released in Japanese for free online
One year after winning an Academy Award for best documentary, the filmmakers have released The Cove dubbed in Japanese for free online. In addition a local group called People Concerned for the Ocean are distributing a DVD to all of the citizen of Taiji, the city where the dolphin killings and The Cove takes place.
I've been trying in my own way to try to get more attention to The Cove in Japan. There are criticisms by some Japanese about the film. Some ask "why dolpins and not cows?" Others complain that it's picking on local Japanese culture. Mainly, Japanese don't like foreigners trying to cause change inside of Japan.
The Japanese are not unique about this however - just listen to the Chinese or the recent speeches by Mubarak or Gaddafi. Japan has a very strong nationalist movement that is against any kind of criticism about Japan from the outside.
Why the online release of the film in Japan is so important is that the Japanese people should watch the movie and make up their own mind. Regardless of what you think about the film, banning it is unexcusable. A small group of people from Taiji along with nationalists have prevented the film from being broadly screen in Japan.
The Japanese people should decide whether the claims and criticisms in the film are valid and if it resonates with enough hearts and minds of enough Japanese, then the Japanese will make it a domestic issue and call for an investigation and a change.
The film has a few threads that I think will attract the attention of different groups in Japan. The "save the dolphins" aspect of the film will attract the dolphin lovers, divers and animal rights people.
There are many Japanese who don't care about dolphins. However, the film reveals evidence of very high mercury content in dolphins and the possibility that this meat is being sold as whale meat and being put in children's school lunches. Knowningly causing mercury poisoning in school children is the kind of corruption that would move a completely different set of Japanese - possibly even those conservatives who are pro-whaling.
I urge everyone to send this URL to any Japanese person you know. I will be posting a Japanese translation of this blog post soon.
The URL is: http://thecovemovie.com/freejapanesedownload
Yuri Kageyama has written about this in Forbes.
@'Joi Ito'
I've been trying in my own way to try to get more attention to The Cove in Japan. There are criticisms by some Japanese about the film. Some ask "why dolpins and not cows?" Others complain that it's picking on local Japanese culture. Mainly, Japanese don't like foreigners trying to cause change inside of Japan.
The Japanese are not unique about this however - just listen to the Chinese or the recent speeches by Mubarak or Gaddafi. Japan has a very strong nationalist movement that is against any kind of criticism about Japan from the outside.
Why the online release of the film in Japan is so important is that the Japanese people should watch the movie and make up their own mind. Regardless of what you think about the film, banning it is unexcusable. A small group of people from Taiji along with nationalists have prevented the film from being broadly screen in Japan.
The Japanese people should decide whether the claims and criticisms in the film are valid and if it resonates with enough hearts and minds of enough Japanese, then the Japanese will make it a domestic issue and call for an investigation and a change.
The film has a few threads that I think will attract the attention of different groups in Japan. The "save the dolphins" aspect of the film will attract the dolphin lovers, divers and animal rights people.
There are many Japanese who don't care about dolphins. However, the film reveals evidence of very high mercury content in dolphins and the possibility that this meat is being sold as whale meat and being put in children's school lunches. Knowningly causing mercury poisoning in school children is the kind of corruption that would move a completely different set of Japanese - possibly even those conservatives who are pro-whaling.
I urge everyone to send this URL to any Japanese person you know. I will be posting a Japanese translation of this blog post soon.
The URL is: http://thecovemovie.com/freejapanesedownload
Yuri Kageyama has written about this in Forbes.
@'Joi Ito'
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