All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
Miles Davis - Jazz Villa, St. Louis, Missouri, May/June 1963
35 minutes ago
Tuesday 31 May 2011
The English Surgeon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Marsh_%28neurosurgeon%29
What is it like to have God like surgical powers, yet to struggle against your own humanity? What is it like to try and save a life, and yet to fail? This film follows brain surgeon Henry Marsh as he openly confronts the dilemmas of the doctor patient relationship on his latest mission to Ukraine.
Henry is one of London's foremost brain surgeons, but despite being a pioneer in his field he stills rides an old pushbike to work and worries himself sick about the damage he can inflict on his patients. "When push comes to shove we can afford to lose an arm or a leg, but I am operating on people's thoughts and feelings...and if something goes wrong I can destroy that person's character ......forever".
Driven by the need to help others where he can, Henry has been going out to Kyiv for over 15 years to help improve upon the medieval brain surgery he witnessed there during his first visit in 1992. Today the patients see him as the great saviour from the West, desperate parents want him to save their child, and his Ukrainian colleague Igor Kurilets sees him as a guru and a benefactor. But for all the direct satisfaction he gets from going, Henry also sees grossly misdiagnosed patients, children who he can't save, and a lack of equipment and trained supporting staff. "It's like selling your soul to the devil, but what can you do? My son had a brain tumour as a baby and I was desperate for someone to help me. I simply can't walk away from that need in others".
It is this dilemma however, a dilemma of his own making that is what's so interesting about Henry, what lets his troubled and compassionate humanity through, and what is the universal theme at the centre of the film; the struggle to do good things in a selfish and flawed world.
"Henry, Henry why do you worry so much?" Igor often exclaims. Things are simpler for Igor because he has only one goal ahead of him; the creation of Ukraine's first independent neurosurgical clinic. Looking at a famous Kozak painting on his wall at home Igor exclaims that "Kozaks are the heroes of Ukraine...and a brain surgeon is just like a Kozak. It is an adventure - and I love it!"
Devoted to his patients, he has to work within the logistical and political constraints such a maverick career choice presents him with. Instead of an expensive medical drill for boring into patient's skulls, Igor has bought a cordless Bosch handyman drill from the local market; and because he needed rooms to rent for his independent clinic he has found a temporary refuge in the KGB hospital, the very place which for years housed people who tried to persecute him and Henry for working outside of the State system.
Ironies such as these abound in revolutionary Kyiv, and through patients such as Marian Dolishny we intimately witness life in this topsy-turvy land. Marian is very poor and is from a small town in Western Ukraine. His religious faith helps him cope with a brain tumour which is causing him severe epilepsy, but he knows that it will ultimately kill him.
Marian has been told that his tumour is inoperable in Ukraine, but Henry believes he can save him. To do so Marian must be awake throughout the entire operation however, and this surreal set of circumstances give rise to a dramatic, humorous and unforgettable 15 minute scene filmed with three cameras inside the operating theatre.
Shot over two chaotic weeks in the 2007 Ukrainian winter, the film establishes each of our characters at home, follows Henry and Marian to Kyiv, and then sees Henry work through the endless clinics of desperately ill people Igor wants him to treat. In some harrowing scenes we feel Henry's frustration as he agonises over who he can and can't save, yet we are also with him as he sets out to save Marian's life.
The emotional climax of the film is a journey to the South West of the country where Henry visits the mother of a young girl he tried to save by bringing her to England some years ago. Haunted by the failure to save her life, he shares a very emotional meal with Katya, and then visits the beautiful country cemetery where Tanya is buried. With nothing but the wind and the crows around him he confronts what it means to fail, but ultimately leaves us all feeling redeemed because of his ongoing willingness to try and help others where he can.
What is it like to have God like surgical powers, yet to struggle against your own humanity? What is it like to try and save a life, and yet to fail? This film follows brain surgeon Henry Marsh as he openly confronts the dilemmas of the doctor patient relationship on his latest mission to Ukraine.
Henry is one of London's foremost brain surgeons, but despite being a pioneer in his field he stills rides an old pushbike to work and worries himself sick about the damage he can inflict on his patients. "When push comes to shove we can afford to lose an arm or a leg, but I am operating on people's thoughts and feelings...and if something goes wrong I can destroy that person's character ......forever".
