Tuesday, 7 June 2011

Sounduk is delighted to announce that unique British bass producer Shackleton will collaborate with his original musical partner, spoken word artist Vengeance Tenfold, to present his own distinctive vision of a journey through some very special parts of Devon for the second in our Sonic Journeys series.
In partnership with Beaford Arts and The Dartington Hall Trust, sounduk has commissioned Shackleton and Vengeance Tenfold to create and record an exclusive new Sonic Journey in response to and inspired by sections of two of the most beautiful stretches of train line in the South West – using part of the main line between Exeter and Totnes, and part of the Tarka line between Exeter and Barnstaple.

Edge Of England: A Sonic Journey With Shackleton & Vengeance Tenfold

One in four US hackers 'is an FBI informer'

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Witchhunt Suite for WWIII

The August 18th, 2008 episode of Talk's Cheap featured a live session from Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti. Ariel Pink stopped by the WFMU studios backed by Kenny Gilmore on keys/guitar, Jimi Hey on drums, Tim Koh on bass, and Cole M. Greif-Neill on guitar. Members of this all-star lineup have also played in Lilys, White Magic, Lavender Diamond, Devendra Bahnhardt, Cibo Matto, and the list goes on. This well-seasoned group brought the Haunted Graffiti to life with professional attitude in the midst of their "Thanks Mom I'm Dead" tour.
Engineered 8/1/08 by Gil Shuster
Some post-production by Jason (I ran it thru my tape deck)
Via

The Bad Plus invited by the Frankfurt Radio Bigband 14/05/2011

Ethan Iverson (Piano)
Reid Anderson (Bass)
Dave King (Drums)
Frankfurt Radio Bigband directed by Jim McNeely

http://www.thebadplus.com/

France bans Facebook and Twitter from radio and TV

RUN E=MC²

via

Lemmy On Drugs Interview

Interview from Norwegian TV

Bailey Review of the Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood: Final report published

Via the Department for Education website:

A six-month independent review into the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood, which reports today, calls on businesses and media to play their part in ending the drift towards an increasingly sexualised 'wallpaper' that surrounds children.

Reg Bailey, Chief Executive of Mothers' Union, who led the independent review, has listened to parents' concerns about the barriers they face in bringing up their children. They are particularly unhappy with the increasingly sexualised culture surrounding their children, which they feel they have no control over. They singled out sexually explicit music videos, outdoor adverts that contain sexualised images, and the amount of sexual content in family programmes on TV.

Reg Bailey's recommendations are based on parents' concerns and are intended to support them, make sure their views are taken more seriously by businesses and broadcasters, and help children understand the potential dangers they face. They will put control back in the hands of families.

The recommendations include:

Providing parents with one single website to make it easier to complain about any programme, advert, product or service.

Putting age restrictions on music videos to prevent children buying sexually explicit videos and guide broadcasters over when to show them.

Covering up sexualised images on the front pages of magazines and newspapers so they are not in easy sight of children.

Making it easier for parents to block adult and age-restricted material from the internet by giving every customer a choice at the point of purchase over whether they want adult content on their home internet, laptops or smart phones.

Retailers offering age-appropriate clothes for children - the retail industry should sign up to the British Retail Consortium's new guidelines which checks and challenges the design, buying, display and marketing of clothes, products and services for children.

Restricting outdoor adverts containing sexualised imagery where large numbers of children are likely to see them, for example near schools, nurseries and playgrounds.

Giving greater weight to the views of parents in the regulation of pre-watershed TV, rather than viewers as a whole, about what is suitable for children to watch.

Banning the employment of children under 16 as brand ambassadors and in peer-to-peer marketing, and improving parents' awareness of advertising and marketing techniques aimed at children.

Download links to PDF versions of the Review document and Appendices 1-4 via the DoE website here

I need to read the Review more closely but first thoughts include: how will these recommendations be implemented; what is Mr Bailey's definition of sexualisation, does he really understand how the internet works, and isn't this just treating symptoms not causes?

[Via Bird of Paradox]

Monday, 6 June 2011

The Shame of Serbia

WTF???

