Tuesday, 4 October 2011

My lifespan encompasses the era when the United States of America was capable of launching human beings into space. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting on a braided rug before a hulking black-and-white television, watching the early Gemini missions. This summer, at the age of 51—not even old—I watched on a flatscreen as the last Space Shuttle lifted off the pad. I have followed the dwindling of the space program with sadness, even bitterness. Where’s my donut-shaped space station? Where’s my ticket to Mars? Until recently, though, I have kept my feelings to myself. Space exploration has always had its detractors. To complain about its demise is to expose oneself to attack from those who have no sympathy that an affluent, middle-aged white American has not lived to see his boyhood fantasies fulfilled.
Still, I worry that our inability to match the achievements of the 1960s space program might be symptomatic of a general failure of our society to get big things done. My parents and grandparents witnessed the creation of the airplane, the automobile, nuclear energy, and the computer to name only a few. Scientists and engineers who came of age during the first half of the 20th century could look forward to building things that would solve age-old problems, transform the landscape, build the economy, and provide jobs for the burgeoning middle class that was the basis for our stable democracy.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 crystallized my feeling that we have lost our ability to get important things done. The OPEC oil shock was in 1973—almost 40 years ago. It was obvious then that it was crazy for the United States to let itself be held economic hostage to the kinds of countries where oil was being produced. It led to Jimmy Carter’s proposal for the development of an enormous synthetic fuels industry on American soil. Whatever one might think of the merits of the Carter presidency or of this particular proposal, it was, at least, a serious effort to come to grips with the problem.
Little has been heard in that vein since. We’ve been talking about wind farms, tidal power, and solar power for decades. Some progress has been made in those areas, but energy is still all about oil. In my city, Seattle, a 35-year-old plan to run a light rail line across Lake Washington is now being blocked by a citizen initiative. Thwarted or endlessly delayed in its efforts to build things, the city plods ahead with a project to paint bicycle lanes on the pavement of thoroughfares.
In early 2011, I participated in a conference called Future Tense, where I lamented the decline of the manned space program, then pivoted to energy, indicating that the real issue isn’t about rockets. It’s our far broader inability as a society to execute on the big stuff. I had, through some kind of blind luck, struck a nerve. The audience at Future Tense was more confident than I that science fiction [SF] had relevance—even utility—in addressing the problem. I heard two theories as to why...

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@'World Policy Institute'

Facebook’s Tracking Scandal Is Mushrooming

The month is off to a bad start for Facebook. The social network is fighting a new class action suit over its non-logout logout. And now it's been busted for bringing back a cookie that tracks people who don't even use Facebook.
Facebook has resumed distribution of the "datr" cookie, which is set by those ubiquitous Facebook "like" widgets all over the web and thus can follow you from site to site. The Wall Street Journal reported on the cookie in May, noting that it follows all web browsers, whether logged in to Facebook or not. Facebook removed the cookie shortly after publication of the article, and after a formal bug was filed with its programmers. Some time between then and now the cookie returned, as entrepreneur and de facto privacy researcher Nik Cubrilovic reveals. The cookie was set by every widget-carrying website Cubrilovic tested.
What does the cookie do? For starters, it is used to associate your account with other people who use your computer, Cubrilovic believes, which is why your Facebook dossier includes a list of "associated users." It also indicates that Facebook was incorrect — knowingly or unknowingly — when it claimed last week that the cookie was set only "when a web browser accesses facebook.com (except social plugin iframes)," since it is in fact set from social plugin iframes. Its re-emergence also means Facebook quietly re-enabled — purposely or accidentally — a privacy bug they supposedly closed last May. And finally it means that Facebook collects raw data it could use to track big chunks of your surfing history, even though Facebook said last may that its intent was not to use the cookies for such a purpose.
News of "datr's" return comes after the chairmen of a Congressional privacy committee, plus 10 public interest groups, pushed the FTC to investigate all of Facebook's clingy cookies, which remain even after a user "logs out." It should only add to the pressure on Facebook, and to the evidence in a suit an Illinois law firm filed against Facebook in San Jose federal court Friday night. The suit, which is seeking class action status, accuses Facebook of misleading users about the meaning of "log off." Facebook promised to fight the suit "vigorously," which means the company thinks it can find someone somewhere who actually had a correct understanding of what actually happens when you "sign off" of Facebook. Sounds like a very expensive manhunt.
@'Gawker'

