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Warren Christopher dies at 85

Reuters Reuters Top News

FLASH: Fighter plane shot down in eastern Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi - Reuters witness

One of ~~Gaddafi`s~~ the rebel's jets shot down at Benghazi (Confusion still as to whose jet it is)

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AJELive AJELive

Reuters: Pro-democracy fighters retreating towards #Benghazi under attack from #Gaddafi forces

'Limitless' Brain Potential? Humans Already Use Most of Their Brains

(Thanx SJX!)

Did Banksy's latest work bring misery to a homeless man?

History of Libya 1912-1969

A beautiful short documentary highlighting the key historical events that occurred in Libya between 1912 and 1969. This got me quite emotional as I saw a budding young Libya in its early spring, blossoming and reaching out to the world, and then suddenly it was cloaked in darkness…
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Michel Houellebecq vs. William Burroughs (Quotes)

Oil on Canvas: “William S. Burroughs 3″

Christiaan Tonnis (1999)

Michel Houellebecq — the misanthropic, caninophilic French novelist — and William Burroughs both deploy thorough visions of the world. They proffer more or less elaborate cosmologies, ethics, and particularly critical assessments of humanity. And both view the act of writing in general, and their own writing in particular, as an active force doing some kind of battle, performing some kind of negotiation, with the powers of stupidity, evil, greed, and banality. Both understand the human universe as being at the mercy of non-human laws — for Houellebecq, it’s all species, biology, physics; for Burroughs, it’s biology, physics, magic.
But whereas Houellebecq sees a world of absolute bleakness, Burroughs sees a world of plenitude — filled with shit and bile and semen and stupidity and cruelty but full nonetheless. If Houellebecq offers a world heading to zero, Burroughs offers a world of infinite complexity.
On Society
Houellebecq
I don’t like this world. I definitely do not like it. The society in which I live disgusts me; advertising sickens me; computers make me puke.
Burroughs
America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers.
The Future of Humanity
Houellebecq
Few beings have ever been so impregnated, pierced to the core, by the conviction of the absolute futility of human aspiration. The universe is nothing but a furtive arrangement of elementary particles. A figure in transition toward chaos. That is what will finally prevail. The human race will disappear. Other races in turn will appear and disappear. And human actions are as free and as stripped of meaning as the unfettered movements of the elementary particles. Good, evil, morality, sentiments? Pure ‘Victorian fictions.’ All that exists is egotism. Cold, intact, and radiant.
Burroughs
Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole.
Youth and Dreams
Houellebecq
Adolescence is not only an important period in life, but that it is the only period where one may speak of life in the full sense of the word.
Burroughs
As a young child I wanted to be a writer because writers were rich and famous. They lounged around Singapore and Rangoon smoking opium in a yellow pongee silk suit. They sniffed cocaine in Mayfair and they penetrated forbidden swamps with a faithful native boy and lived in the native quarter of Tangier smoking hashish and languidly caressing a pet gazelle.
Influence
Houellebecq
I’ve lived so little that I tend to imagine I’m not going to die; it seems improbable that human existence can be reduced to so little; one imagines, in spite of oneself, that sooner or later something is bound to happen. A big mistake. A life can just as well be both empty and short. The days slip by indifferently, leaving neither trace nor memory; and then all of a sudden they stop.
Burroughs
I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. My affections, being concentrated over a few people, are not spread all over Hell in a vile attempt to placate sulky, worthless shits.
Sex
Houellebecq

In a perfectly liberal sexual system, some people have an exciting erotic life; others are reduced to masturbation and solitude.
Burroughs
There is nothing more provocative than minding your own business.
Love
Houellebecq
Love binds, and it binds forever. Good binds while evil unravels. Separation is another word for evil; it is also another word for deceit.
Burroughs
Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller. What there is. LOVE.

Daniel Coffeen @'Thought Catalog'

How to Remain Calm During Uneasy Times

Yemen unrest: 'Dozens killed' as gunmen target rally

Unidentified gunmen firing on an anti-government rally in the Yemeni capital Sanaa have killed at least 45 people and injured 270, doctors told the BBC.

