Friday, 14 October 2011

Presentation of Photojournalism Behind the Scenes, an auto-critical photo essay showing the paradoxes of conflict-image production and considering the role of the photographer in the events.
This project was awarded the Photodreaming Contest organized by Forma Foundation in which I was then selected by Denis Curti, the director of Contrasto (the major photo-agency in Italy, which represents Magnum's work in the country and for which the top Italian photographers work) to shoot an assignment for the prestigious agency.
rubensalvadori.com
for publications or any other info and comment contact me at info@rubensalvadori.com

Exposing the 'Invisible Photographer' Behind Conflict Journalism

A Closer Look at the Haqqani Anniversary Attack on American-Afghan Outposts

American forces fired 105-millimeter artillery toward an insurgent rocket position near the Pakistan border after being attacked on the 10th anniversary of the Afghan war.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE ORGUN-E, Afghanistan – Last Friday, on the 10th anniversary of the start of the Afghan war, at least several dozen fighters from the Haqqani insurgent network launched a complex attack against multiple American-Afghan outposts near the Pakistan border.
Firing scores of high-explosive rockets and mortar rounds, they struck nearly simultaneously at outposts occupied by the 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, and, using a tactic that has succeeded elsewhere, they tried to breach one of the positions with a suicide truck bomb and a contingent of gunmen on foot.
The significance of the attack was, as is often the case, a matter of uncertainty and dispute. The American-led NATO command framed the Haqqani attack as a failure. In the tactical sense this might be so. For all of the effort, the attackers managed to wound only one American soldier, and his wounds were not serious. American machine guns, artillery, attack helicopters and aircraft, firing munitions throughout much of the day, stopped the advancing fighters short of an outpost they apparently had hoped to overrun.
But as a strategic matter, the attack came with a message some soldiers found startling, if grudgingly so. It showed that even after the Pentagon has had its troop levels at a peak for two full so-called fighting seasons, the insurgents who crisscross between Pakistan and Afghanistan remained able to plan complicated attacks and to mass fighters and weapons against multiple American bases at once. And their rocket and mortar fire was accurate. Many rounds, fired from the distance, struck squarely within the outposts – a feat that suggested a considerable degree of training and skill.
Moreover, though all of the Haqqani firing positions were within Afghanistan, some of them were within hundreds of yards of the border with Pakistan – a fact pointing toward the sanctuary from where, soldiers said, the coordinated assault was likely planned and where the dozens of 107-millimeter rockets fired against the American soldiers were probably acquired.
And then there was this question: What might happen in a similar attack against Afghan outposts without American military presence?
The relative weakness of the Afghan security forces was on full display. This battle was fought with American communications networks and American firepower. The distant Haqqani firing positions and an apparent cluster of Haqqani fighters were stopped or silenced by a suite of modern American weapons systems — helicopter gunships, artillery, attack aircraft and GPS-guided bombs — that the Afghans either do not possess or do not know how to use. One example: Lt. Col. John V. Meyer, the battalion’s commander, said that 14,000 pounds of munitions were dropped from aircraft during the daylong fight.
(At Forward Operating Base Tillman, where the photographer Tyler Hicks and I were present for the fighting, the Afghan soldiers did not participate at all. As the rockets came in and American officers and noncommissioned officers tracked the battle in an operations room, and coordinated and calibrated their return fire from the gun line, the Afghan Army representatives in the room excused themselves, left the room for roughly 30 minutes and returned with plates of food. Beyond that poorly timed display of appetite, they did nothing further that could be observed.)
But for the moment, let’s set the larger analysis aside, and be reminded of something else. It is one of the things that conventional infantry soldiers are often told, and sometimes get to see: that there are moments in war when one or two alert people, properly equipped and willing to act, can determine the local outcome of a fight...

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C.J. Chivers @'NY Times'

(Thanx Son#1!)

The Real Story of How Israel Was Created

White Denim - Live At The Ghost Room (Free Download)

What’s Next for Apple?

♪♫ DAM - Letter From A Prison Cell

"A Letter From a Prison Cell"
www.indieGoGo.com/damrap

"رسالة من زنزانة"
دام تستضيف تريو جبران، بشار خليفة، نبال ملشي وإبراهيم ساق الله.

