Sunday, 20 March 2011

First Navy video of Tomahawk missile launch from USS Barry

♪♫ The Waterboys - Whole of the Moon

♪♫ Neil Young - Shock & Awe

William Gibson
Operation Screaming Fist vs Operation Odyssey Dawn? Brutally effective in inverse proportion to sounding like high-end toilet paper?

The last recording by journalist Mohammad Nabbous, who was killed in Benghazi yesterday amidst a firefight:


Mohammad Nabbous, face of citizen journalism in Libya, is killed

Cameron says British forces are in action over Libya

British forces are in action over Libya, Prime Minister David Cameron has said.
A British submarine has fired a number of Tomahawk missiles at Libyan air defence targets, the Ministry of Defence added.
Mr Cameron said the action was "legal, necessary and right" and he praised the British forces involved as "the bravest of the brave".
France, US, Canada and Italy are also involved in the military action.
US officials said it was a "carefully coordinated" joint operation known as Odyssey Dawn.
French planes destroyed Libyan vehicles earlier on Saturday, and US media say the US has fired missiles at Libya from a warship.
'Appalling brutality' Defence sources told the BBC Britain had launched a number of missiles from Trafalgar class submarines in the Mediterranean, aimed at Libyan air defence targets including radar and surface-to-air missile weapons.
Libyan state TV reported that what it called the "crusader enemy" had bombed civilian areas of Tripoli, as well as fuel storage tanks supplying the western city of Misrata.
After hosting a meeting of the government's emergency management committee Cobra in Downing Street, Mr Cameron said: "British forces are in action over Libya. They are part of an international coalition to enforce the will of the United Nations.
"We have all seen the appalling brutality meted out by Col Gaddafi against his own people."
It was a "just cause" and in "Britain's best interests", he added.
British and US submarines fired 110 Tomahawks in total at Libyan targets.
The Chief of Defence Staff's strategic communications officer Maj Gen John Lorimer said: "This is the first stage. UK and partner forces remain engaged in ongoing operations as we seek to ensure that Col Gaddafi and his forces understand that the international community will not stand by and watch them kill civilians."
@'BBC'

U.S. Missiles Strike Libyan Air Defense Targets

American and European forces began a broad campaign of strikes against the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi on Saturday, unleashing warplanes and missiles in the first round of the largest international military intervention in the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon said.
Pentagon and NATO officials detailed a mission designed to impose a United Nations-sanctioned no-fly zone and keep Mr. Qaddafi from using airpower against beleaguered rebel forces in the east. While the overall effort was portrayed as mostly being led by France and Britain, the Pentagon said that American forces dominated an effort to knock out Libya’s air-defense systems.
In a briefing Saturday afternoon, Vice Adm. William Gortney told reporters that about 110 Tomahawk missiles, fired from American warships and submarines and one British submarine struck 20 air-defense targets around Tripoli, the capital, and the western city of Misurata. He said the strikes were against longer-range air defense missiles as well as early warning radar sites and main command-and-control communication centers.
President Obama, speaking during a visit to Brazil, reiterated promises that no American ground forces would be used. “I am deeply aware of the risks of any military action, no matter what limits we place on it,” he said. “I want the American people to know that the use of force is not our first choice, and it’s not a choice that I make lightly. But we can’t stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people that there will be no mercy.”
The campaign began soon after the close of a summit meeting in Paris, where leaders, reacting to news that Mr. Qaddafi’s forces were attacking the rebel capital city of Benghazi with artillery and ground troops despite international demands for a cease-fire, said they had no choice but to act to defend Libyan civilians and opposition forces.
“Our assessment is that the aggressive actions by Qaddafi forces continue in many places around the country,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said after the meeting in Paris concluded. “We saw it over the last 24 hours, and we’ve seen no real effort on the part of the Qaddafi forces to abide by a cease-fire despite the rhetoric.”
In Benghazi, a rebel fighter, speaking over the phone, described a procession of tanks as well as rooftop snipers fighting for pro-Qaddafi forces in the west of the city. And a steady stream of vehicles, some bearing rebel flags, was seen pouring out of Benghazi toward the rebel-held city of Bayda, where crowds were cheering the news that French airplanes were flying over the area. That news came even before the Paris summit meeting adjourned, with President Nicolas Sarkozy announcing that French warplanes had begun reconnaissance missions around Benghazi, and the French military saying that a Rafale jet fighter had destroyed a government tank near there.
Even though the leaders at the Paris summit meeting were united in supporting military action, there were signs of disagreement over how it would proceed...

