Water arriving in waves outside State Library - not stopping the curious from enjoying themselves #qldfloods
posted by @custaro from Twitter for iPhone 46 mins 30 secs ago
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Scientist Launches Dubstep Into Outer Space (Albumstream)
Hopeton Brown (aka Scientist) is one of the greatest and last remaining of Jamaica's first generation of dub producers. He apprenticed under the late King Tubby, the undisputed master of all dub masters, and has been at the forefront of developments in the art form since emerging on his own in the early '80s. This two-disc set is something of a departure for him; he was invited to remix a program of 12 previously unreleased dubstep tracks from the likes of Kode9, Shackleton, Pinch, Mala, and Jack Sparrow. Despite its moniker, dubstep actually has little rhythmically in common with reggae; it tends to be built on a lurching, off-kilter beat that sounds like it was meant to be danced to by someone with one leg shorter than the other, and although its basslines are teeth-shakingly loud and deep, they tend not to be as melodic as those of reggae. Many of the tracks collected here are actually somewhat lighter than dubstep fans might expect: Guido's "Korg Back" is calm and nearly pretty, while Shackleton's "Hackney Marshes" dances lightly and Distance's "Ill Content" brings a darker flavor to the proceedings without departing substantially from the decorous tone set by the other artists. Not until the very end, when Kode9 and Spaceape collaborate on the brilliant "Abeng," do the proceedings start getting that nervously bustling quality that characterizes so much contemporary dubstep. The second disc features Scientist's remixes, and it is to his credit that none of them tries to wrestle the original track into a prefabricated reggae template. "The Long Way" by Armour (Roly Vex'd) gets a bigger and more echoey acoustic, and Jack Sparrow's excellent "Red Sand" is given a dense and nearly jungly mix, but for the most part Scientist shows both taste and restraint in his mixes. Unsurprisingly, the most exciting remix is his deconstruction of RSD's "After All," the most reggae-flavored entry in the original program. On this track Scientist does really let loose with some reggae-style dub technique, and the result is spectacular. But there are no weak tracks on this excellent collection. The only complaint one might have is that it would have been nice to hear Scientist's mixes directly after each track rather than segregated on a separate disc. (Rick Anderson - allmusic; 4/5)1. Pinch feat. Emika - 2012 Dub
2. Armour (Roly Vex'd) - The Long Way Dub
3. Guido - Korg Back Dub
4. Shackleton - Hackney Marshes Dub
5. King Midas Sound - U Dub
6. Loefah & SGT Pokes - Dog Money Dub
7. Distance - Ill Kontent Dub
8. RSD - After All Dub
9. Jack Sparrow - Red Sand Dub
10. Mala (Digital Mystikz) - City Cycle Dub
11. Cyrus (Random Trio) - Footsteps Dub
12. Kode 9 & Spaceape - Abeng Dub
ALBUMSTREAM
Hypocrisy
PJ Crowley confirms "...the importance of respecting freedom of expression, but also the importance of the availability of information..."
Transcript
Transcript
What I believe
Keith Allen Vs Westboro Baptist Church
ThatKevinSmith KevinSmith
Via @DearShirley "CongresswomanGifford lived in adultery" 5 mins in, your glass house is showing:
Music Sharing Service SoundCloud Raises $10 Million From Index, Union Square
"Music start-ups have been a money incinerator for a long time, but that doesn’t stop investors from trying again. Here’s the latest example, which I first wrote about back in October: SoundCloud, a German-based file-sharing service, has raised $10 million in a funding round led by Index Ventures and Union Square Ventures.
While lots of music services are still trying to figure out how to make money by distributing copyrighted music you’ve heard of, SoundCloud is taking a different tack. As I wrote last fall:
It’s designed to let professional and amateur musicians share their own music with each other and the public, via cloud-based files that the company hosts.
