The December Sound: The December Sound (Silver Album) 2007
31 minutes ago
Monday 20 June 2011
Sunday 19 June 2011
FookyMcFookerty Fooky McFookerty
@campbellclaret Oh and btw #TonyBlairIsaWarCriminal - That 1 was for Mr Brian Haw :)
@campbellclaret Oh and btw #TonyBlairIsaWarCriminal - That 1 was for Mr Brian Haw :)
Why We Need to Take Magic Mushrooms Seriously
A team from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine recently published results from a roughly year-long experiment. The researchers worked with 18 volunteers who were given pure psilocybin to measure how it affected people and how different dosages changed the experience. The subjects were screened for psychological health and given the drug in a pleasant environment, after preparatory guidance. They even had a soundtrack consisting of "classical and world music chosen to complement the arc of the psilocybin action, from onset, through the peak of the effects, and subsiding back to baseline."
The results? At high dosages people occasionally experienced fear, anxiety, or delusions. But the negative effects of those "bad trips" were easily mitigated by the reassuring researchers and didn't outlast the session. At more moderate doses, the results were almost unambiguously positive. Moreover, people didn't just appreciate the experience as fun; they found it spiritually meaningful, with lasting benefits.
As a piece on Newswise explains:
Looking back over a year later, most of the experiment’s 18 volunteers (94 percent) rated a psilocybin session as among the top five most or as the topmost spiritually significant experience of his or her life. [...] Most volunteers (89 percent) also reported positive changes in their behaviors, and those reports were corroborated by family members or others, the researchers say. The behavior changes most frequently cited were improved relationships with family and others, increased physical and psychological self-care, and increased devotion to spiritual practice.Reading the volunteers' first-hand reports of how the experiences affected them is a testament to their value. "More and more, sensuality and compassion and gratitude continue to unfold around me." "I try to judge less and forgive more." "I feel that I relate better in my marriage. There is more empathy." "I need less food to make me full. My alcohol use has diminished dramatically."
I'm not saying we should all start doing mushrooms. These were carefully measured doses, taken in a setting designed to be comfortable and supportive. There are certainly situations in which it would be dangerous or irresponsible to take psilocybin.
But these results illustrate the artificial dichotomy between medicine and recreational drugs in America. Stateside, Prozac is regarded as medicine, but psilocybin is a schedule 1 controlled substance like heroin. Americans assume that if some substance is made by nature instead of Eli Lilly, it can't be medicine. But if psilocybin has true psychiatric and emotional benefits, what's the difference? Sure, you can have a bad experience with psilocibin, but antidepressents like Prozac have been linked to suicidal thoughts, and it's hard to imagine a worse side effect than that. We also think that if a drug is used for fun, there must be something bad about it. But Vicodin and OxyContin are all still on the market. There are plenty of FDA-approved drugs that get used (and abused) recreationally.
We should aim to evaluate any drug objectively, whether it's made by an enormous pharmaceutical company or grows in the forest. If an engineered antidepressant generated reports like those from the volunteers in this study, it would be regarded as a breakthrough in psychiatric medicine.
Andrew Price @'GOOD'
How Magic Mushrooms Can Improve Your Life in the Long-Term
Virtual Futures 2.0'11 (Livestream NOW)
Virtual Futures - The University of Warwick's Cyber Conference. Bringing together leaders in the field of VR, bio-enhancement, ethics of emerging technologies and cyberculture.
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An Interview Without Words
How does an award-winning children's book illustrator answer questions? With drawings, of course. Australian author-illustrator Shaun Tan recently gave SPIEGEL an interview -- and expressed himself using just pen and paper.
Tan, who was born in 1974 in Perth, Australia, lives and works as an artist and author in Melbourne. His books include "The Rabbits," "The Red Tree," Tales from Outer Suburbia" and "The Arrival," an acclaimed wordless graphic novel about a migrant who leaves his home country for a better life. He has also worked as a concept artist on animated films, including "Horton Hears a Who" and "Wall-E."