Continue reading
Steven Erlanger & David D Kirpatrick @'NY Times'

Saturday, 19 March 2011

Suspension of disbelief

Japan's record of nuclear cover-ups and accidents

Diary of a Nudist

Bruce Sterling: Network Culture Is Incompatible with Representative Democracy




Via

Warren Christopher dies at 85

Reuters Top News
FLASH: Fighter plane shot down in eastern Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi - Reuters witness
One of Gaddafi`s the rebel's jets shot down at Benghazi (Confusion still as to whose jet it is)
AJELive
Reuters: Pro-democracy fighters retreating towards under attack from forces

'Limitless' Brain Potential? Humans Already Use Most of Their Brains

(Thanx SJX!)

Did Banksy's latest work bring misery to a homeless man?

History of Libya 1912-1969

A beautiful short documentary highlighting the key historical events that occurred in Libya between 1912 and 1969. This got me quite emotional as I saw a budding young Libya in its early spring, blossoming and reaching out to the world, and then suddenly it was cloaked in darkness…
Via

Michel Houellebecq vs. William Burroughs (Quotes)

Oil on Canvas: “William S. Burroughs 3″
Michel Houellebecq — the misanthropic, caninophilic French novelist — and William Burroughs both deploy thorough visions of the world. They proffer more or less elaborate cosmologies, ethics, and particularly critical assessments of humanity. And both view the act of writing in general, and their own writing in particular, as an active force doing some kind of battle, performing some kind of negotiation, with the powers of stupidity, evil, greed, and banality. Both understand the human universe as being at the mercy of non-human laws — for Houellebecq, it’s all species, biology, physics; for Burroughs, it’s biology, physics, magic.
But whereas Houellebecq sees a world of absolute bleakness, Burroughs sees a world of plenitude — filled with shit and bile and semen and stupidity and cruelty but full nonetheless. If Houellebecq offers a world heading to zero, Burroughs offers a world of infinite complexity.
On Society
Houellebecq
I don’t like this world. I definitely do not like it. The society in which I live disgusts me; advertising sickens me; computers make me puke.
Burroughs
America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers.
The Future of Humanity
Houellebecq
Few beings have ever been so impregnated, pierced to the core, by the conviction of the absolute futility of human aspiration. The universe is nothing but a furtive arrangement of elementary particles. A figure in transition toward chaos. That is what will finally prevail. The human race will disappear. Other races in turn will appear and disappear. And human actions are as free and as stripped of meaning as the unfettered movements of the elementary particles. Good, evil, morality, sentiments? Pure ‘Victorian fictions.’ All that exists is egotism. Cold, intact, and radiant.
Burroughs
Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole.
Youth and Dreams
Houellebecq
Adolescence is not only an important period in life, but that it is the only period where one may speak of life in the full sense of the word.
Burroughs
As a young child I wanted to be a writer because writers were rich and famous. They lounged around Singapore and Rangoon smoking opium in a yellow pongee silk suit. They sniffed cocaine in Mayfair and they penetrated forbidden swamps with a faithful native boy and lived in the native quarter of Tangier smoking hashish and languidly caressing a pet gazelle.
Influence
Houellebecq
I’ve lived so little that I tend to imagine I’m not going to die; it seems improbable that human existence can be reduced to so little; one imagines, in spite of oneself, that sooner or later something is bound to happen. A big mistake. A life can just as well be both empty and short. The days slip by indifferently, leaving neither trace nor memory; and then all of a sudden they stop.
Burroughs
I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. My affections, being concentrated over a few people, are not spread all over Hell in a vile attempt to placate sulky, worthless shits.
Sex
Houellebecq
In a perfectly liberal sexual system, some people have an exciting erotic life; others are reduced to masturbation and solitude.
Burroughs
There is nothing more provocative than minding your own business.
Love
Houellebecq
Love binds, and it binds forever. Good binds while evil unravels. Separation is another word for evil; it is also another word for deceit.
Burroughs
Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller. What there is. LOVE.
Daniel Coffeen @'Thought Catalog'

