Friday, 15 July 2011
Thurston Moore In Concert
Recorded live at The Queen in Wilmington, Del., Moore performs here as part of the 11th annual NON-COMMvention on May 19.
Rachel Smith @'npr'
Rebekah Brooks resigns over phone-hacking scandal
The reputation of the company we love so much, as well as the press freedoms we value so highly, are all at risk.
As Chief Executive of the company, I feel a deep sense of responsibility for the people we have hurt and I want to reiterate how sorry I am for what we now know to have taken place.
I have believed that the right and responsible action has been to lead us through the heat of the crisis. However my desire to remain on the bridge has made me a focal point of the debate.
This is now detracting attention from all our honest endeavours to fix the problems of the past.
Therefore I have given Rupert and James Murdoch my resignation. While it has been a subject of discussion, this time my resignation has been accepted.
Rupert's wisdom, kindness and incisive advice has guided me throughout my career and James is an inspirational leader who has shown me great loyalty and friendship.
I would like to thank them both for their support.
I have worked here for 22 years and I know it to be part of the finest media company in the world.
News International is full of talented, professional and honourable people. I am proud to have been part of the team and lucky to know so many brilliant journalists and media executives.
I leave with the happiest of memories and an abundance of friends.
As you can imagine recent times have been tough. I now need to concentrate on correcting the distortions and rebutting the allegations about my record as a journalist, an editor and executive.
My resignation makes it possible for me to have the freedom and the time to give my full cooperation to all the current and future inquiries, the police investigations and the CMS appearance.
I am so grateful for all the messages of support. I have nothing but overwhelming respect for you and our millions of readers.
I wish every one of you all the best.
Rebekah
Via
Deciphered - Rebekah Brooks's resignation message
Psst? Wanna buy a reckid? (1951)
Filmed in wonderful color, this special promotional film was made in 1951 , it is 35 minutes long & is of perfect quality! This lost gem was never shown to the public & was used for promotional use only among record executives! It hasn't been seen in over 55 years!! What's on it? well, we get to see lots of great color footage of Hollywood landmarks first up.
Mel plays a record dealer who is desperately trying to sell anyone a record at the corner of Sunset & Vine streets in Hollywood, California. While pestering several people, (including Yogi Yorgeson!!), Billy May approaches playing a regular guy walking down the street, Mel takes him into his record store, (Wallichs Music City) & proceeds to pitch everything in the store to him.
In the end Billy won't pay the 85 cents for a record & Mel decides to show him exactly how records are made! They go over to the Capitol Records recording studios on Melrose Avenue & meet with Alan Livingston who takes them on a tour, here is where they run into several famous folks while getting into a little bit of mischief along the way! We get to see rare footage of Dean Martin in the studio actually recording one of his hit records! they run into Les Paul and Mary Ford, a vocal group, a country & western singer (Merle Travis?), and even Bozo the clown!
Via
Mel plays a record dealer who is desperately trying to sell anyone a record at the corner of Sunset & Vine streets in Hollywood, California. While pestering several people, (including Yogi Yorgeson!!), Billy May approaches playing a regular guy walking down the street, Mel takes him into his record store, (Wallichs Music City) & proceeds to pitch everything in the store to him.
In the end Billy won't pay the 85 cents for a record & Mel decides to show him exactly how records are made! They go over to the Capitol Records recording studios on Melrose Avenue & meet with Alan Livingston who takes them on a tour, here is where they run into several famous folks while getting into a little bit of mischief along the way! We get to see rare footage of Dean Martin in the studio actually recording one of his hit records! they run into Les Paul and Mary Ford, a vocal group, a country & western singer (Merle Travis?), and even Bozo the clown!
Via
Cory Doctorow: The phone-hacking scandal must not be used to rein in the press
The News of the World scandal was a long time brewing. We've had, quite literally, years of mounting outrage as the facts about Rupert Murdoch's tabloid empire and its ruthlessness, corruption and howling moral void oozed out whenever some whistleblower leaked more of the story, or an unbent copper finally got round to investigating the claims. Count me firmly in the camp who, on the one hand, would like nothing better than far-ranging investigation of the full scope of this kind of lawlessness and vigorous prosecution of all those implicated.
