The Ripps - Long Live The Ripps
21 minutes ago
Thursday, 18 August 2011
♪♫ Fried Dähn - Cuento
One of germanys leading artists on the electric cello.
camera: hanna smitmans. recorded summer 2009.
www.friedstyle.com
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
What laws did BART break or bend on August 11th when they cut cell service?
There is no precedent for communication disruption by a government transportation authority in U.S. history, but it’s certain that laws were broken. Specifically, the California & U.S. Constitution, and the Communications Act of 1934 which is enforced by the FCC. For a good overview of the issues and recent news (especially regarding the protest on Monday Aug 15th which shut down all downtown BART stations), there’s an excellent overview at SFAppeal.
During an interview on CNN with Brooke Baldwin, Linton Johnson (Chief of Communications for BART) referred to cell service as an “amenity” and returned time and time again to an invented “Constitutional right to safety” or the right to get from “point A to point B”, both of which do not exist:
“They made us choose between people’s ability to use their mobile phones. An amenity that we provide–and our customer’s constitutional right to be able to get from point a to point b which is what we’re in business for…. [People made us] take the very tool that we put in place … the mobile phone as a safety tool.. to turn it around and use it against our customers to try to violate their constitutional right to safety...”
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Daniel @'MONEYDICK'
The (Continuing) Adventures of the Manly Men
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have gone on a joint fishing trip to the country's most beloved river -- the Volga. The politicians headed for the southwestern city of Astrakhan on Tuesday to relax, do some fishing and even try their hand at underwater hunting. After a short speed-boat trip, Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin took the covers off their spinning rods and the president was lucky enough to pull a mid-sized pike out of the Volga depths. Dmitry Medvedev put his well-known photography skills to the test during an underwater photo shoot using a special camera. It is not the first time the two have spent quality time together. They have already shared the pleasures of mountain-skiing and bicycle rides, and played badminton while at home in Moscow. The tandem's vacation on the Volga River has showcased both leaders' support for free fishing in Russia, and their willingness to safeguard this traditional activity for all of Russia's citizens.
8 Hours in Brooklyn
All footage was shot within an 8 hour span in Brooklyn, NYC
Check out our blog for more info:
nextlevelpictures.com/blog/2011/8/11/8-hours-in-brooklyn-w-the-phantom-flex.html
Shot on Rule Boston Camera's Phantom Flex camera.
Director/Cinematographer: Jonathan Bregel
Color Grade: Khalid Mohtaseb
Production NGAFers: Dan Selby, Jesse Korman, Chris Dowsett
Executive Producer: James Douglas
Production Company: Next Level Pictures
Song used: Skream - Where You Should Be
Via
gypsylantern Stephen Grasso
Talk at Treadwells tonight on London psychogeography. Feds can't stop it. Tell all badman. No snitchboys.
The American Dream: R. Buckminster Fuller, William S. Burroughs & Allen Ginsberg (9th February 1976)
On '9 in the Morning' WTOP-TV, Washington, D.C.
CIA told Kennedy in 1960 that Cuba invasion plan was 'unachievable'
The released documents contain a number of interesting revelations including a friendly-fire incident during which one of the CIA transport boat shot at one of the invasion force's own planes. Most interesting for presidential historians may be the minutes of a briefing given to President-Elect Kennedy on Nov. 15, 1960, during which the CIA task force expressed skepticism about whether the mission was viable with the small invasion force that the administration insisted upon, in order to maintain plausible deniability. They wrote:
Our [CIA's] original concept is now seen to be unachievable in the face of the controls Castro has institutued. There will not be the internal unrest earlier believed possible, nor will the defenses permit the type strike first planned. Our second concept (1,500-3,000 man force to secure a beach with airstrip) is also now seen to be unachievable, except as a joing Agency/DOD action. Our Guatemala experience demonstrates we cannot staff nor otherwise timely create the base and lift needed.Reviewing the (still-classified) minutes decades later, Pfeffer wrote:
How, if in mid-November 1960 the concept of the 1,500-3,000 man force to secure a beachhead with an airstrip was envisioned by the senior personnel ... as "unachievable" except as a joint CIA/DOD effort, did it become "achievable" in March 1961 with only 1,200 men and as an Agency operation?Good question, and perhaps some more ammunition for Tom Ricks' contention that Kennedy was "the worst American president of the previous century."
