Friday, 23 October 2009
Thursday, 22 October 2009
For Fifi/ in DeeCee/ it's on its way/ to you today
The esteemed author(ess) of this blog, Ms. Mona Street pictured with 'George Best' (signed by The Wedding Present) which is now heading off in a big white plane to the land of the free, with love from down under!(Photo by TimN)
Fast Internet access becomes a legal right in Finland
Finland has become the first country in the world to declare broadband Internet access a legal right. The move by Finland is aimed at bringing Web access to rural areas, where access has been limited.
Starting in July, telecommunication companies in the northern European nation will be required to provide all 5.2 million citizens with Internet connection that runs at speeds of at least 1 megabit per second. The one-megabit mandate, however, is simply an intermediary step, said Laura Vilkkonen, the legislative counselor for the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The country is aiming for speeds that are 100 times faster -- 100 megabit per second -- for all by 2015."We think it's something you cannot live without in modern society. Like banking services or water or electricity, you need Internet connection," Vilkkonen said.
@'CNN'
Never Mind the Pity
How a dying teenager’s dream turned into the making of a miraculous album.(My BIG thanx to Chris for pointing out this remarkable, heart wrenching and yet heart warming story to me)
Needle program leads to sharp drop in health bill
@'SMH'
One good thing I have to say about Melbourne/Victoria is that we have been at the forefront of the needle exchange programme for many years.
One good thing I have to say about Melbourne/Victoria is that we have been at the forefront of the needle exchange programme for many years.
The Big Picture - 2009 UN World Drug Report
The 2009 United Nations World Drug report, released earlier this year, notes that 2009 marks "the end of the first century of drug control (it all started in Shanghai in 1909)", and that the illicit drug market worldwide has now become a $320 billion-per-year industry. As drug-related violence in Mexico appears to continue unabated, and crackdowns in Afghanistan are being made against its massive opium crops, new efforts are also being made worldwide in methods of enforcement and treatment of recovering addicts. Collected here are a handful of recent images from the rough world of illegal drugs across the globe.
A man injects heroin into a vein in his arm at an abandoned house in Ljubljana August 3, 2009. (REUTERS/Bor Slana)
Women family members in the house of Islam Beg smoke opium together in the village of Sarab, Afghanistan on July 13, 2009. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
A heroin addict holds a used syringe in his mouth after shooting up in an abandoned lot in San Juan, Friday, July 31, 2009. Some of the South American heroin trafficked through Puerto Rico en route to the United States is sold locally, which has led to an island-wide epidemic, according to health and law enforcement officials. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)See all 37 photos
@'Boston.com'
@'Boston.com'
Freida Abtan
I am truly indebted to Weescoosa for introducing the work of Freida Abtan's 'Subtle Movements' to me.She is a multi-disciplinary artist and composer living in Providence, Rhode Island who has played with, and created visual shows for bands such as Nurse with Wound, and has presented her sound and visual work at festivals across Canada. Having completed Bachelor’s degrees in both Computer Science and Fine Art, she is currently completing her Master’s degree in Electroacoustic Composition at the Université de Montréal. Her first album subtle movements is available on United Dairies, it is a mesmerising journey though I must admit that I have to agree with Brainwashed unfortunately when they say that the album as a whole doesn't quite gel together due only to the fact that certain tracks could last much longer than they do as they seem to be samples from longer works (and how often do you say that?)
I would be interested in hearing more of her work and if anyone can point me in the direction of her self released CD-R's I would be really grateful.
Ras Baraka - American Poem
"American Poem" Ras Baraka (Def Poetry)
Season 3, Episode 2 (S03 E02)
Original Air Date: 11 April 2003
Season 3, Episode 2 (S03 E02)
Original Air Date: 11 April 2003
Maurice Sendak tells parents worried by Wild Things to 'go to hell'
Maurice Sendak pictured at the film premiere of Where the Wild Things Are in New York. Photograph: Stuart Ramson/AP
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Not the smartest move
Former US "Big Brother" winner Adam Jasinski was charged with attempting to sell thousands of oxycodone pills to a government witness in Massachusetts. The ninth-season winner confessed to buying the drugs with his $500,000 in prize money. He faces 20 years behind bars and a $1-million fine for attempting to distribute.@'LA Times'
Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow kicks off a unique publishing experiment
Back in 2003, I was the first writer to use a Creative Commons license in connection with a commercially published novel—my first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (Tor) was released as a freely shareable e-book the same day it came out in stores. It's now gone through several printings, has made me a fair bit of money, been widely translated—commercially and noncommercially—and it's been followed by three more novels, including the New York Times bestseller Little Brother (Tor Teens, 2008), all of which are also available as free, remixable downloads. Two more novels are on their way on the same terms.I've also published two collections of short fiction reprinted from magazines, A Place So Foreign and Eight More (Four Walls Eight Windows, 2004) and Overclocked (Thunder's Mouth, 2007), both critically well received, award winning and excellent sellers. Finally, I've also done a collection of essays, Content (Tachyon, 2008), and IDW published a graphic novel collecting six of my stories adapted for comics, Cory Doctorow's Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now (2008), under these very same terms.
Free e-books work for me. I've been a full-time writer since I quit my day job as European director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (a charity that works for online civil liberties) in January 2006. Since then, I've made my living through a combination of royalties and licenses (foreign translations, film options, etc.); earnings from Boing Boing, the popular blog I co-edit and co-own; speaking fees; column writing; and the occasional grant, teaching gig or residency. Mine is the semirandom hodgepodge of income sources that characterizes most of the freelancers I know, as skills, circumstances and capacity dictates.