Likewise, count me in with the cynical observers betting that the folding up of NoW will be swiftly followed by a Sunday edition of the Sun or a similar gambit – that the NewsCorp empire will suffer no more than a bloodied nose from the scandal unless lawmakers and police do something about it.
But it seems that whenever I turn on the radio or read the papers, I'm confronted with politicians who begin by criticising NoW and NewsCorp, move on to other tabloids and press outlets whose bad deeds might come to light in the weeks to come, and then finish up with a general condemnation of "the press" who are said to be "too powerful."
And this is where you can count me right out.
For me, the phrase "the press is too powerful" is as chilling as "these elections are too time-consuming" or "this secret ballot is just a farce" or "due process is too expensive; we know who's guilty and who isn't." It is a contradiction in terms: for while it's possible for a particular company or cartel to be too powerful, the idea that the institution of the press is too powerful is Orwellian. If a media company grows too powerful, that generally means the press is not powerful enough: an all-eclipsing media empire blots out press freedom by monopolising distribution channels, distorting discourse and allying itself with this party or that in exchange for favours and (of course) more power. A powerful press is one built on vigorous, pluralistic debate, one that allows new voices to emerge and new points of view to be heard. The more diverse the press is, the more powerful it becomes.
"The press is too powerful" should be read as nothing less than a prelude to a proposal to regulate the press, specifically to increase liability for investigative journalists. We've already seen how this plays out: harsh libel laws intended to curb the tabloid press became a mere cost of business for enormous media empires. These empires grew even larger as they occupied the niches formerly occupied by smaller, more diverse, less wealthy media outlets that shrivelled up the first time they offended someone with the power to use a libel suit to silence them.
Increased liability for expression always favors the rich and powerful.
They're the ones who can hire sophisticated experts to help them come right up to the law's edge without slipping over it. They're the ones who can take risks and paper over their failures with cash settlements.
They're the ones who own their own infrastructure and don't have to convince a risk-averse cheap web host or high-street printer to make their material available.
Britain's punishing libel laws only incidentally affected the online world, but any press regulation that was crafted today would put the web straight in its crosshairs. Following from the litigation pattern of recent years, it would take aim at anonymous commentary, seeking to hold publishers and online service providers to account for comments left by their users. It would look for the deepest pockets in the system – say, Google (YouTube, Blogger), Facebook or Twitter – and seek to put them in the position of pre-emptively filtering out potentially risky speech.
It will undoubtably serve as yet another excuse for expanding Britain's Great Firewall, currently under consideration by Ed Vaizey for use by entertainment barons to blacklist sites whose copyright stance annoys them.
These laws and systems are more likely to shut down UK Uncut's reports from the street, WikiLeaks's cable dumps, and children who complain about their head teachers, than they are to put a scratch on Rupert Murdoch and his family. After all, the former have no lobbyists in Whitehall to make sure that the "modest, sensible press regulation" doesn't shut down their free speech, while Murdoch's profitable speech will fund an army of gladhanders to ensure that any law that emerges is as favourable as possible to them. Whatever changes they can't secure in the legislation itself will nevertheless be easier for the rich and powerful to buy their way around than the lone blogger, the community watchdog at the council meeting, the kid in a police kettle tweeting from her phone.
I'd love to watch the Murdochs twist in the wind as much as anyone, and I hope they do. But whatever pleasure their comeuppance gives, it shouldn't be an excuse for an attack on the power of the press itself.
There is no law regarding the press or journalists that won't end up entangled in the affairs of everyday internet users who concern themselves with the world around them.
We don't need press regulation. We need vigorous enforcement of existing laws against phone hacking. We need thorough investigations into the machinations that caused Scotland Yard to declare the issue a non-issue and a closed case. We need rules about privacy invasion that are aimed not merely at "journalists" (whatever that means in this day and age) but at everyone who is collecting information on you, from the neighbour who installs a CCTV that captures your every coming and going, to the government itself — and the Murdochs and their private investigators, too.
@'The Guardian'
Likewise, count me in with the cynical observers betting that the folding up of NoW will be swiftly followed by a Sunday edition of the Sun or a similar gambit – that the NewsCorp empire will suffer no more than a bloodied nose from the scandal unless lawmakers and police do something about it.
