[E.O.M.S.]

Thursday, 4 July 2013

The Snowden Effect, Continued

And now the whole world is made paranoid.

"We want to say to the nations of the world that President Evo Morales has been abducted by imperialism and is being held in Europe." Early Wednesday, Morales told journalists in the Vienna airport who asked about the delay that officials were "surely consulting with their friend, and their friend must be the United States."

...and let's imagine the uproar if Air Force One had been re-routed!

Herbal stimulant khat to be banned in UK

In January the ACMD said khat should remain a legal substance, saying there was "insufficient evidence" it caused health problems.
But Home Secretary Theresa May has decided to ban it, saying the risks posed could have been underestimated.
Khat will be treated as a class C drug, like anabolic steroids and ketamine.
The Home Office said the ban was intended to "protect vulnerable members of our communities" and would be brought in at the "earliest possible opportunity"...

David Allen Green: Should we ban 'banning' things?

We all want to ban something. It is a staple of our political culture. All of us are perhaps one moment away from seeking to ban what someone else is saying or doing. The nod-a-long responses of "it shouldn't be allowed" or "there should be a law against it" are the common solutions to many perceived problems.
However, to "ban" something is not actually to eliminate it, whatever "it" is. The "it" is not extinguished; the "it" may just be attended by some different consequences. The legalistic prose in a solemn document is not some magic spell which banishes horrors by invocation. To say there should be a law against a thing is often no more than saying there should be a spell against it...

HERE

Macoto Murayama: Inorganic Flora

Macoto Murayama cultivates inorganic flora. First, he chooses the plant and finds the real flower, for example the exquisite Lathyrus odoratus L. Second, he dissects the flower cutting the petal and ovary with scalpel and observes it with magnifying glass. Third, he makes sketches and photographs the parts of dissected flower. Fourth, he models its form and structure using 3ds Max (3DCG software). Fifth, he renders separate parts and creates a composition using Adobe Photoshop. Sixth, he imposes admeasurements, parts names, scale, scientific name etc. Seventh, he prints out Lathirus odoratus L. at large scale printer and frames it... Here it is, The Flower of Totalitarian Scientific Conscious: properly fixed, totally measured, strictly nominated and distinctly shown. It is not only an image of a plant, but representation of the intellect’s power and its elaborate tools for scrutinizing nature. The transparency of this work refers not only to the lucid petals of a flower, but to the ambitious, romantic and utopian struggle of science to see and present the world as transparent (completely seen, entirely grasped) object. Paradoxically, this scientific challenge to measure the Universe might eventually become one of the sources where art of Murayama draws its strength of fantasy and odor of romanticism, becoming a part of Botech Art, symbiosis of Botanical Art and Technology
Macoto Murayama
Catalogue PDF
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♪♫ Atoms For Peace - Dropped/Default (Live @ Club AMOK LA)

Via

HA!

Via

Guess someone might be feeling a little embarassed this morning...

HERE

U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement

Leslie James Pickering noticed something odd in his mail last September: A handwritten card, apparently delivered by mistake, with instructions for postal workers to pay special attention to the letters and packages sent to his home.
“Show all mail to supv” — supervisor — “for copying prior to going out on the street,” read the card. It included Mr. Pickering’s name, address and the type of mail that needed to be monitored. The word “confidential” was highlighted in green...

Morsi ousted in Egypt's second revolution in two years

housands celebrate in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Wednesday, following an announcement from the Egyptian army that Mohamed Morsi has been deposed from presidential office. Fireworks light up the sky over the jubilant crowd after the news was announced by general Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. He said Morsi and his government no longer lead Egypt and that the constitution has been suspended and new presidential elections will be held

Tahrir Square Protest Live Stream

Why We Fight (A Film By Eugene Jarecki)

".WHY WE FIGHT, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, is an unflinching look at the anatomy of the American war machine, weaving unforgettable personal stories with commentary by a "who's who" of military and beltway insiders. Featuring John McCain, William Kristol, Chalmers Johnson, Gore Vidal, Richard Perle and others, WHY WE FIGHT launches a bipartisan inquiry into the workings of the military industrial complex and the rise of the American Empire.
Inspired by Dwight Eisenhower's legendary farewell speech (in which he coined the phrase "military industrial complex"), filmmaker Jarecki (THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER) surveys the scorched landscape of a half-century's military adventures, asking how -- and telling why -- a nation of, by, and for the people has become the savings-and-loan of a system whose survival depends on a state of constant war.
The film moves beyond the headlines of various American military operations to the deeper questions of why -- why does America fight? What are the forces -- political, economic, ideological -- that drive us to fight against an ever-changing enemy?

♪♫ James Blake - Live at Glastonbury 2013

Ken Kesey: What A World

Dear Wendell and Larry and Ed and Bob and Gurney:
Partners, it's been a bitch.
I've got to write and tell somebody about some stuff and, like I long ago told Larry, you're the best backboard I know. So indulge me a little; I am but hurt.
We built the box ourselves (George Walker, mainly) and Zane and Jed's friends and frat brothers dug the hole in a nice spot between the chicken house and the pond. Page found the stone and designed the etching. You would have been proud, Wendell, especially of the box — clear pine pegged together and trimmed with redwood. The handles of thick hemp rope. And you, Ed, would have appreciated the lining. It was a piece of Tibetan brocade given Mountain Girl by Owsley 15 years ago, gilt and silver and russet phoenixbird patterns, unfurling in flames. And last month, Bob, Zane was goose hunting in the field across the road and killed a snow goose. I told him be sure to save the down. Susan Butkovitch covered this in white silk for the pillow while Faye and MG and Gretch and Candace stitched and stapled the brocade into the box...