Tan is the winner of this year's Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, one of the most prestigious prizes in children's literature. The award, administered by the Swedish Arts Council, comes with an endowment of 5 million Swedish krona (about €544,000 or $777,000).
SPIEGEL: Mr. Tan, you recently won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, a sort of Nobel Prize for picture book authors. Your success as an an illustrator and author is being celebrated around the world. But you are not yet a household name. Could you please introduce yourself?
Tan, who was born in 1974 in Perth, Australia, lives and works as an artist and author in Melbourne. His books include "The Rabbits," "The Red Tree," Tales from Outer Suburbia" and "The Arrival," an acclaimed wordless graphic novel about a migrant who leaves his home country for a better life. He has also worked as a concept artist on animated films, including "Horton Hears a Who" and "Wall-E."
Tan is the winner of this year's Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, one of the most prestigious prizes in children's literature. The award, administered by the Swedish Arts Council, comes with an endowment of 5 million Swedish krona (about €544,000 or $777,000).
SPIEGEL: Mr. Tan, you recently won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, a sort of Nobel Prize for picture book authors. Your success as an an illustrator and author is being celebrated around the world. But you are not yet a household name. Could you please introduce yourself?
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Bootsy_Collins Bootsy Collins
We lost another funkin' soldier y'all, Clarence "Big Man" Clemons. the Funkateer Nation will rise to this... http://fb.me/Hvkk51FX
The Amen Break (2004)
This fascinating, brilliant 20-minute video narrates the history of the "Amen Break," a six-second drum sample from the b-side of a chart-topping single from 1969. This sample was used extensively in early hiphop and sample-based music, and became the basis for drum-and-bass and jungle music -- a six-second clip that spawned several entire subcultures. Nate Harrison's 2004 video is a meditation on the ownership of culture, the nature of art and creativity, and the history of a remarkable music clip.
Clarence Clemons RIP
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Fleet Foxes On Piracy – Don’t Make Discs, Make Music
In an interview with Shortlist Magazaine, band leader Robin Pecknold does nothing to undermine that support.
“There’s nothing you can do about technology. When the product leaves the disc it’s not chained to a physical format any more. It’d be different if we were sculptors because you can’t download a sculpture — not yet, at least,” says Pecknold.
“We’re unlucky in that our medium of choice is easily transferable over the internet, but that shouldn’t really matter. You’re not trying to make discs — you’re trying to make music. The medium shouldn’t matter and people will still reward you by buying records or seeing shows if you do something that they like.”
“I’m a music fan and that’s what I do.”
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Saturday 18 June 2011
Can - 'Free Concert' excerpt (1972)
On February 3, 1972, Can held a free concert at Kölner Sporthalle in Cologne. They had just enjoyed a number one chart position in Germany with "Spoon" and more than 10,000 people attended. This concert came to be known as CAN-FREE-CONCERT and is featured on the Can Box video.
CAN-FREE-CONCERT was made by Peter Przygodda and Robby Müller. Przygodda has edited all of Wim Wenders' films, and Müller was Wenders' cinematographer on several occasions including the film "Paris Texas".
CAN-FREE-CONCERT was made by Peter Przygodda and Robby Müller. Przygodda has edited all of Wim Wenders' films, and Müller was Wenders' cinematographer on several occasions including the film "Paris Texas".
Timing
Taliban Evoke a Vietnam Flashback
simon_klingert Simon Klingert
So apparently a coordinated insurgent attack is underway in Kabul, while Karzai says "peace talks have started [..] and it is going well."
Resonance
Resonance is the vision of SR Partners; a collaborative project with over 30 independent visual and audio designers/studios. The aim was to explore the relationship between geometry and audio in unique ways.