Facebook Re-Enables Controversial Tracking Cookie

Facebook is fine with hate speech, as long as it's directed at women

Apple rejects Samsung offer of quick settlement of tablet row in Australia

Nearly 400 public health experts warn Lords to reject NHS reforms

Dear Honourable Members of the House of Lords,

As public health doctors and specialists from within the NHS, academia and elsewhere, we write to express our concerns about the Health and Social Care Bill.

The Bill will do irreparable harm to the NHS, to individual patients and to society as a whole.

It ushers in a significantly heightened degree of commercialisation and marketisation that will fragment patient care; aggravate risks to individual patient safety; erode medical ethics and trust within the health system; widen health inequalities; waste much money on attempts to regulate and manage competition; and undermine the ability of the health system to respond effectively and efficiently to communicable disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies.

While we welcome the emphasis placed on establishing a closer working relationship between public health and local government, the proposed reforms as a whole will disrupt, fragment and weaken the country’s public health capabilities.

The government claims that the reforms have the backing of the health professions. They do not. Neither do they have the general support of the public.

It is our professional judgement that the Health and Social Care Bill will erode the NHS’s ethical and cooperative foundations and that it will not deliver efficiency, quality, fairness or choice.

We therefore request that you reject passage of the Health and Social Care Bill
Via

Libyan Jew blocked from Tripoli synagogue

Libyan Jewish exile David Gerbi breaks the wall at the sealed entrance to Dar Bishi synagogue. When he returned a day later, he found the front door locked. Photograph: Suhaib Salem/Reuters