But it seems that whenever I turn on the radio or read the papers, I'm confronted with politicians who begin by criticising NoW and NewsCorp, move on to other tabloids and press outlets whose bad deeds might come to light in the weeks to come, and then finish up with a general condemnation of "the press" who are said to be "too powerful."
And this is where you can count me right out.
For me, the phrase "the press is too powerful" is as chilling as "these elections are too time-consuming" or "this secret ballot is just a farce" or "due process is too expensive; we know who's guilty and who isn't." It is a contradiction in terms: for while it's possible for a particular company or cartel to be too powerful, the idea that the institution of the press is too powerful is Orwellian. If a media company grows too powerful, that generally means the press is not powerful enough: an all-eclipsing media empire blots out press freedom by monopolising distribution channels, distorting discourse and allying itself with this party or that in exchange for favours and (of course) more power. A powerful press is one built on vigorous, pluralistic debate, one that allows new voices to emerge and new points of view to be heard. The more diverse the press is, the more powerful it becomes.
"The press is too powerful" should be read as nothing less than a prelude to a proposal to regulate the press, specifically to increase liability for investigative journalists. We've already seen how this plays out: harsh libel laws intended to curb the tabloid press became a mere cost of business for enormous media empires. These empires grew even larger as they occupied the niches formerly occupied by smaller, more diverse, less wealthy media outlets that shrivelled up the first time they offended someone with the power to use a libel suit to silence them.
Increased liability for expression always favors the rich and powerful.
They're the ones who can hire sophisticated experts to help them come right up to the law's edge without slipping over it. They're the ones who can take risks and paper over their failures with cash settlements.
They're the ones who own their own infrastructure and don't have to convince a risk-averse cheap web host or high-street printer to make their material available.
Britain's punishing libel laws only incidentally affected the online world, but any press regulation that was crafted today would put the web straight in its crosshairs. Following from the litigation pattern of recent years, it would take aim at anonymous commentary, seeking to hold publishers and online service providers to account for comments left by their users. It would look for the deepest pockets in the system – say, Google (YouTube, Blogger), Facebook or Twitter – and seek to put them in the position of pre-emptively filtering out potentially risky speech.
It will undoubtably serve as yet another excuse for expanding Britain's Great Firewall, currently under consideration by Ed Vaizey for use by entertainment barons to blacklist sites whose copyright stance annoys them.
These laws and systems are more likely to shut down UK Uncut's reports from the street, WikiLeaks's cable dumps, and children who complain about their head teachers, than they are to put a scratch on Rupert Murdoch and his family. After all, the former have no lobbyists in Whitehall to make sure that the "modest, sensible press regulation" doesn't shut down their free speech, while Murdoch's profitable speech will fund an army of gladhanders to ensure that any law that emerges is as favourable as possible to them. Whatever changes they can't secure in the legislation itself will nevertheless be easier for the rich and powerful to buy their way around than the lone blogger, the community watchdog at the council meeting, the kid in a police kettle tweeting from her phone.
I'd love to watch the Murdochs twist in the wind as much as anyone, and I hope they do. But whatever pleasure their comeuppance gives, it shouldn't be an excuse for an attack on the power of the press itself.
There is no law regarding the press or journalists that won't end up entangled in the affairs of everyday internet users who concern themselves with the world around them.
We don't need press regulation. We need vigorous enforcement of existing laws against phone hacking. We need thorough investigations into the machinations that caused Scotland Yard to declare the issue a non-issue and a closed case. We need rules about privacy invasion that are aimed not merely at "journalists" (whatever that means in this day and age) but at everyone who is collecting information on you, from the neighbour who installs a CCTV that captures your every coming and going, to the government itself — and the Murdochs and their private investigators, too.
@'The Guardian'
Wake Up and Smell the Terpenes! How Cannabis Works
The chemical structure of tetrahyrdocannabinol (THC) was determined in 1964 by Raphael Mechoulam and Yechiel Gaoni. For more than three decades thereafter, its blatant psychoactivity induced scientists to define THC as the active ingredient in the plant.
Experienced marijuana smokers who tried the drug Marinol (pure, synthetic THC) when it became prescribable in the mid-1980s, reported that the effects were noticeably dissimilar. But it wasn’t until the late 1990s that the research establishment acknowledged that another compound, cannabidiol (CBD), was exerting significant effects, too.