تضامناً مع الحركة الأسيرة ومعركة الأمعاء الخاوية
"دام" تطلق أغنية: رسالة من زنزانة بإستضافة الثلاثي جبران وبشار خليفة

تضامناً مع الأسرى الفلسطينيين ومعركة "الأمعاء الخاوية"، تطلق فرقة "الدام" الفلسطينية أغنية بعنوان "رسالة من زنزانة" بإستضافة الثلاثي جبران والموسيقي بشار خليفة وهي أغنية كان من المفترض الاحتفاظ بها لألبوم الفرقة الثاني.
إلا أن تضامناً مع الحركة الأسيرة وإضرابهم عن الطعام منذ 27 أيلول الماضي من أجل نيل حقوقهم داخل السجون الإسرائيلية، تهدي فرقة "الدام" هذه الأغنية التي تجسد معاناة الأسرى وتصفها بشكل شخصي وتعترض على تلخيص هذه المعاناة كمجرد أرقام.
تتكون الأغنية من ثلاث قصص عبارة عن ثلاث رسالة أُرسلت من رطوبة الزنزانة إلى العالم، فنحن كفرقة "الدام"، كأفراد وكشعب مع الأسرى في معركتهم وفي هذه المعركة الكبرى من أجل الحريّة.

ملاحظة: نود شكر مؤسسة "الضمير" على تزويدنا ودعمنا بالمراجع التي تتضمن الكتب، المقالات والقصص كي يكون بمقدورنا ترجمة هذه المعلومات إلى أغنية راب.

اسم الأغنية: "رسالة من زنزانة"
دام تستضيف تريو جبران، بشار خليفة، نبال ملشي وإبراهيم ساق الله.
كلمات: "دام"
إنتاج : "دام" وعنان قسيم
عود: تريو جبران
إيقاع: بشار خليفة
مؤسسة "الضمير": www.addameer.org
Supporting the Palestinians political prisoners and their struggle
DAM releases: "A Letter From a Prison Cell"
"A Letter From a Prison Cell" is DAM's first single from their new album, featuring Trio Joubran, Bachar Khalifé., Nibal Malshi and Ibrahim Sakallah. We are releasing this song earlier than planned in support of the Palestinian prisoners' hunger strike. We are adding our voices to their call for justice and demands for their legal rights.
"A Letter From a Prison Cell" tells the stories of three prisoners who refuse to be ignored and become another statistic. They have written letters to the outside world and the song voices those words.
We would like to thank the organization for prisoner rights "Addameer - www.addameer.org" for providing us with references such as prisoner letters, articles and books to help us write our song.
"A Letter From a Prison Cell"
DAM ft Trio Joubran, Bachar Khalifé, Nibal Malshi and Ibrahim Sakallah
Written by : DAM
Produced by : DAM & Anan Kusseim
Oud: Trio Joubran
percussions : Bachar Khalifé.

Study: Many websites 'leaking' personal info to other firms

Thursday, 13 October 2011

Chris Carter - Moonlight (Oneohtrix Point Never Version)

Air Force Insists: Drone Cockpit Virus Just a ‘Nuisance’

The U.S. Air Force revealed new details Wednesday about the virus that’s been infecting the remote cockpits of its drone fleet — and insisted, despite reports from their own personnel, that the infection was properly and easily contained.

In a statement — the military’s first official, on-the-record acknowledgement of the virus — the Air Force insisted that the malware was “more of a nuisance than an operational threat.” The ability of drone pilots to remotely fly the aircraft from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada “remained secure throughout the incident.”
The armed drone has become America’s weapon and surveillance tool of choice in warzones from Afghanistan to Pakistan to Yemen. So when Danger Room reported on Friday that Creech security specialists had spent the last two weeks fighting off an infection in the drones’ remote cockpits, there was an almost instantaneous media uproar.
It also caught off guard the 24th Air Force, the unit that’s supposed to be in charge of the air service’s cybersecurity, multiple sources involved with Air Force network operations told Danger Room. “When your article came out,” one of those sources said. “it was like, ‘What is this?’”
In its Wednesday statement (.docx), the Air Force said that was flat wrong — that the 24th knew all along...

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Noah Shachtman @'Wired'

PSA

kpunk99 Mark Fisher

PEOPLE BUYING THE STEPS BEST-OF. Simply go to any charity shop where you can get all of their records for under 20p

Glenn Greenwald: Can OWS be turned into a Democratic Party movement?

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The WEEE Man

The WEEE man, designed by Paul Bonomini, is a huge robotic figure made of scrap electrical and electronic equipment. It weighs 3.3 tonnes and stands seven meters tall – representing the average amount of e-products every single one of us throws away over a lifetime.