Driven by the need to help others where he can, Henry has been going out to Kyiv for over 15 years to help improve upon the medieval brain surgery he witnessed there during his first visit in 1992. Today the patients see him as the great saviour from the West, desperate parents want him to save their child, and his Ukrainian colleague Igor Kurilets sees him as a guru and a benefactor. But for all the direct satisfaction he gets from going, Henry also sees grossly misdiagnosed patients, children who he can't save, and a lack of equipment and trained supporting staff. "It's like selling your soul to the devil, but what can you do? My son had a brain tumour as a baby and I was desperate for someone to help me. I simply can't walk away from that need in others".
It is this dilemma however, a dilemma of his own making that is what's so interesting about Henry, what lets his troubled and compassionate humanity through, and what is the universal theme at the centre of the film; the struggle to do good things in a selfish and flawed world.
"Henry, Henry why do you worry so much?" Igor often exclaims. Things are simpler for Igor because he has only one goal ahead of him; the creation of Ukraine's first independent neurosurgical clinic. Looking at a famous Kozak painting on his wall at home Igor exclaims that "Kozaks are the heroes of Ukraine...and a brain surgeon is just like a Kozak. It is an adventure - and I love it!"
Devoted to his patients, he has to work within the logistical and political constraints such a maverick career choice presents him with. Instead of an expensive medical drill for boring into patient's skulls, Igor has bought a cordless Bosch handyman drill from the local market; and because he needed rooms to rent for his independent clinic he has found a temporary refuge in the KGB hospital, the very place which for years housed people who tried to persecute him and Henry for working outside of the State system.
Ironies such as these abound in revolutionary Kyiv, and through patients such as Marian Dolishny we intimately witness life in this topsy-turvy land. Marian is very poor and is from a small town in Western Ukraine. His religious faith helps him cope with a brain tumour which is causing him severe epilepsy, but he knows that it will ultimately kill him.
Marian has been told that his tumour is inoperable in Ukraine, but Henry believes he can save him. To do so Marian must be awake throughout the entire operation however, and this surreal set of circumstances give rise to a dramatic, humorous and unforgettable 15 minute scene filmed with three cameras inside the operating theatre.
Shot over two chaotic weeks in the 2007 Ukrainian winter, the film establishes each of our characters at home, follows Henry and Marian to Kyiv, and then sees Henry work through the endless clinics of desperately ill people Igor wants him to treat. In some harrowing scenes we feel Henry's frustration as he agonises over who he can and can't save, yet we are also with him as he sets out to save Marian's life.
The emotional climax of the film is a journey to the South West of the country where Henry visits the mother of a young girl he tried to save by bringing her to England some years ago. Haunted by the failure to save her life, he shares a very emotional meal with Katya, and then visits the beautiful country cemetery where Tanya is buried. With nothing but the wind and the crows around him he confronts what it means to fail, but ultimately leaves us all feeling redeemed because of his ongoing willingness to try and help others where he can.
Bjorn Rohde - Dub-Tech Session Live (20.05.11)
Download
Dubinator - G-Day
Subsistence - Biodub
Not The Fool - Reboot Remix - Marc Antona
The Swell - Marko Furstenberg, Reference
Microcosmos - Re-Drum
Awakening - Fingers In The Noise remix - 44Mind
New Dimention - DJ Disse
Horizons - Kostas Soubils
Koalips - Meson
Dubinator - G-Day
Subsistence - Biodub
Not The Fool - Reboot Remix - Marc Antona
The Swell - Marko Furstenberg, Reference
Microcosmos - Re-Drum
Awakening - Fingers In The Noise remix - 44Mind
New Dimention - DJ Disse
Horizons - Kostas Soubils
Koalips - Meson
Blatter says FIFA is not in crisis, only "in some difficulties"!!!
Transcript:
I’m happy to be with you and also on account of the new actuality I have decided and especially during this afternoon’s meeting of the executive committee to be with you alone and not at a dais with other people.