Joshua Keating @'FP'
Chain Reaction w/ Peter Hook & John Cooper Clarke
After Rhys Thomas interviewed Simon Day, Simon interviewed the musician and author Peter Hook. This week, Peter interviews a fellow Salfordian, the punk poet laureate John Cooper Clarke. Coming to prominence during the punk years of the late 70s, Clarke would appear on the bill with The Sex Pistols, The Buzzcocks, and Peter's own Joy Division - and Peter's next band, New Order, would support John on a tour of New Zealand and Australia. The interview takes in their shared Salford heritage, doing adverts in the 1980s, and John's recent appearance on the GCSE English syllabus.
Download/Listen @'BBC'
'...Hooky chatting to John Cooper Clarke? That's only a Mark E Smith away from Salford Bingo heaven!'
A Eulogy for Google Plus
But today I click on my newsfeed and see tumbleweed blowing through the barren, blank page. It’s a vast and empty wasteland, full of people who signed up but never actually stuck around to figure out how things worked in this new part of town. One simple click takes me back to Facebook, and my wall is flooded with updates and pictures from 400+ friends. This just isn’t a contest, and it never will be.
To know why G+ has failed, we must first look at how Facebook succeeded.
Facebook had exclusivity on its side, a once-upon-a-time fact we’re only reminded of when we watch The Social Network, but even when it expanded past college to the general population, it was a hundred times more user friendly and visually streamlined than MySpace. That site was destroyed by the tackiness of its own users with a propensity for glitter text GIFs and autoplaying pop songs, and when it failed to evolve, the exodus to Facebook was massive and unstoppable...
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Paul Tassi @'Forbes'
'Bed Peace' starring John Lennon & Yoko Ono
MESSAGE FROM YOKO ONO ↓
Dear Friends,
In 1969, John and I were so naïve to think that doing the Bed-In would help change the world.
Well, it might have. But at the time, we didn't know.
It was good that we filmed it, though.
The film is powerful now.
What we said then could have been said now.
In fact, there are things that we said then in the film, which may give some encouragement and inspiration to the activists of today. Good luck to us all.
Let's remember WAR IS OVER if we want it.
It's up to us, and nobody else.
John would have wanted to say that.
Love, yoko
Yoko Ono Lennon
London, UK
August 2011
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends,
I have had so many of you contact me and ask if we can keep BED PEACE playing for longer, so I have decided to extend the deadline for another week -- until midnight on 21st August -- so everyone can get a chance to see it.
Tell your friends to go to http://imaginepeace.com/archives/15702 to watch the film, read about it, Tweet and Facebook message about it -- discuss PEACE with your friends.
GIVE PEACE A CHANCE
REMEMBER LOVE
IMAGINE PEACE: Think PEACE, Act PEACE, Spread PEACE.
i love you!
love,
yoko
Va
PythonJones Terry Jones
Well I suppose the Murdochs are going to jail - if the rioters are I guess it's only fair.
♪♫ Yves Montand - Les Feuilles Mortes (Autumn Leaves)
"Autumn Leaves" is a much-recorded popular song. Originally it was a 1945 French song "Les Feuilles mortes" (literally "The Dead Leaves") with music by Joseph Kosma and lyrics by poet Jacques Prévert. Yves Montand (with Irène Joachim) introduced "Les feuilles mortes" in 1946 in the film Les Portes de la Nuit. The American songwriter Johnny Mercer wrote English lyrics in 1947 and Jo Stafford was among the first to perform this version. Autumn Leaves became a pop standard and a jazz standard in both languages, both as an instrumental and with a singer.
Hmmm!