The gunmen fired from rooftops overlooking the central square in what the opposition called a massacre.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh declared a national state of emergency but denied his forces were behind the shooting.
US President Barack Obama has condemned the violence, urging Mr Saleh to allow peaceful protests.
In a statement, he said those responsible for Friday's violence "must be held accountable".
Separately, France demanded an end to attacks "by security forces and armed pro-government groups... against people exercising their rights to free speech and demonstration", Reuters reports.
Yassin Noman, rotating president of Yemen's umbrella opposition group, was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying there was "no longer any possibility of mutual understanding" between the protesters and President Saleh, and he should resign.
Another opposition spokesman, Mohammad al-Sabri, accused Mr Saleh of presiding over a "massacre".

"This is part of a criminal plan to kill off the protesters, and the president and his relatives are responsible for the bloodshed in Yemen today," he told the Associated Press news agency.

Soon after the shooting in the capital, the country's Tourism Minister, Nabil al-Faqih, resigned in protest.
A month of violence has gripped Yemen and demonstrators reportedly gathered in other cities across the country on Friday:

In the city of Taez, security forces, tanks and armoured vehicles surrounded a square where protesters had gathered, and access to the square was blocked

In Mahweet, protesters reportedly captured five gunmen who had been firing at protesters; they were found inside the governor's house along with weapons and spent ammunition, eyewitnesses told the BBC

Tens of thousands attended the funeral of a protester in the southern port of Aden, AFP reports

Row of bodies
The BBC's Abdullah Ghorab in Sanaa says the level of anger over the casualties is unprecedented among Yemenis.

The declaration of an emergency is being seen by some as an attempt to find legal cover for suppressing peaceful protests and blocking media coverage, our correspondent adds.

Photographs from Sanaa showed bloodstained people being carried through crowds.
Other photos showed a row of dead bodies, with injuries which appeared to be consistent with bullet wounds, laid out in a mosque.
Doctors at a field hospital set up in the square, which protesters have named Taghyir (Arabic for "change") Square, issued an urgent call for blood, ambulances and medical supplies.
According to a statement from the field hospital, a total of 617 people were injured on Friday, 270 with gunshot wounds and 347 "poisoned by gas". Tear gas was fired by security forces during the day.
Abdul Malek Al-Yussefi, a doctor in the field hospital, told the BBC that what had happened in the square was a "crime in all possible terms".
"There was live ammo fired," he said.
"Many of the wounded are in critical condition. The injuries are mostly in the head and chest but there are also injuries all over the body. We have cases targeted randomly and others were clearly shot to be killed. Most of those killed were shot in the head and chest."
Announcing the state of emergency, President Saleh said the country's national defence council had decided to impose a curfew on "armed men in all cities".
"Security forces and armed forces will take responsibilities to maintain public security," he added.
Popular revolts
Yemen is one of a number of countries in the region that have seen unrest since the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia were ousted in popular revolts.
Thousands of people have turned out for regular demonstrations in cities including Sanaa, Aden, Taez, calling for corruption and unemployment to be tackled and demanding the president step down.
Some 40% of the population live on $2 (£1.20) a day or less in the country, and a third face food shortages.
The protests have often been met by riot police or supporters of President Saleh armed with knives and batons.
The president has been in power for 32 years, facing a separatist movement in the south, a branch of al-Qaeda, and a periodic conflict with Shia tribes in the north.
He has said he will not seek another term in office in 2013 but has vowed to defend his regime "with every drop of blood".
@'BBC'

The Wu master

'We're in a critical period for the internet' . . . Tim Wu. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

The internet is under threat. At risk is what's known as "net neutrality", or the principle of free access for each user to every online site, regardless of content. That's the view of the man who coined the above term, Tim Wu, whose new book, The Master Switch, was published yesterday. It argues the internet now runs the risk of not just political censorship – as seen in Libya and Egypt, and in the American reaction to WikiLeaks – but that of commercial censorship, too. Monopolies such as Google and Apple may soon decide to choose which parts of the internet to give us – or switch off – and in some cases have already started to do so...