I just want to repeat what I’ve said and through messages given yesterday, the ethics committee has reached its decisions. I have no right to comment on it. I was even myself not in my privileged position. I repeat what I said: I regret what has happened in last days and weeks, it has done great damage to FIFA, but is also a great disappointment. For football fans, I’m speaking to football fans.
Today had meeting of executive committee, I am not giving you a lot of details. Our press department, documents will be distributed. But there have been one or two points that I want to inform you.
The executive committee of FIFA was very pleased to receive the report of the football association regarding allegations made on 10 May made by Lord David Triesman at House of Commons against four executive committee members, and we were happy that we can confirm there are no elements in this report which would even prompt any proceedings. But for the sake of transparency, FIFA and the F.A. agreed that a comprehensive summary of this report would be published and the summary can be read on FIFA.com/link. Happy also that we have not received any evidence from the Sunday Times or from any announced whistleblower with regards to allegations made against two other members of executive committee, therefore the same, what shall we do with elements in report? Nothing.
And World Cup 2022 is not touched by that, so is the World Cup 2018.
Concerning executive committee one or other information of importance, Japan will organized FIFA Club World Cup in December. We are happy after having been two years in United Arab Emirates, now back in Japan. Violá.
Then makes the same announcement in French.
We were in Conmebol in Conacaf, said to executive committee at 50-year anniversary of Concacaf I offered project elements that will be realized through structure of Goal project. These two things will be taken over by Goal institution and then will be presented to executive committee. In light of 50 years of Concacaf, that’s the way it works.
One important decision, Bosnia accepted change in statutes, therefore the ban is lifted and will be able to play as of June 3 in national and club competitions. We also settled problems with Brunei. And Indonesia can go on playing to June 30.
Now ready to take your questions, would insist again on the fact that this morning I went to four meetings of four confederations: UEFA, Conmebol, Oceania and Concacaf and invited everyone to show unity and solidarity concerning FIFA’s future.
Q: Evan White/Reuters: Last night ally Jack Warner told me that you should be stopped. Some reaction to statement.
A: Stopped? … I have no, reaction.
Q: From CCTV: Everyone knows is time for change and reform. What will you do for FIFA in next four years.
A: Thank you for your question. Just come back to ideas I’ve developed for the future exposed to executive committee today. One of these items on the agenda, there is one, zero tolerance. Zero tolerance on the field, referee is there with all his assistants, a group of six, even seven coming to the field to control a match. And zero tolerance outside the field of play. Means we have to reinforce the ethic committee to professionalize the committee to have professionalism. To look to our image and also need a new communication, a new tool and to have a better understanding with the you, the media, everybody in the media. Something we have to do. And more than that what we have to do in the congress to get a unity in solidarity and to look forward for next four years. Will not be an easy task together we can do it. Sure have been confirmed in meetings this morning, will be the same. We go together for the good of the game, for the fans and for the perception of our game in our society. Can play a major part not only on field of play, but outside the field of play.
Q: Brazil journalist: Some governments also asking that election be postponed?
A: If the want to intervene in FIFA organization something wrong. Think FIFA strong enough to build inside FIFA. Sure congress will show its unity and will solve their problems if there are any in the congress.
Q: Saudi newspaper: Media today talking about a crisis. Is it a crisis?
A: If somebody would describe to me a crisis? What is a crisis. If you see the Champions League you would applaud. We are only in some difficulties. And will be solved inside our family.
Q: Mr. Warner released details of and email from Mr. Valke saying that Qatar bought the World Cup. Can you give your backing to Mr. Valke. Is he becoming too politicized?
A: I will not answer this question. I am the president of FIFA, you cannot question me.
Outburst in the audience.
Blatter: I accepted to have a press conference with you alone here. I respect you, please respect me. If you ask for a question ask for the mic. We are not in a bazaar here, we are in FIFA House.
Q: You said a few minutes ago, that for Concacaf you offered two goal projects. Can you do that?
A: The FIFA president can do even more, but be approved by executive committee and the committee approved that. Certainly I can do that.
Q: BBC News: Now that two members suspended pending bribe investigation. Can you see why now there are calls to postpone Wednesday election.