GM Police publish details of riot suspect: his flat gets burnt down
Greater Manchester police have excelled in how NOT too use social media this past week or so...Cameron certainly would be right to ban them from it!BBC explains 'All your Twitter pics are belong to us' gaffe
Analysis There are some subjects on which giant media companies need to be ultra tippy-toe cautious. When, say, the majority owner of a satellite broadcaster uses its newspapers to lobby for a change the law, we should remember it is not a disinterested party. It may have an agenda. Similarly when the BBC covers copyright, or "net neutrality", it is not a disinterested party either; it is in the BBC's interests to seek changes that lower its costs, and add to its convenience, at the expense of other groups in society. These are political issues in which the BBC is a major player. Corporate responsibility demands that its coverage be squeaky clean.
Well, last week the riots prompted media companies to engage in some looting of their own: taking photographs without permission – in breach of several international conventions, as well as the Copyright Designs and Patents Act. This they do every day, and social media has become a cheap import channel. We dinged the Daily Mail recently for its bit of grab-and-run, where the paper attributed a photograph it used without permission to "The Internet".
This is exactly the view you hear from armchair warriors on the cranky fringes of the internet, for whom any assertion of intellectual property rights is theft, a social crime. Ubiquitous message board spammer Crosbie Fitch makes this case: (See Quotes of the Year 2009), the argument being that because something is left in public view, it becomes public property. If only all ownership worked this way, I would have an enviable collection of very expensive sports cars by now...
Well, last week the riots prompted media companies to engage in some looting of their own: taking photographs without permission – in breach of several international conventions, as well as the Copyright Designs and Patents Act. This they do every day, and social media has become a cheap import channel. We dinged the Daily Mail recently for its bit of grab-and-run, where the paper attributed a photograph it used without permission to "The Internet".
Another offender was the BBC, which simply pasted images found on Twitter, and like the Mail, falsely attributed them. This prompted a complaint, which seven days later produced this extraordinary "official response".
"I understand you were unhappy that pictures from Twitter are used on BBC programmes as you feel it may be a breach of copyright," the response began. "Twitter is a social network platform which is available to most people who have a computer and therefore any content on it is not subject to the same copyright laws as it is already in the public domain," it continued. [Our emphasis]This is exactly the view you hear from armchair warriors on the cranky fringes of the internet, for whom any assertion of intellectual property rights is theft, a social crime. Ubiquitous message board spammer Crosbie Fitch makes this case: (See Quotes of the Year 2009), the argument being that because something is left in public view, it becomes public property. If only all ownership worked this way, I would have an enviable collection of very expensive sports cars by now...
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Andrew Orlowski @'The Register'
simon_price01 Simon Price
I really, really want to live in some alternate universe where Lieutenant Columbo gets to question James Murdoch.
Australia: Don’t Seize David Hicks’ Assets
The Australian prosecutor’s office should drop the asset-seizing case against former Guantanamo detainee David Hicks for money he earned from a book he wrote about his six years in US custody at Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights Watch said today.
Australian David Hicks was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and transferred to Guantanamo Bay in January 2002. He was charged in a military commission under a system created by then-President George W. Bush that was later deemed to be unlawful by the US Supreme Court.
Following the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, Hicks was charged with providing material support for terrorism and faced a possible life sentence. In exchange for a guilty plea, he was offered a sentence of seven years, only nine months of which he would have to actually serve. Hicks pleaded guilty in April 2007.
“A conviction in an unfair and illegitimate system should not be considered proof of a crime,” said Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch. “David Hicks alleges years of mistreatment and abuse by US forces and the failure of the Australian government to protect him. He should not be punished for telling that story.”
Hicks’ account of his six years in US custody was published in Guantanamo, My Journey, in late 2010. Proceeds from that publication are the subject of the prosecutor’s seizure and forfeiture action under the Commonwealth Proceeds of Crime Act. The prosecutor is relying on Hicks’ guilty plea, as well as the statement of facts signed by him in connection with the plea, as evidence that he committed an offense under the law of another country.
After his plea, Hicks was returned to his native Australia where he served out the remaining seven months of his sentence in Yatala prison. He was released in December 2007. Included in his plea agreement was a one-year gag rule prohibiting him from discussing his treatment or capture and from profiting from the sale of his story. Following the election of US President Barack Obama, Congress again substantially revised the 2006 Military Commissions Act under which Hicks was prosecuted.