SEE || Displace Studios and MoveMakeShake | Esteban Diacono | Heerko Groefsema | Jean-Paul Frenay | Jr.canest | KORB | Kultnation | Mate Steinforth | Matthias Müller | Momentary People | MRK | Murat Pak | Onur Senturk | Physalia studio | Polynoid | SR Partners | Thiago Maia | Tom Waterhouse | Tronic Studio | Spatial Harmonics Group
HEAR || Audionerve | Combustion | CypherAudio | David Kamp | Echolab | Hecq | Michael Fakesch | Mutant Jukebox | Radium Audio | Box Of Toys | Studio Takt | World Gang
resonance-film.com for more details and opportunities to get one of the limited edition Blu-Ray and DVD versions of the full film.
SR Partners are looking for opportunities to talk about the project and explain the process which we went through to get to this point. If you are interested in taking part in this and for future screenings and festivals please contact simon@sr-partners.co.uk
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Student who ran file sharing site TVShack could face extradition to US
The mother of a British student who is facing extradition to the United States over alleged copyright offences online has spoken of her anguish that he could face a possible jail sentence.
In a case carrying echoes of that of Gary McKinnon, the computer hacker who has spent years fighting US extradition, 23-year-old undergraduate Richard O'Dwyer was arrested late last month at the request of the US immigration and customs enforcement department.
Until last year, when police and US officials first visited him at his student accommodation in Sheffield, O'Dwyer ran a website called TVShack which provided links to other sites where users could download pirated versions of films and television shows. He appeared before magistrates in the capital this week for a preliminary hearing into the planned extradition, which he is fighting.
The case seemed "beyond belief", said O'Dwyer's mother, Julia, from Chesterfield. "The first he knew about it was this visit from the police and the American officials in November," she said. "He shut the website down the very next day and I don't think he expected it to go this far. But then in May he even had to spend a night in Wandsworth prison as the court was too slow for us to sort out his passport and bail.
"Richard's still studying in Sheffield. He's doing his best not to think about it. But it's a real strain for the family. I wake up every morning and think about it. What we can do? I'm no expert but I've read the extradition treaty from cover to cover."
It is the UK's 2003 extradition agreement with the US, campaigners say, which is at the centre of the problem. Much criticised in the case of McKinnon, it currently contains no provision for what is known legally as forum, which would allow a UK judge to consider whether a case is best heard in the UK or abroad.
O'Dwyer's mother says she is baffled why a case with no direct links to the US – her son last went there aged five – should be heard in the US. Her lawyers agree.
"The (computer) server was not based in the US at all," O'Dwyer's barrister, Ben Cooper, who has also been heavily involved in the McKinnon case, told Tuesday's hearing at Westminster magistrates court. "Mr O'Dwyer did not have copyrighted material on his website; he simply provided a link. The essential contention is that the correct forum for this trial is in fact here in Britain, where he was at all times."
Some experts on digital law question whether providing links to illegal downloads rather than directly hosting them would even constitute an offence in the UK. In February last year charges involving fraud and copyright against a similar site, TV-Links, were dismissed after a judge ruled that linking alone was not illegal.
"If it's an offence under UK law, then it has to be prosecuted and tested under UK law," said James Firth of the Open Digital Policy Organisation thinktank. "If there is no offence under UK law, then there is no 'victim' to copyright infringement and no case for extradition."
Civil liberties groups have also questioned why the government has not swiftly amended the extradition law by enacting a pre-existing but dormant forum clause, given that both coalition parties were heavily critical of it while in opposition. In September last year the home secretary, Theresa May, instead ordered a wider, year-long review of all extradition laws.
"The government hasn't acted in time. This is exactly what we warned against," said Isabella Sankey, director of policy for Liberty. "Enacting the forum amendment would have been quite simple. It's not that we're arguing that in every case where activity has taken place here we shouldn't allow people to be extradited. But we should at least be leaving our judges some discretion to look at the circumstances."
Prter Walker @'The Guardian'
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