A: If somebody wants to change something in the election or in the congress of Wednesday these are the members of FIFA this cannot be done by executive committee any authorities outside of FIFA, only the congress itself can do it with three-quarters of majority can change agenda.
Q: Reuters: How do you feel personally that Mr. Bin Hammam has pulled out of challenge of your presidency and now standing alone.
A: You should ask him why he pulled out. Personally I was prepared to go into an election process with another candidate and then the congress would have decided. Now the situation has changed.
Q: Sky Sports News: Say to those who want re-election for 2022 and you are a major problem for FIFA to change you should leave?
A: Two questions. Which one you want me to answer? Again bring back to congress of FIFA decide if I am a valid or nonvalid candidate and they have their say.
Q: Do you believe Qatar bid was clean?
A: I believe that the decision which we took for World Cup 2022 was done exactly clean in the same pattern and again say what I said at beginning of press conference there is no issue for the World Cup 2022.
Q: Norway journalist: FIFA reputation at lowest ever. How did it happen on your watch.
A: I tried to have the FIFA reputation at highest possible way. We are in a game, in this game will tell you there is a lot of gambling and not only on the field of play. Have to say at beginning of FIFA when I entered 36 years ago. We have no problems, until 1998, this was the modest FIFA. Now are a comfortable FIFA and because we are too comfortable and being in a game all the little devils can enter the game.
Q: African magazine: To say season of long knives in football would be an understatement. A situation where member of exco turned against themselves, how will you be able to sit in meetings and move forward after all that has happened.
A: If force, energy and moral. Repeat what said several times. I have not chosen members of executive committee. Are delegated by confederations. I have to deal with personalities that are there. Try to do best out of it. If we have now instruments to go into wrongdoing as we’ve proven in November and not later than yesterday. Something has changed in FIFA and will try to change more in future. I cannot change members of my government, not up to me.
More rumbling from the audience.
Blatter: I have asked for respect, I was respectful to you. …
Blatter walks off the stage as others try to ask questions. One more
Q: This is a press conference, and I thought is for asking questions. There are so many more people here who want to ask questions.
A: I have answered the questions and I thank you for your attendance.
Q: Said about ethics committed
A: I will not go into discussions with people who like to create problems. Just want to tell you one thing. You can laugh, that’s an attitude. So is respect. I have learned this in my life also as a journalist. When said is finished, then I said thank you...
lovefutebol Dave Phillips
As football fans demand Blatter resign. Email sepp.blatter@fifa.com with words "For the love of the beautiful game, stand down" #blatterout
ianprior ian prior
In summation, Blatter looked us square in the eye and insisted that nothing's wrong. Extraordinary, contemptuous performance.Blatter really is an deluded old khunst isn't he?
Monday 30 May 2011
North Korea's happiness index rank: China top, US bottom
According to the index, the happiest country in the world is China and North Korea is ranked no. 2. Interestingly, South Korea is ranked No.152 and the U.S. ranks last at No.203.
Chaoxian.com.cn sarcastically commented that "North Korea gladly gave the no. 1 spot to China and North Korea itself ranked no. 2. North Korea must be the happiest country in the universe."
China scored 100 points and was selected as the country where the happiest people live in and North Korea with 98 points, ranked at no. 2.
The top five rankings include Cuba (no. 3, 93 points), Iran (no.4, 88 points), and Venezuela (no.5, 85 points). South Korea, with 18 points, was placed at no.152 and the U.S. ranked no. 203 with its score not marked.
Free North Korea Broadcast, a South Korea based broadcast, commented that the North Koreans who are completely brainwashed, repeatedly proclaim "We are the happiest people in the world. I will trust ‘the General’ and always follow him only."
Some readers said the ranking is wrong as it seems to survey only those people who do not know the world. Therefore, precisely speaking, the happiness index of North Korea should be not no. 2 but no. 1 in their survey. Some even commented that the those who voted were not the common people but those who held power and authority in the government of North Korea.