A Libyan Jewish man who returned from exile in Italy to join the revolution against Muammar Gaddafi has been blocked from trying to restore Tripoli's main synagogue.
David Gerbi said he went to clean rubbish from the synagogue on Monday, a day after he broke through the entrance with a sledgehammer to great fanfare. A messenger at the scene warned him, however, that armed men were coming from all over Libya and would target him if he did not leave the area.
Gerbi said he was told a mass anti-Jewish demonstration was planned for Friday in the capital's central Martrys' Square, which used to be named Green Square under Gaddafi's regime.
Breaking down in tears, he criticised Libyan authorities for withdrawing their support, calling his efforts a test of the post-Gaddafi regime's commitment to democracy and tolerance.
"If they want to prove that it's different from Gaddafi … they need to do the opposite," he told reporters after leaving the synagogue in the old Jewish quarter of Tripoli's walled Old City.
The head of the National Transitional Council that is governing the country was dismissive of the issue when asked about it at a news conference, saying it was too early to worry about rebuilding a synagogue when revolutionary forces were still fighting supporters of fugitive leader Gaddafi.
"This matter is premature and we have not decided anything in this regard," Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said. "Everyone who holds Libyan nationality has the right to enjoy all rights, provided that he has no other nationality but Libyan."
Libya's new leaders have promised to lead the oil-rich North African nation to become a democracy after ousting Gaddafi in a civil war that began in mid-February. Abdul-Jalil and the de facto prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, promised on Monday to step down after the country is fully secured in a bid to reassure the public they will not suffer under another dictatorship.
But Jews are widely despised in the Arab world because of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The NTC has taken Libya's seat at the Arab League, which doesn't sanction normalisation with Israel without a comprehensive settlement with the Palestinians.
Libyan-born Gina Bublil-Waldman, president of the San Francisco-based JIMENA, or Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, agreed it was too soon to try to return.
"I really do not believe that the Libyan people are ready to reconcile with the past and their history and the wrongs that they have done to the Jewish community," she said, although she called Gerbi's efforts sincere and honourable.
Gerbi, who fled with his family to Italy in 1967, said he was surprised because he had permission from the local sheik and verbal permission from NTC representatives. Gerbi's colleague Richard Peters said several men armed with assault rifles later appeared to guard the building, although none were visible later that day.
It was not clear who was ultimately behind the warnings of violence against Gerbi, although he said the man who gave him the message said there was a Facebook and YouTube campaign against him.
It was a bitter disappointment for Gerbi, coming a day after he had taken a sledgehammer to a concrete wall and entered the crumbling Dar al-Bishi synagogue, which has been filled with decades of rubbish since Gaddafi expelled Libya's small Jewish community early in his rule.
He and a team of helpers carted in brooms, rakes and plastic buckets to begin clearing the debris. But on Monday, the wooden door was again closed with a chain and padlock. Gerbi said people who had supported him were now distancing themselves.
The 56-year-old psychoanalyst appealed to the new leadership to set an example of tolerance, saying that while Gaddafi "wanted to eliminate the diversity, they need to include the diversity".
Gerbi's family fled to Rome in 1967, when Arab anger was rising over the war in which Israel captured large swaths of territory from Jordan, Syria and Egypt. Two years later, Gaddafi expelled the rest of Libya's Jewish community, which at its peak numbered about 37,000.
Gerbi returned to his homeland this summer to join the rebellion that ousted Gaddafi, helping with strategy and psychological treatment.
He said his fellow rebels called him the "revolutionary Jew" and that he was thrilled when he rode into the capital with fighters from the western mountains as Tripoli fell in late August.
Gerbi refused to give up, saying he would stay in Libya and press his case with the government.
"I don't want to be a hero, I don't want to play martyr, I just want to be here to support the new Libya and the democracy and to build this," he said.
@'The Guardian'

OOPS!

(Click to enlarge)
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Q & A w/ Slavoj Zizek, Kate Adie, Jon Ronson, Greg Sheridan & Mona Eltahawy

A very dangerous Q&A

...and Sheridan you were of course wrong!

♪♫ The Victorian English Gentlemens Club - A Conversation

Punk-rock dads in suburbia: reflections on 'The Other F Word'

Bin Laden raid: ISI officials brief Abbottabad commission on US raid

Gen. Allen Disavows 2014: US Going to Stay in Afghanistan ‘For a Long Time’

Fresh off of CBS releasing a new poll showing overwhelming American opposition to continuing the war in Afghanistan US General John Allen, the new commander of the occupation, rejected the prospect of the war ending any time soon.

Indeed, in an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes, Gen. Allen disavowed the 2014 Lisbon Conference date for ending the war, saying “we’re actually going to be here for a long time” and that the troop levels beyond 2014 were yet to be decided.
Allen, who replaced Gen. Petraeus as commander of the Afghan War and became the fourth commander since President Obama took office in 2009, did not offer the usual collection of “foolproof” strategy changes designed to turn the tides in the endless conflict.
“The plan is to win,” was all Allen would offer. This either speaks to a lack of confidence in the latest strategy shift, or perhaps more likely a lack of any strategy whatsoever as the war has a momentum of its own and, with the war planned to extend through 2024, the general likely realizes there will be a dozen or more commanders that will come after him and that what he does won’t matter all that much.
Jason Ditz @'Anti War.com'

Stevie Wonder Live at Rock in Rio 2011

01 – How sweet is to be loved by you
02 – My eyes don’t cry
03 – Master blaster
04 – The way you make me feel
05 – Higher ground
06 – Living for the city
07 – Don’t you worry about a thing
08 – When I fall in love
09 – Ribbon in the sky
10 – Overjoyed
11 – Signed, sealed, delivered
12 – Sir Duke
13 – I wish
14 – Do I do
15 – For once in my life
16 – My cherie amour
17 – I just called to say I love you
18 – Check on your love
19 – Superstition / Isn’t she lovely / Fever
20 – As
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tom_watson tom_watson

When I tweeted about News international hiring staff for the Sun in Sunday last week, the company dismissed it: ind.pn/oigm0F

When Were We Winning In Afghanistan?