How to Remain Calm During Uneasy Times

Yemen unrest: 'Dozens killed' as gunmen target rally

Unidentified gunmen firing on an anti-government rally in the Yemeni capital Sanaa have killed at least 45 people and injured 270, doctors told the BBC.
The gunmen fired from rooftops overlooking the central square in what the opposition called a massacre.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh declared a national state of emergency but denied his forces were behind the shooting.
US President Barack Obama has condemned the violence, urging Mr Saleh to allow peaceful protests.
In a statement, he said those responsible for Friday's violence "must be held accountable".
Separately, France demanded an end to attacks "by security forces and armed pro-government groups... against people exercising their rights to free speech and demonstration", Reuters reports.
Yassin Noman, rotating president of Yemen's umbrella opposition group, was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying there was "no longer any possibility of mutual understanding" between the protesters and President Saleh, and he should resign.
Another opposition spokesman, Mohammad al-Sabri, accused Mr Saleh of presiding over a "massacre".
"This is part of a criminal plan to kill off the protesters, and the president and his relatives are responsible for the bloodshed in Yemen today," he told the Associated Press news agency.
Soon after the shooting in the capital, the country's Tourism Minister, Nabil al-Faqih, resigned in protest.
A month of violence has gripped Yemen and demonstrators reportedly gathered in other cities across the country on Friday:
  • In the city of Taez, security forces, tanks and armoured vehicles surrounded a square where protesters had gathered, and access to the square was blocked
  • In Mahweet, protesters reportedly captured five gunmen who had been firing at protesters; they were found inside the governor's house along with weapons and spent ammunition, eyewitnesses told the BBC
  • Tens of thousands attended the funeral of a protester in the southern port of Aden, AFP reports
Row of bodies
The BBC's Abdullah Ghorab in Sanaa says the level of anger over the casualties is unprecedented among Yemenis.
Map of Yemen
The declaration of an emergency is being seen by some as an attempt to find legal cover for suppressing peaceful protests and blocking media coverage, our correspondent adds.
Photographs from Sanaa showed bloodstained people being carried through crowds.
Other photos showed a row of dead bodies, with injuries which appeared to be consistent with bullet wounds, laid out in a mosque.
Doctors at a field hospital set up in the square, which protesters have named Taghyir (Arabic for "change") Square, issued an urgent call for blood, ambulances and medical supplies.
According to a statement from the field hospital, a total of 617 people were injured on Friday, 270 with gunshot wounds and 347 "poisoned by gas". Tear gas was fired by security forces during the day.
Abdul Malek Al-Yussefi, a doctor in the field hospital, told the BBC that what had happened in the square was a "crime in all possible terms".
"There was live ammo fired," he said.
"Many of the wounded are in critical condition. The injuries are mostly in the head and chest but there are also injuries all over the body. We have cases targeted randomly and others were clearly shot to be killed. Most of those killed were shot in the head and chest."
Announcing the state of emergency, President Saleh said the country's national defence council had decided to impose a curfew on "armed men in all cities".
"Security forces and armed forces will take responsibilities to maintain public security," he added.
Popular revolts
Yemen is one of a number of countries in the region that have seen unrest since the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia were ousted in popular revolts.
Thousands of people have turned out for regular demonstrations in cities including Sanaa, Aden, Taez, calling for corruption and unemployment to be tackled and demanding the president step down.
Some 40% of the population live on $2 (£1.20) a day or less in the country, and a third face food shortages.
The protests have often been met by riot police or supporters of President Saleh armed with knives and batons.
The president has been in power for 32 years, facing a separatist movement in the south, a branch of al-Qaeda, and a periodic conflict with Shia tribes in the north.
He has said he will not seek another term in office in 2013 but has vowed to defend his regime "with every drop of blood".
@'BBC'

The Wu master

Tim Wu
 
'We're in a critical period for the internet' . . . Tim Wu. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian 
The internet is under threat. At risk is what's known as "net neutrality", or the principle of free access for each user to every online site, regardless of content. That's the view of the man who coined the above term, Tim Wu, whose new book, The Master Switch, was published yesterday. It argues the internet now runs the risk of not just political censorship – as seen in Libya and Egypt, and in the American reaction to WikiLeaks – but that of commercial censorship, too. Monopolies such as Google and Apple may soon decide to choose which parts of the internet to give us – or switch off – and in some cases have already started to do so...
 Continue reading
Patrick Kingsley @'The Guardian'

Map: The 12 States of America

Will radiation hormesis protect us from exploding nuclear reactors?


Dear oh dear...things are bad when you are on O'Reilly's side! Coulter's a total fugn deadhead and is it my imagination or his her Adam's apple very prominent in this clip?

