Friday, 19 August 2011

Owen Jones: Making sense of the riots

Banned ad 'inappropriate'

Who's Really Exploiting Children Here?

King Midas Sound: Goodbye Girl (Kuedo Reversion)


+ 'Earth Will Kill Ya' (Mala Remix)

30 years of change

Image and video hosting by TinyPic
Click link below to see the  music industry revenue contribution from various formats from 1980-2010, based on RIAA revenue figures.
Via

John Pilger: Damn or fear it, the truth is that it’s an insurrection

Smoking # 107

Maríam Sitchinava
Via

The Smiths - previously unseen documentary from 1992


A previously unseen Smiths documentary has been posted online, and can be watched via the player above.
The documentary was originally given out to the press to support the release of the band's 'Best Of' compilation in 1992.
The promo has now been released by Rhino, the UK label which is handling the re-issuing of The Smiths' entire back catalogue.
The reissues, which have been put together under the supervision of guitarist Johnny Marr, have been digitally remastered from their original tapes. The whole collection is due for release on September 26.

via

Magic Trip Trailer

'Social media does not exist for you. You are the PRODUCT in social media. That's why it's free.' - Bruce Sterling

Thursday, 18 August 2011

Phone hacking: News of the World Hollywood reporter is arrested

Robert Mapplethorpe: A Season in Hell / Opening and Performance by Patti Smith (2009)


Via

Don’t tell me poverty and inequality had no part to play in the riots

♪♫ 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?

On August 11th, San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit Authority shut off cell service at multiple underground stations to disrupt a planned protest. This tactic has become common in totalitarian regimes like Syria, Tunisia, Iran & Egypt, but until last Thursday it has never been used in the United States. BART’s police Lieut. Andy Alkire called their action a “great tool to utilize.” Swift condemnation from groups like ‘No Justice, No BART‘, the ACLU and the EFF rained down.
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...”
Continue reading
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

The Politics of Desire and Looting

HA!


YES!!!

£3 Million To Launch A Pop Act? Has The Industry Lost Its Mind?

Why CCTV has failed to deter criminals

Stephen Grasso 
Talk at Treadwells tonight on London psychogeography. Feds can't stop it. Tell all badman. No snitchboys.

'Every touch leaves a trace': how Google helped track bomb hoax suspect

The American Dream: R. Buckminster Fuller, William S. Burroughs & Allen Ginsberg (9th February 1976)

On '9 in the Morning' WTOP-TV, Washington, D.C.

21 Reasons Rick Perry's Texas Is a Complete Disaster

♪♫ Deeder Zaman - Brothers & Sisters (IR25 Dubversive Mix)


Remembering Galdino In Ethiopia 
Love the remixed 't' shirt too...
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CIA told Kennedy in 1960 that Cuba invasion plan was 'unachievable'

This week, in response to a FOIA request from the National Security Archives project at George Washington University, the CIA released most of its top-secret internal history of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. The 1200 page history was written between 1974 and 1984 by Jack Pfeiffer, who later became the agency's official historian. Four of the five volumes have now been posted on the NSA's website. A fifth volume, which critique's the Agency's own internal review of the incident is still classified. 
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

Chain Reaction is Radio 4's tag-team interview show. Each week, a figure from the world of entertainment chooses another to interview; the next week, the interviewee turns interviewer, and they in turn pass the baton on to someone else - creating a 'chain' throughout the series.
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!'

♪♫ JME ft Skepta - Tottenham

(Thanx SJX!)

Cost of detention? $113,000 per asylum seeker

A Eulogy for Google Plus

It may not be dead, and it’s entirely possible I’m shoveling dirt on something that’s still writhing around, promising me it is in fact the next big thing, but I’m now deaf to its cries. Google Plus is a failure no matter what the numbers may say. 25 million users in barely a month is nothing to sneeze at. Google Plus holds the honor of being one of the fastest growing websites in history, and these early numbers had analysts screaming that Facebook would be all but dead in a few more months.
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...
Continue reading
Paul Tassi @'Forbes'

London Riots and the Coming Global Class War

CPJ: Israel Charges Al-Jazeera Journalist with Militant Ties

Hanni El Khatib - I Got A Thing

MORE

'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

Tories' reaction to riots 'bonkers', say Liberal Democrat MPs

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!

♪♫ Lady Gaga - Yoü and I

NB: Only 302 views at the time of posting...let's watch the numbers fly!