Many Chinese have voiced their comments on the survey. Some of them include:
This happiness index refers to the government officials' happiness index in every country. - Leshanman
I seriously doubt on the authenticity of this rank and the IQ of the North Korean people. - taiyangfan
It's a good joke! - zengfugui
(China）is the first? Maybe it means the last? Why USA ranks 203? - bond99
Hehe, Talk sheer nonsense ... - xiaoxia
There is a minus before the rank number. It's actually - 100. - yueselansha
Kim Jong Il is a real sycophant today. - baimaojin
@'International Business Times'
How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory
The onetime Nixon operative has created the most profitable propaganda machine in history. Inside America's Unfair and Imbalanced Network
At the Fox News holiday party the year the network overtook archrival CNN in the cable ratings, tipsy employees were herded down to the basement of a Midtown bar in New York. As they gathered around a television mounted high on the wall, an image flashed to life, glowing bright in the darkened tavern: the MSNBC logo. A chorus of boos erupted among the Fox faithful. The CNN logo followed, and the catcalls multiplied. Then a third slide appeared, with a telling twist. In place of the logo for Fox News was a beneficent visage: the face of the network’s founder. The man known to his fiercest loyalists simply as "the Chairman" – Roger Ailes.“It was as though we were looking at Mao,” recalls Charlie Reina, a former Fox News producer. The Foxistas went wild. They let the dogs out. Woof! Woof! Woof! Even those who disliked the way Ailes runs his network joined in the display of fealty, given the culture of intimidation at Fox News. “It’s like the Soviet Union or China: People are always looking over their shoulders,” says a former executive with the network’s parent, News Corp. “There are people who turn people in.”
The key to decoding Fox News isn’t Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity. It isn’t even News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch. To understand what drives Fox News, and what its true purpose is, you must first understand Chairman Ailes. “He is Fox News,” says Jane Hall, a decade-long Fox commentator who defected over Ailes’ embrace of the fear-mongering Glenn Beck. “It’s his vision. It’s a reflection of him.”
Ailes runs the most profitable – and therefore least accountable – head of the News Corp. hydra. Fox News reaped an estimated profit of $816 million last year – nearly a fifth of Murdoch’s global haul. The cable channel’s earnings rivaled those of News Corp.’s entire film division, which includes 20th Century Fox, and helped offset a slump at Murdoch’s beloved newspapers unit, which took a $3 billion write-down after acquiring The Wall Street Journal. With its bare-bones newsgathering operation – Fox News has one-third the staff and 30 fewer bureaus than CNN – Ailes generates profit margins above 50 percent. Nearly half comes from advertising, and the rest is dues from cable companies. Fox News now reaches 100 million households, attracting more viewers than all other cable-news outlets combined, and Ailes aims for his network to “throw off a billion in profits...”
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Tim Dickinson @'Rolling Stone'
A MUST READ!
Beyond Afghanistan
A Regional Security Strategy for South and Central Asia
By Lieutenant General David W. Barno, USA (Ret.), Andrew Exum and Matthew Irvine
(PDF)
A Regional Security Strategy for South and Central Asia
By Lieutenant General David W. Barno, USA (Ret.), Andrew Exum and Matthew Irvine
(PDF)
'Syrian Uprising 2011'
"Syrians have suffered under a regime for long enough. This video is dedicated to those in Syria who have lost their lives in the name of freedom."
Thanks to @emilybarkerhalo for the link.
Faust - Interview with Jean-Hervé Peron
(Excerpt)
Why the name Faust?
'It is German for "fist" which is a symbol for revolution which is what we thought we were part of ... and maybe we were too :) Also it is the name of a work by Goethe where a man sells his soul to obtain what he longs for...and this what we were doing : selling our souls to the music industry in order to do the music we wanted to.'I will be catching both the Faust gig as part of the International Jazz Fest here in Melbourne and also the talk with J-HP the following day where I hope to at least present J-HP with an 'Exile On Moan Street' badge as I know he is reader of this blog.
The talk is free but bookings are essential.
TOTAL sleeve by Peter Saville and ParrisWakefield
Endeavouring to capture the essence of both Joy Division and New Order, Saville and Wakefield agreed that the Helvetica Heavy Italic used on the cover of New Order's Technique album, perfectly conveyed the band's graphic look, and also that, typographically speaking, Joy Division was predominantly uppercase. So for the cover of this new compilation, the pair decided to merge the two and set the word TOTAL in italicised upper case Helvetica Heavy.