Anti-Choice Movement Hits A New Creepy Low

CASSINI MISSION

Via

Bribery in India: A website for whistleblowers

Transport commissioner Bhaskar Rao has reformed his department with the help of ipaidabribe.com data

Imagine if you had to pay a bribe to see your newborn baby, get your water supply connected or obtain your driving licence. It's an everyday fact of life in India - but campaigners are now fighting back, using people power and the internet.

"Uncover the market price of corruption," proclaims the banner on the homepage of ipaidabribe.com.
It invites people to share their experiences of bribery, what a bribe was for, where it took place and how much was involved.
Launched in August, the site gives Indians a chance to vent their frustrations anonymously and shine a spotlight on the impact of corruption on everyday life.
"I did the driving test correctly but still the official said I was driving too slow, I realised his intention so gave him 200 Rupees and got the thing done," is a typical example of a posting.

The website was the brainwave of Ramesh and Swati Ramanathan, founders of a not-for-profit organisation in Bangalore called Janaagraha which literally means "people power".

"Bribery is routinely expected in interactions with government officials", Swati Ramanathan told me, "to register your house, to get your driving licence, domestic water connection, even a death certificate."
Having lived in the US and the UK for several years, they were dismayed on their return to see how widespread corruption had become and decided to do something about it.
"We are all also responsible because we end up paying the darn bribes because otherwise you can never get anything done in India.
"We said, 'It's not enough to moralise, we need to find out what exactly is this corruption? What's the size of it?'"
'High reward'
The website has evolved into a consumer comparison site where people can also get information and advice in different languages on how to avoid paying bribes.
One woman told me how she got round paying a bribe to register her mother's house.
"I went with all the paperwork and at first they looked through it and said, 'Oh, I think one of the documents is not up to date.'

"What I had been told at the website is that this is one of the excuses they make to take a bribe, and what we need to do is tell them, 'OK, give it to me in writing with your stamp and seal, and I will make sure I get these documents the next time so that I can get it registered.'"

"The moment I said that, they backed off and said, 'No, no, it's OK, we will pass it through.'"
So far, nearly 10,000 bribe experiences have been reported across 347 cities and 19 government departments.
As the numbers mount, Swati Ramanathan hopes the website will become a powerful tool for shaming government departments into tackling corruption.
"There is so little risk to being corrupt in our country and so high a reward," she explained.
"The moment you change the equation and you make it riskier, the reward becomes less. You make it riskier by making it public."
Hurt pride
One of the website's early successes has been with the State Transport Department of Karnataka, which was repeatedly cited in bribe reports - prompting transport commissioner Bhaskar Rao to invite the I Paid A Bribe team to present their findings to his staff.

"I wanted to use that website to cleanse my department," he said.

"If I try to do things on my own here, I may run into rough weather... But the evidence on this website gives me some internal support to bring about reforms."
"People in the office are realising that if they take money, it definitely is not something just between the giver and the taker. It is spreading out of this room, and now across the globe, on the web.
"So everybody in the world gets to know that this office is not a good office and institutional pride is hurt."
The website team helped Bhaskar Rao's department to identify the procedures most prone to corruption.
Twenty senior officers have been cautioned, and technology is now being introduced to minimise the opportunities for bribe-taking.
For example, driving licences can now be applied for online, making the status of each application transparent to everyone involved.
Driving test bribery was a tougher problem. Bhaskar Rao turned to a local IT company to come up with a solution. The result: the world's first automated driving test centre opened in Bangalore this year.
Drivers register for the test using a smart card and have to negotiate their way around a paved driving track fitted with electronic sensors. Their progress is recorded electronically.
They also have to complete a screen-based test of their knowledge of the Highway Code. All opportunities for bribe-taking and bribe-giving have thus been removed.
Not surprisingly perhaps, there was some initial opposition from driving inspectors to the introduction of this automated test centre.
But it is now conducting up to 200 tests a day and has become a source of pride. And, they say, there are now a few better drivers on the Indian roads.
Solving the problem of bribery in India is not going to happen overnight. But ipaidabribe.com shows that ordinary people can be turned from the victims of corruption into part of the solution.
Mukti Jain Campion @'BBC'