In 1999 a British start-up, G.W. Pharmaceuticals, began clinical trials of a plant extract containing equal amounts of THC and CBD. Multiple Sclerosis patients found the combination more effective in reducing pain and spasticity than a THC extract, and less psychoactive. The THC-CBD combo, “Sativex,” has now been approved for use by MS patients in England, Canada, New Zealand, and a growing list of European countries.
Several of the so-called “minor cannabinoids” —notably tetrahydrocannabavarin (THCV), cannabigerol (CBG) and cannabichromene (CBC)— also show therapeutic promise, and plants with high levels of each have been grown out in G.W.’s glasshouses for research purposes.
Now scientists are formally acknowledging something else that Cannabis consumers have long taken for granted: aroma is associated with effect.
Plant cannabinoids —21-carbon molecules found only in Cannabis— are odorless. It’s the terpenoids —components of the plant’s “essential oils”— that create the fragrance. Terpenoids contain repeating units of a 5-carbon molecule called isoprene, and are prevalent in smelly herbs such as mints and sage, citrus peel, some flowers, aromatic barks and woods. The aroma of a given plant depends on which terpenoids predominate. They tend to be volatile molecules that readily evaporate, and they’re very potent —all it takes is a few reaching the nose to announce their presence. The cannabinoid content of a trichome might be 10 times heavier than the terpenoid content.
Evidence that “phytocannabinoid-terpenoid interactions” enhance the therapeutic effects of cannabis was presented by Ethan Russo, MD, at a conference in Israel last fall and is about to be published in the British Journal of Pharmacology. Russo, a neurologist and ethnobotanist,, is senior medical adviser at G.W. Pharmaceuticals.
Terpenoids and cannabinoids are both secreted inside the Cannabis plant’s glandular trichomes and they have a parent compound in common (geranyl pyrophosphate). More than 100 terpenoids have been identified in Cannabis. The most common and most studied include limonene, myrcene, alpha-pinene, linalool, beta-caryophyllene, caryophyllene oxide, nerolidol and phytol. Anecdotal evidence suggests that alpha-pinene is alerting, limonene is “sunshine-y,” and beta-myrcene is sedating...
Experienced marijuana smokers who tried the drug Marinol (pure, synthetic THC) when it became prescribable in the mid-1980s, reported that the effects were noticeably dissimilar. But it wasn’t until the late 1990s that the research establishment acknowledged that another compound, cannabidiol (CBD), was exerting significant effects, too.
In 1999 a British start-up, G.W. Pharmaceuticals, began clinical trials of a plant extract containing equal amounts of THC and CBD. Multiple Sclerosis patients found the combination more effective in reducing pain and spasticity than a THC extract, and less psychoactive. The THC-CBD combo, “Sativex,” has now been approved for use by MS patients in England, Canada, New Zealand, and a growing list of European countries.
Several of the so-called “minor cannabinoids” —notably tetrahydrocannabavarin (THCV), cannabigerol (CBG) and cannabichromene (CBC)— also show therapeutic promise, and plants with high levels of each have been grown out in G.W.’s glasshouses for research purposes.
Now scientists are formally acknowledging something else that Cannabis consumers have long taken for granted: aroma is associated with effect.
Plant cannabinoids —21-carbon molecules found only in Cannabis— are odorless. It’s the terpenoids —components of the plant’s “essential oils”— that create the fragrance. Terpenoids contain repeating units of a 5-carbon molecule called isoprene, and are prevalent in smelly herbs such as mints and sage, citrus peel, some flowers, aromatic barks and woods. The aroma of a given plant depends on which terpenoids predominate. They tend to be volatile molecules that readily evaporate, and they’re very potent —all it takes is a few reaching the nose to announce their presence. The cannabinoid content of a trichome might be 10 times heavier than the terpenoid content.
Evidence that “phytocannabinoid-terpenoid interactions” enhance the therapeutic effects of cannabis was presented by Ethan Russo, MD, at a conference in Israel last fall and is about to be published in the British Journal of Pharmacology. Russo, a neurologist and ethnobotanist,, is senior medical adviser at G.W. Pharmaceuticals.