The Johann Hari podcast: Episode 2 - Israel's most hated man - and its most heroic


Gideon Levy is the most hated man in Israel – and perhaps the most heroic. This patriotic Israeli has been shot at repeatedly by the Israeli Defence Force, been threatened with being “beaten to a pulp” on the country’s streets, and faced demands from government ministers that he be tightly monitored as “a security risk.” This is because he has done something very simple, and something that almost no other Israeli has done.
Nearly every week for three decades, he has travelled to the Occupied Territories and described what he sees, plainly and without propaganda. “My modest mission,” he says, “is to prevent a situation in which many Israelis will be able to say, ‘We didn’t know.’” And for that, many people want him silenced.
In the latest edition of his podcast, Johann Hari interviews Levy about his life, his work, and the real way to achieve peace in the Middle East.
@'The Independent'

Inside Anonymous’ Secret War Room

♪♫ Alabama 3 - Woke Up This Morning (Acoustic)


Bonus interview after jump

Kosmische Gehackt und Geschraubt: Flash Strap Presents - Afrokraut•Control Car


They fiercely hated capitalism and colonialism and immoderately loved psychedelic drugs. They built self-managed nations and communities devoted to the inner space exploration, they were followers of polygamy and esoteric practices. They worshipped the rhythm.. and the ministers were Tony Allen and Jaki Liebezeit. At the out side, RAF urban guerrilla rioted and the Nigerian dictatorship put down the rebellion... and Allah could have been Marxist. Can, Faust, Fela Kuti & Africa 70, Neu!, Ofo the Black Planet, William Onyeabor, Harmonia are the stars of Krautrock and Afrobeat. It’s a journey through the sounds of a buried period, looking for improbable resemblances between seventies Africa and Germany.
-
Massimo Carozzi, for his excellent Afrokraut mix, listenable at Music City

"It's a plan of action through non-action. It's an observational/lenticular move, and it's the right move... It's an intended obfuscation; I think the implicit vibe that comes with something law enforcement related is aggression, control, all the dominant archetypes we can watch failing catastrophically at the moment. On Patrol is about flipping that vision: enforcement through perceptual strategies. On Patrol is a statement of place, a statement of being. It's not about patrolling. It's about getting On Patrol."- Camerone Stallones/ Sun Araw, describing the philosophy behind the concept of being On Patrol, also the name of his cosmically badass most recent full-length.
Inspired by the Afrokraut bridging suggested in part by Mr. Carozzi, and the truly evident connections that have always lived within the music itself; as well as the fine Mr. Araw's razor-sharp alchemy of, as he says, "70's classy: free jazz, krautrock, African music, etc.", in addition to the notable elements in his work of funkadelicism, dub, and old-school hip hop; and with considerable attention paid to Brother Murky's revelation of a comp, Purple Chicha Music-- I give you an effort of my own Man-Hours and Brain-Powers, Afrokraut•Control Car.
Stretching worldly Kraut grooves and Afro-psych/synth across space and time, utilizing the slurring technique of chopping and screwing to obtain a unity, to insist the intrinsic connection be felt more deeply in the blood, this set aims only slightly to make points and teach lessons about international musical kinship, instead skewing mightily in preference to the creation of audio-psychic fuel with which to find one's consciousness setting about going On Patrol to, in either the physical realm or otherwise. Observe and Conquer. Move through space like a secret genius, a jalopy wizard, a safari cyborg. You understand what I am advocating, I trust.
The set consists of two programs: the first, Afrokraut, the details of which has been fairly well fleshed out by now, and the second, Control Car, a rundown of similarly chopped late 70's/early 80's disco-funk cuts, largely of African-American or African origin. Control Car is Robocop funk, abandoned city steam vent soul-dubb jams. Originally slated to be a separate project, a review of the two programs side-by-side revealed a kinship that ran deep, one bolstering the other and creating a seriously trippy, groovy, dare I say, apocalyptically radical universe of active-minded, head-bobbing smolderers unrestricted by a simple thesis of duality-- friends, this is a trifecta.
Disregard the inherent pretension in these wordy paragraphs and get cerebrally primitive to these enjoyable musical experiments.