Once the tunes are on SoundCloud’s servers, the service makes it easy to move the stuff around the Web, via its own widget and an API that’s showing up on lots of interesting sites, apps, services and devices, including Facebook and Apple’s iPad. You can load SoundCloud files into Spotify, the streaming music company that Index has also invested in.
The service uses the freemium model, offering most of its capabilities for free, and charging up to $700 a year for more storage and extra features.
You can also use SoundCloud for less enlightened purposes, like sharing music you don’t own. But the company has recently implemented an audible “fingerprinting” service, like the ones Google’s YouTube uses, which allows copyright owners to take down files they don’t want on the Web. And that should give the company legal cover, unless the YouTube/Viacom case takes a very different turn.
In a blog post announcing the funding, SoundCloud says it will use the money to scale faster and “be more present in the US.” It also posts short clips, using its service, from its new investors–Index’s Mike Volpi and Union Square’s Fred Wilson."
(media memo)
Comment by techdirt:
" As we’ve discussed before, copyright law is effectively broken when it sets up fair use as a defense, rather than a proactive right. Fair use should be seen as the default until proven otherwise, if fair use is really (as is claimed) designed to be a pressure valve on copyright law to allow free speech.
Unfortunately, the industry has pushed back on this notion to a huge level. The very crux of the YouTube-Viacom legal fight is really over this issue. As many have noted, in the specifics of the lawsuit, Viacom basically notes that it has no problem with YouTube starting with the exact date that it implemented its ContentID program. In Viacom’s (and much of the entertainment industry’s) interpretation, the DMCA requires such filters. The likely reason that smaller companies like SoundCloud are now implementing filters as well is that they know there’s a half decent chance that the eventual outcome of lawsuits like the Viacom/YouTube fight will mean that a company is required by law to have such things in place."
via neumusik
BYEBYE SOUNDCLOUD?
Monday, 10 January 2011
Did PC Mark “Flash” Kennedy ensure my arrest as one of the Ratcliffe 114?
Policeman Undercover by Daria Hlazatova.
One day a few years ago I agreed to go on an intrepid action to highlight the causes of climate change. I didn’t know where or what it would be, but as a climate activist I trust the many people that I know who are willing to invest a huge amount of time, effort and (often their own) money in taking action for climate justice. So it was that I came to be in the Iona School in Nottingham on Easter Monday, 13th April 2009. In a hall packed full of committed climate activists I discovered the sheer scale of the unbelievably audacious covert operation and as I looked around I tried to imagine how we could possibly pull it off: we all suspect that undercover cops must operate within our networks. We were fed, given instructions concerning our target and duly sent to bed in one of various rooms in the school which had been hired out for the weekend. Having made sure that my day pack was ready (warm clothes, a book, some high energy food) I rolled out my sleeping mat, got into my pyjamas, stuffed ear plugs into my ears and settled down for a short night’s sleep before we headed down to Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal fired power station in the early hours of the morning.
Ratcliffe Disaster by Victoria Archer.
Ratcliffe has been the focus of quite a few climate change demonstrations, not least the Great Climate Swoop, a publicly advertised assault that took place on this huge coal powered station later in 2009. Ratcliffe-on-Soar was chosen because it is one of the biggest coal fired power stations in the UK and it’s owned by E.ON, who were the energy company behind plans to build a new coal fired power station at Kingsnorth (now shelved) and who were the focus of Climate Camp actions throughout 2008 and 2009. In the event of a successful shut down electricity for the surrounding area could easily be obtained from other sources.
Ratcliffe by Farzeen Jabbar.
As I went to bed there was an the air of the calm before the storm, especially after we received conflicting reports about a growing police presence near the power station. It just seemed so incredibly unlikely that out of the several hundred people involved in the planning of the action (including drivers, hosts, etc) no one could have let slip our plans. Nonetheless I was tired and soon fell asleep...