Still, this business of my giving away e-books is a controversial subject. I encounter plenty of healthy skepticism in my travels, and not a little bile. There's a lot of people who say I'm pulling a fast one, that I'd be making more money if I didn't do this crazy liberal copyright stuff, or that I'm the only one it'll ever work for, or that I secretly make all my money from doing stuff that isn't writing, or that it only works because I'm so successful. Of course, when I started, they said it only worked because I was so unknown.
People want proof that this works—that I'm not deluded or a con artist. But it's hard to prove. I don't have a time machine I can use to republish all my books without the free downloads and compare royalty statements. And the skeptics aren't the only people who claim I've got it wrong. There are also the True Believers. The True Believers are the people who say that I'm a fool to give 90% of the cover price of my books to the publisher and bookseller. After all, I have three or four million people a day who read my blog. I could just self-publish all my material and get it directly into the hands of my readers, and pocket the lion's share of the income.
I'm a contrarian on both of these propositions: that I'm losing money by giving away e-books, and that I'm losing money by using a publisher. I have a nice little Goldilocks gig going—not too hot, not too cold, just the right amount of DIY, independent publishing and just the right amount of professional support and administration from my publisher to sell. But I'm as curious about both propositions as anyone. While it's fun to argue about whose intuition is more correct, I think facts on the ground beat a priori assumptions every time. So I've come up with an idea to get some facts in evidence, while making some money and raising a little hell.
The Way Out Is The Way In
‘The Way Out Is The Way In’selected prints from Jeb Loy Nichols' ‘Jazz Portraits 2009’ exhibition
at The Vortex, London
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
The good news followed by the...
The good news is that following neck surgery Phil Collins can no longer play drums (unless drumsticks "were glued" to his hands! Please someone do that for me.)The other news is that he plans a new CD that will feature covers of 30 songs from the Motown label in 2010 and "wants the songs to sound exactly like the originals"!
Firstly WHY?
Secondly it won't sound like the originals as you ain't no Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder...I could go on (and on).
I am however prepared to say that you might be a Lionel Ritchie (but not with The Commodores!)
@'HuffPo'
The Taliban's Heroin Ploy
Forty years ago, the Vietnam War was partly undermined by heroin addiction among U.S. troops. Surely mindful of that, the Taliban and al Qaeda are now using Afghanistan’s bountiful heroin supplies as a tactical weapon. An internal U.S. intelligence report has concluded that the two groups are targeting American troops in an effort to undermine their effectiveness, while raising cash to pay for new recruits and weaponry, a U.S. intelligence official tells The Daily Beast.
It’s a logical tactic. The drug is plentiful, cheap—less than $1 for a day’s supply—and potent. And while Army officials publicly dismiss talk of any surging drug problem, some privately express concern about the possibility of increased drug use among bored and susceptible young soldiers.
"...Opium poppies have always been grown on both sides of Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, but the region did not become the world's main exporter of heroin until the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 brought near-anarchy. Production and refining exploded as the Afghan mujahedin, with the connivance of Western intelligence agencies, traded in drugs to finance their war against the Russians, with results that can be seen in the streets of Western cities as well as Peshawar."
(The Independent 2 October 2001)
In The North EP
To celebrate the label relaunch, Dust Science has a new EP of established and new artists who are based in the label's hometown of Sheffield (UK). The "In The North EP" seeks to re-establish Sheffield's reputation as the touchstone of high quality electronic musical innovation. Tracklisting:
A1. The Black Dog - Tesco (Dark House)
A2. Carl Taylor - Walk On By
B1. Grievous Angel - Show Love v1
B2. The Bass Soldier - You Still Live With Your Mum
This release is now available as a free download until 4th of November 2009, then released commerically on the 5th
Download
HERE
The Black Dog have long been a favourite round here at 'Exile' Towers and Grevious Angel has been featured before at the blog with his superb Miles Davis mix.
What really happened at Gitmo! (With the help of M16)
"The 25 lines edited out of the court papers contained details of how Mr Mohamed's genitals were sliced with a scalpel and other torture methods so extreme that waterboarding, the controversial technique of simulated drowning, "is very far down the list of things they did," the official said."
@'The Telegraph'
Updates
The Obama administration, The Most Transparent Ever, condemns the British court decision to reveal what was done to Mohamed:
Meanwhile, US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said: "We are not pleased", adding that Washington kept such information confidential "to protect our own citizens".
@'Salon'
WARNING
NSFW pic of a sliced penis
HERE
Updates
The Obama administration, The Most Transparent Ever, condemns the British court decision to reveal what was done to Mohamed:
Meanwhile, US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said: "We are not pleased", adding that Washington kept such information confidential "to protect our own citizens".
@'Salon'
WARNING
NSFW pic of a sliced penis
HERE
Monday, 19 October 2009
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Anne Frank: the only existing film images
July 22 1941. The girl next door is getting married. Anne Frank is leaning out of the window of her house in Amsterdam to get a good look at the bride and groom. It is the only time Anne Frank has ever been captured on film. At the time of her wedding, the bride lived on the second floor at Merwedeplein 39. The Frank family lived at number 37, also on the second floor. The Anne Frank House can offer you this film footage thanks to the cooperation of the couple.
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