Originally the word TOTAL, as below, was set to appear as large as possible so it fitted on the front cover. However the band decided there was too much white space.
"The 'O' was the sexiest letter," says Wakefield, "with the overlapping letter-forms alluding to the sleeve of New Order's Technique album and also to the band's 1989 single, Run 2. Funnily enough 'O' is also the only letter to appear in New Order, Joy Division and TOTAL." Wakefield decided to zoom in the 'O' and let the other letters wrap around the fold out CD insert. The letters also appear to wrap around from the back cover and the jewel case spine too.
Gavin Lucas @'CreativeReview'
When Children’s Scribbles Hide a Prison Drug
Cape May County Sheriff's Department
Suboxone (hint: the fish) was hidden in this coloring book
Mike Barrett, a corrections officer, ripped open an envelope in the mail room at the Maine Correctional Center here and eyed something suspicious: a Father’s Day card, sent a month early. He carefully felt the card and slit it open, looking for a substance that has made mail call here a different experience of late.Mr. Barrett and other prison officials nationwide are searching their facilities, mail and visitors for Suboxone, a drug used as a treatment for opiate addiction that has become coveted as contraband. Innovative smugglers have turned crushed Suboxone pills into a paste and spread it under stamps or over children’s artwork, including pages from a princess coloring book found in a New Jersey jail.
The drug also comes in thin strips, which dissolve under the tongue, that smugglers have tucked behind envelope seams and stamps.
“It’s become a crisis in here, to be honest with you,” said Maj. Francine Breton, administrator of the Cumberland County Jail in Portland, Me. “It’s the drug of choice right now.”
Law enforcement officials say that Suboxone, which is prescribed to treat addiction to heroin and powerful painkillers like oxycodone, has become a drug of abuse in its own right, resulting in prison smuggling efforts from New Mexico to Maine. Addicts buy it on the street when they cannot find or afford their drug of choice, to stave off the sickness that comes with withdrawal. But some people are also taking it for the high they say it provides.
After Suboxone strips were discovered in two letters, the Cumberland County Jail set a new rule in March that all inmate mail must arrive in white envelopes. That way, Major Breton said, officials can detect the orange tint of the strips when they hold an envelope up to the light.
The jail also rips the stamps off every piece of mail before delivery because senders were putting a paste made of crushed Suboxone pills on the back of stamps for inmates to lick off...
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BrandDNA Stan Lee
Given her unhappiness about paying tax on her earnings, perhaps Adele would prefer people get her music from a download blog.
Adele's tax grievances won't resonate with fans
Cate Blanchett sparks Australia climate debate
One leading opposition politician said the Oscar-winning actress did not understand the cost-of-living concerns of ordinary Australians.
She has been a strong advocate of steps to reduce Australian emissions.
Senator Barnaby Joyce said she should stick to acting, but the government and the Greens have rallied behind her.
It has been dubbed the Cate debate, and centres on the Oscar-winning actress's support for the government's controversial new carbon tax, which is bitterly opposed by the conservative opposition.
She features briefly in a new television campaign urging Australians to "Say Yes" to a tax on carbon.
Opponents of the carbon tax say it will increase the cost of living for ordinary Australians.
Mr Joyce, of the National Party, said the multi-millionaire star had no idea what it was like for working families struggling with rising costs.
One right-wing tabloid called her a morally vain Hollywood star trying to justify her great good fortune by preaching to the rest of Australia about climate change.
She has been the driving force behind what has been called the greening of the Sydney Theatre Company, where she is an artistic director. Her mansion in Sydney is fitted with solar panels.
The attacks on Cate Blanchett also reveal an instinctive suspicion of people in Australia perceived to be part of a cultural or educational elite - especially by the populist right.
The movie star, who has been backed by the government and the Australian Greens, has not responded publicly to the criticism.
Nick Bryant @'BBC'
Meanwhile Murdoch's stable continues its attacks on anything to do with climate change...oh and Bill Leak WTF?
This is about our children's world and our legacy to them and if we could just get the Gina and Twiggy's of this world to actually pay for the damage they are causing this continent and the world...
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