Terpenoids and cannabinoids are both secreted inside the Cannabis plant’s glandular trichomes and they have a parent compound in common (geranyl pyrophosphate). More than 100 terpenoids have been identified in Cannabis. The most common and most studied include limonene, myrcene, alpha-pinene, linalool, beta-caryophyllene, caryophyllene oxide, nerolidol and phytol. Anecdotal evidence suggests that alpha-pinene is alerting, limonene is “sunshine-y,” and beta-myrcene is sedating...
Continue reading
Fred Gardner @'Counterpunch'
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Billy Bragg: Liverpool was right about News International all along
Football scarves from around the world pictured at the Hillsborough memorial on the 20th anniversary of the disaster in which 96 fans died. Many Liverpudlians still boycott the Sun over its coverage of the disaster. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA
For the past 22 years, people in Liverpool have boycotted the Sun newspaper because of the lies that it printed about the behaviour of Liverpool FC fans at the Hillsborough disaster. Ninety-six people were crushed to death at Hillsborough in Sheffield on 15 April 1989. The Sun ran a front page story that accused Liverpool supporters of variously robbing and urinating on the dead bodies of the victims as they were laid along the touchline. The reports were totally unfounded. Since then, many people in Liverpool have refused to buy the Sun on principle.As I listened to the unfolding reports of the phone-hacking story last week, it occurred to me that the scousers had been right about News International all along.
@'The Guardian'
Download For the past 22 years, people in Liverpool have boycotted the Sun newspaper because of the lies that it printed about the behaviour of Liverpool FC fans at the Hillsborough disaster. Ninety-six people were crushed to death at Hillsborough in Sheffield on 15 April 1989. The Sun ran a front page story that accused Liverpool supporters of variously robbing and urinating on the dead bodies of the victims as they were laid along the touchline. The reports were totally unfounded. Since then, many people in Liverpool have refused to buy the Sun on principle.As I listened to the unfolding reports of the phone-hacking story last week, it occurred to me that the scousers had been right about News International all along.
@'The Guardian'
Don't Buy The Sun
A tale of two worlds: Apocalypse, 4Chan, WikiLeaks and the silent protocol wars
What has become manifest since late November 2010, with the release of what is now known as ‘The US Embassy Cables’, is that the narrative implicit in the WikiLeaks logo, that of a world disjunct, not only fits the WikiLeaks saga but describes a greater struggle of global power, held diffusely by transnational corporations and enforced by governments around the world. This power is under attack by a relatively new actor that can be called, for now, the autonomous network.
The conditions that allow the network to challenge the power of governments and corporations can be traced to the origin of the Internet and the Cold War zeitgeist that made the network we know possible. It was only because Cold War strategists had to narrate to themselves the unfolding of what was known as the ‘worst-case scenario’ (the moment after a thermonuclear apocalypse was under way) that a computer network with the characteristics of the Internet was implemented. The idea of the apocalypse was so extraordinary that it allowed for the radical thinking that resulted in the TCP/IP computer protocol suite, a resilient network protocol that makes the end user of the network its primary agent. The design philosophy of the Internet protocols represents a clean break from the epistemes and continuums that had historically informed the evolution of Western power, as traced by Foucault and Deleuze from sovereign societies to disciplinary societies to societies of control.
The main goal of the early Internet was to provide a survivor with a versatile tool that could make him an empowered agent in an utterly hostile post-apocalyptic world. The TCP/IP protocol suite structures the network around three exceptional characteristics: (1) it essentially bypasses the need for central structures, establishing a network based on the principle of end-to-end (or peer-to-peer) communication; (2) it provides maximum resilience of communication in a hostile environment through the model of distribution; and (3) it is neutral to the information being distributed. These characteristics at the protocol level defined the network as, literally, out of control.
‘The early Internet was so accidental, it also was free and open in this sense [as a commons]’,1 Steve Wozniak says. To produce a commons is indeed an accident for Empire. Dismissed as a never-meant-for-the-masses autonomous zone, by and for the military and academia, it was allowed to evolve out of control. But this accident that happened because of daydreaming an extreme future never stopped happening. It evolved. At some point it gained an accessible graphic interface, and spilled all over the globe. By then it was too late to disarm what is now the increasingly contentious coexistence of two worlds, as the WikiLeaks logo registers. One world is a pre-apocalyptic capitalistic society of individualism, profit and control; the other a post-apocalyptic community of self-regulating collaborative survivors. The conflict arises from an essential paradox: because the web exists, both worlds need it in order to prevail over the other...