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Amelia Gregory @'Amelia's Magazine'
Welcome to Minegolia
For the first time in as long as anyone can seem to remember, there have been traffic jams in Ulan Bator -- a place previously known mainly either as the answer to a trivia question (Which capital city has the coldest average temperature?) or as a historical curiosity: Asia's Timbuktu, the fabled homeland of Genghis Khan. Until recently, the Mongolian capital had more horses than cars.
No longer. Mongolia is in the middle of an epic gold rush -- think San Francisco in 1849 -- but it's copper and coal that have enticed businessmen, investment bankers, and miners from London, Dallas, and Toronto by the planeload. Today, Ulan Bator is abuzz with talk of options and percentages, yields and initial public offerings. Not since the 13th century, when Genghis Khan consolidated the nomadic tribes of these remote steppes and established an empire that eventually spanned from Eastern Europe to Vietnam, has Mongolia seen so much action. The country's stock exchange (though still the world's smallest) rose 125 percent last year, and the IMF forecasts double-digit GDP growth rates for years to come. Others aren't nearly so pessimistic: Renaissance Capital -- an investment bank that specializes in emerging markets, one of many that have recently set up shop in Mongolia -- notes that overall economic output could quadruple by 2013.
"Mongolia is about to boom. Of that, there is no longer any doubt," says John P. Finigan, the Irish CEO of one of Mongolia's largest banks. A veteran of developing markets in scores of countries, he says the only comparable growth potential he has seen has been in the Persian Gulf oil states...
No longer. Mongolia is in the middle of an epic gold rush -- think San Francisco in 1849 -- but it's copper and coal that have enticed businessmen, investment bankers, and miners from London, Dallas, and Toronto by the planeload. Today, Ulan Bator is abuzz with talk of options and percentages, yields and initial public offerings. Not since the 13th century, when Genghis Khan consolidated the nomadic tribes of these remote steppes and established an empire that eventually spanned from Eastern Europe to Vietnam, has Mongolia seen so much action. The country's stock exchange (though still the world's smallest) rose 125 percent last year, and the IMF forecasts double-digit GDP growth rates for years to come. Others aren't nearly so pessimistic: Renaissance Capital -- an investment bank that specializes in emerging markets, one of many that have recently set up shop in Mongolia -- notes that overall economic output could quadruple by 2013.
"Mongolia is about to boom. Of that, there is no longer any doubt," says John P. Finigan, the Irish CEO of one of Mongolia's largest banks. A veteran of developing markets in scores of countries, he says the only comparable growth potential he has seen has been in the Persian Gulf oil states...
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Ron Gluckman @'FP'
When does that PR firm start working for you Julian?
iankatz1000 ian katz
Julian Assange: electronic tag he is required to wear under bail conditions is "like a chastity belt" http://bit.ly/g4echH (via @GregMitch)
Mark Kennedy: A journey from undercover cop to 'bona fide' activist
He turned up with long hair, tattoos and an insatiable appetite for climbing trees. Few people suspected anything odd of the man who introduced himself as Mark Stone on a dairy farm turned spiritual sanctuary in North Yorkshire.
He had come alone on 12 August 2003, in the middle of a heatwave, for a gathering of environmental activists known as Earth First.
Apart from the fact that "Stone" was apparently well-paid and ate meat, he appeared no different from the hundreds of other activists who gathered under marquees to smoke weed, play guitars and plan protests.
What no one could have known was that, despite appearances, the 33-year-old "freelance climber" was actually PC Mark Kennedy, an undercover police officer beginning an audacious operation to live deep undercover among environmental activists.
The Guardian can reveal just how successful – and controversial – the operation was.
From that day Kennedy would live a remarkable double life lasting more than seven years. So embedded in the protest community did he become that about 200 people turned up for a joint celebration of his 40th birthday, described as a "three-day bender" on a farm.
All were, of course, oblivious that Kennedy was feeding back detailed reports to his police commanders as he participated in, and sometimes even organised, some of the most high-profile demonstrations of the past decade...
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birgittaj Birgitta Jónsdóttir
heading for the airport - have to travel to Canada from Iceland via London instead of USA.
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