Program One: AFROKRAUT
1. I Want More- Can
2. Everyday- William Onyeabor
3. La Bomba (Stop Apartheid Worldwide!)- Neu!
4. Saduva- Gibson Kente
5. The Seven Game- Baka Pygmies/ Irmin Schmidt and Bruno Spoerri
6. I First U Last- N'Draman Blintch
7. One Thing (Or The Other)- Michael Karoli and Polly Eltes
8. Ceddo End Title- Manu Dibango

Program Two: CONTROL CAR
1. Wind It Up- Control
2. Break It!- Oby Onyioha
3. Over the Ledge (Rub Dub)- Ta'boo
4. Jungle Drums- Wild Fantasy
5. Them Crazy- Robo Arigo

Download @'Flash Strap'
(Thanx Stan!)

Funny that!

Reuters Top News
FLASH: Gaddafi forces continuing to advance toward Benghazi despite proclaimed ceasefire: U.S. National Security official
SNITCH

WikiLeaks Informant Lamo: I Would Have Leaked Helicopter Attack Video, Too

Michael Stipe, Viggo Mortensen, Daniel Ellsberg and Others Demand Obama Investigate Degrading Treatment of Bradley Manning

Ad break #14 (WTF???)

Via

Ex-Anonymous Hackers Plan To Out Group’s Members

Blake Hounshell
Clinton made another goof in Cairo that went unnoticed. Said she wanted to see a "secular" Egyptian state. Sure to be used against U.S.

“Nuclear Boy” Explains Japan’s Nuclear Crisis to Children


Japanese media artist Kazuhiko Hachiya created “Nuclear Boy,” an cartoon that explains his country’s current nuclear reactor crisis to children. The troubled Fukushima plant is played by Nuclear Boy, and the threat of a catastrophic meltdown is represented by his stomach upset. It’s an odd but earnest attempt to explain the evolving nuclear crisis to Japanese children.
via

Experimental Compound MER 17 and LSD-25: Psychosis (1955)


This film examines medical experiments to determine the efficacy of LSD-25 and MER 17 (Frenquel) on treating psychosis. Funded as part of the Central Intelligence Agency’s MKULTRA mind control research program during the 1950s.

National Archives and Records Administration
Experimental Compound MER 17 and LSD-25: Psychosis
National Security Council. Central Intelligence Agency. (09/18/1947 - 12/04/1981)
Experimental Compound MER 17 (Frenquel) and LSD-25: Psychosis. ARC Identifier 1634172 / Local Identifier 263.1057.

Download mpeg2 (1,5 GB)
Download ogg (155 MB)
Download mpeg 4 (134 MB)
Experimental Compound MER 17 and LSD-25: Psychosis @ archive.org
Unethical human experimentation in the United States @ wikipedia

via

Brian Jones at Joujouka (art by William S. Burroughs)

(For Frank in Paris XXX)

Blessed are the bean-counters, for they shall inherit the NHS 

(GB2011)

Various - Nihon Kizuna/Japan Disaster Relief (日本絆) [Teaser Mix]

Teaser mix for the compilation Nihon Kizuna (日本絆) featuring some of the exclusive tracks donated by artists worldwide to the relief effort for Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami victims.
The compilation will be available to buy from approx. 3pm GMT on March 18, 2011.
Featuring Kode 9, Kuedo, Rudi Zygadlo, Broken Haze, Circulations Records, All City Records, Daisuke Tanabe, Yosi Horikawa, XLII, Memory 9, Ninja Tune, Kid Kanevil, Om Unit, Paul White, One Handed Music, BD1982, Illum Sphere, Fink, Emika, Mux Mool, Ernest Gonzales, Paper Tiger, Sesped, Jay Scarlett, Elliott Yorke (Royalty), Kan Sano, Onra and many more.
Over 40 international artists have donated music for the Nihon Kizuna compilation in aid of the Japan disaster relief effort. Nihon Kizuna, or 日本絆 in Japanese roughly translates as ‘bond of friendship with Japan’.
Full details and more at www.nihonkizuna.com
Tracklist for teaser mix:
Danny Drive Thru - Prescience
Ernest Gonzales - Beneath The Surface
Mus.sck - Happiness Is The Best Face Lift
Nightwave - Hosukai Dream
Rudi Zygadlo - Perdu
Tatsuki - Mirror In Bologna
Kan Sano - Bless
Jay Scarlett - The Rising Sun
Kuedo - Zap
Primus Luta & Lonesome D - Lockdown
Pete SasQwax - Aggro A Go Go
Takuma Kanaiwa - Senpo World
Throwing Snow - The Luck Without
Elliott Yorke - Wormhole Squirm
Emika - Count Backwards
2phast - Japan
F.A.M.E - Real Surreal
Kper - Chotto
Kid Kanevil - One For Tokyo
[audio presentation]