Continue reading
Nicolas Mendoza @'Radical Philosophy'
Scuba - Essential Mix (Live @ Sonar 2011)
Scuba Live @ Sonar 25.Jun.2011
Boddika ‘Rubba’ Swamp81
Brawther ‘Spaceman Funk (George FitzGerald Remix)’ Secretsundaze
Boddika ‘Windy’
Jon Convex ‘Pop That P’
Deadboy ‘Wish U Were Here’ Numbers
SCB ‘Mace’ SCB
Jichael Mackson ‘Gti’ Stock5
Paul Woolford & Psychotron ‘Stolen’
Joy O ‘Ellipsis'
Maurice Donovan ‘Babeh’ SSSSS
Rod ‘Malmok One’ Klockworks
Scuba ‘Adrenalin’
Beaumont ‘Lucky’ Kinnego
Marcel Dettmann ‘Lattice’ MDR
SCB ‘Loss’ Aus Music
Boddika ‘Acid Battery’
Tommy Four Seven ‘Surma’ CLR
Scuba ‘Feel It’ Hotflush
Via
Boddika ‘Rubba’ Swamp81
Brawther ‘Spaceman Funk (George FitzGerald Remix)’ Secretsundaze
Boddika ‘Windy’
Jon Convex ‘Pop That P’
Deadboy ‘Wish U Were Here’ Numbers
SCB ‘Mace’ SCB
Jichael Mackson ‘Gti’ Stock5
Paul Woolford & Psychotron ‘Stolen’
Joy O ‘Ellipsis'
Maurice Donovan ‘Babeh’ SSSSS
Rod ‘Malmok One’ Klockworks
Scuba ‘Adrenalin’
Beaumont ‘Lucky’ Kinnego
Marcel Dettmann ‘Lattice’ MDR
SCB ‘Loss’ Aus Music
Boddika ‘Acid Battery’
Tommy Four Seven ‘Surma’ CLR
Scuba ‘Feel It’ Hotflush
Via
Mr Scruff live DJ mix from Band On The Wall, Manchester (July 9th 2011)
Big thanks to everyone at Saturday's Band on the Wall gig, a lovely mixed crowd as always! This mix has an exceedingly mellow intro, so put your feet up, relax & press play!
To download this mix (for 3 weeks only) go to http://www.mrscruff.com, click on 'download code' & enter the code 'Bs97kw'. In return, it would be great if you would sign up to the Mr. Scruff mailing list (if you haven't already).. link here.. http://www.mrscruff.com/showscreen.php?site_id=9&screentype=folder&screenid=434
Vodafone Hacked - Root Password published
The Hacker's Choice (http://www.thc.org) announced a security problem with Vodafone's Mobile Phone Network today.
An attacker can listen to _any_ UK Vodafone customer's phone call.
An attacker can exploit a vulnerability in 3G/UMTS/WCDMA - the latest and most secure mobile phone standard in use today.
The technical details are available at http://wiki.thc.org/vodafone.
THC was not immediately available for comments but an associated member of the group commented that 'the problem lies within Vodafone's Sure Signal / Femto equipment'.
A Femto Cell is a tiny little home router which boosts the 3G Phone signal. It's available from the Vodafone Store to any customer for 160 GBP.
THC managed to reverse engineer - a process of revealing the secrets - of the equipment. THC is now able to turn this Femto Cell into a full blown 3G/UMTC/WCDMA interception device...
The Edge Pens Personal Letter To Baltimore Sun Over U2 Tax Evasion Accusations
Full story HEREThe recent letter to the editor entitled, “Senator Cardin’s affection for Bono’s foundation is indefensible,” (July 7) by Simon Moroney contains so many inaccuracies that it is pointless to attempt to correct them all.
But the most serious inaccuracy is the totally false and possibly libelous accusation that U2 and Bono have, by moving a part of their business activities to Holland, been involved in tax evasion.
For the record U2 and the individual band members have a totally clean record with every jurisdiction to which they are required to pay tax and have never been and will never be involved in tax evasion…
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