Throughout his detention, Hicks told his lawyers he had been mistreated by US forces in both Afghanistan and Guantanamo by being beaten, made to endure prolonged sleep deprivation, and being forced to take unidentified medication. Former military commissions chief prosecutor Morris Davis testified in other court proceedings that Hicks’ plea agreement was negotiated without his knowledge, suggesting political forces were involved in the agreement.
On August 3, 2011, the New South Wales Supreme Court issued a restraining order on the use of assets derived from the sale of Hicks’ book. The case was adjourned until August 16 to allow the prosecutor to obtain additional evidence, at which time they are expected to ask for seizure of the assets obtained from the publication of the book.
“Although Hicks has alleged years of unlawful and abusive detention, neither the US nor Australia has ever offered him compensation or an apology,” Prasow said. “The prosecutor’s action would just compound that abuse.”
@'Human Rights Watch'
Australian David Hicks was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and transferred to Guantanamo Bay in January 2002. He was charged in a military commission under a system created by then-President George W. Bush that was later deemed to be unlawful by the US Supreme Court.
Following the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, Hicks was charged with providing material support for terrorism and faced a possible life sentence. In exchange for a guilty plea, he was offered a sentence of seven years, only nine months of which he would have to actually serve. Hicks pleaded guilty in April 2007.
“A conviction in an unfair and illegitimate system should not be considered proof of a crime,” said Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch. “David Hicks alleges years of mistreatment and abuse by US forces and the failure of the Australian government to protect him. He should not be punished for telling that story.”
Hicks’ account of his six years in US custody was published in Guantanamo, My Journey, in late 2010. Proceeds from that publication are the subject of the prosecutor’s seizure and forfeiture action under the Commonwealth Proceeds of Crime Act. The prosecutor is relying on Hicks’ guilty plea, as well as the statement of facts signed by him in connection with the plea, as evidence that he committed an offense under the law of another country.
After his plea, Hicks was returned to his native Australia where he served out the remaining seven months of his sentence in Yatala prison. He was released in December 2007. Included in his plea agreement was a one-year gag rule prohibiting him from discussing his treatment or capture and from profiting from the sale of his story. Following the election of US President Barack Obama, Congress again substantially revised the 2006 Military Commissions Act under which Hicks was prosecuted.
Throughout his detention, Hicks told his lawyers he had been mistreated by US forces in both Afghanistan and Guantanamo by being beaten, made to endure prolonged sleep deprivation, and being forced to take unidentified medication. Former military commissions chief prosecutor Morris Davis testified in other court proceedings that Hicks’ plea agreement was negotiated without his knowledge, suggesting political forces were involved in the agreement.
On August 3, 2011, the New South Wales Supreme Court issued a restraining order on the use of assets derived from the sale of Hicks’ book. The case was adjourned until August 16 to allow the prosecutor to obtain additional evidence, at which time they are expected to ask for seizure of the assets obtained from the publication of the book.
“Although Hicks has alleged years of unlawful and abusive detention, neither the US nor Australia has ever offered him compensation or an apology,” Prasow said. “The prosecutor’s action would just compound that abuse.”
@'Human Rights Watch'
You Might Be A Conservative If…
2: You’re happy with your 40 hour work week, paid vacations and company-provided healthcare, but you’re strongly anti-union, because those commies haven’t done anything for you lately.
3: You strongly support the First Amendment and it’s guarantee of religious freedom to all, but you don’t think Muslims have a right to build an Islamic Community Center in Manhattan.
4: You believe Ronald Reagan was a devout Christian, even though he he hated going to church, but any president who spends twenty years going to the same Trinity United Church in Chicago must be a Muslim.
5: You believe when a Republican governor creates a healthcare package with an individual mandate for everyone in his state, that’s a good idea. But when a Democratic president does it, suddenly it’s unconstitutional.
6: You’re so enthused about demonstrating your Second Amendment rights, you can think of no finer place to brandish your pistol in public than at a presidential rally.
7: You believe Bill Clinton was responsible for Osama bin Laden’s escape ten years ago, but thankfully George W. Bush caught up with him and killed him in Pakistan.
8: You believe in putting American jobs first, except when president Obama rescued 1.5 million GM and Chrysler autoworkers, because that was socialism...
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