??? (Speaking as someone who doesn't have a TV)

ISAFmedia ISAF

Half of Afgans have TV, compared with nearly none in 2001. 75 TV and 175 radio stations beaming info to AFG people

Got TV - oh that's a good step then...I hope they have better programmes than out here!

Australian Copyright Meeting was ‘Off the Record’

What damage does alcohol do to our bodies?

We know that drinking too much alcohol is bad for us. It gives us hangovers, makes us feel tired and does little for our appearance - and that is just the morning afterwards.

Long term, it increases the risk of developing a long list of health conditions including breast cancer, oral cancers, heart disease, strokes and cirrhosis of the liver.
Research shows that a high alcohol intake can also damage our mental health, impair memory skills and reduce fertility.
The direct link between alcohol and the liver is well understood - but what about the impact of alcohol on other organs?
Numerous heart studies suggest that moderate alcohol consumption helps protect against heart disease by raising good cholesterol and stopping the formation of blood clots in the arteries.
Toxic
However, drinking more than three drinks a day has been found to have a direct and damaging effect on the heart. Heavy drinking, particularly over time, can lead to high blood pressure, alcoholic cardiomyopathy, congestive heart failure and stroke. Heavy drinking also puts more fat into the circulation of the body.
The link between alcohol and cancer is well established, says Cancer Research UK. A study published in the BMJ this year estimated that alcohol consumption causes at least 13,000 cancer cases in the UK each year - about 9,000 cases in men and 4,000 in women.
Cancer experts say that for every additional 10g per day of alcohol drunk, the risk of breast cancer increases by approximately 7-12%.
For bowel cancer, previous studies show that increasing alcohol intake by 100g per week increases the cancer risk by 19%.
A recent report in BioMed Central's Immunology journal found that alcohol impairs the body's ability to fight off viral infections.
And studies on fertility suggest that even light drinking can make women less likely to conceive while heavy drinking in men can lower sperm quality and quantity.
Why alcohol has this negative effect on all elements of our health could be down to acetaldehyde - the product alcohol is broken down into in the body.
Acetaldehyde is toxic and has been shown to damage DNA.
Dr KJ Patel, from the Medical Research Council's laboratory of molecular biology in Cambridge, recently completed a study into the toxic effects of alcohol on mice.
His research implies that a single binge-drinking dose of alcohol during pregnancy may be sufficient to cause permanent damage to a baby's genome.
Foetal alcohol syndrome, he says, "can give rise to children who are seriously damaged, born with head and facial abnormalities and mental disabilities".
'Clear dose relationship'
Alcohol is a well-established cancer causing agent, he says.
"You cannot get a cancer cell occurring unless DNA is altered. When you drink, the acetaldehyde is corrupting the DNA of life and puts you on the road to cancer.
"One of most common genetic defects in man is our inability to counteract the toxicity of alcohol."
Dr Nick Sheron, who runs the liver unit at Southampton General Hospital, says the mechanisms by which alcohol does damage are not quite so clear cut.

"The toxicity of alcohol is complex, but we do know there is a clear dose relationship."

With alcoholic liver disease, the greater the alcohol intake per week the greater the liver damage and that increases exponentially for someone drinking six to eight bottles or more of wine in that period, for example.
Over the past 20 to 30 years, Dr Sheron says, deaths from liver disease have increased by 500%, with 85% of those due to alcohol. Only in the last few years has that rise slowed down.
"Alcohol has a bigger impact than smoking on our health because alcohol kills at a younger age. The average age of death for someone with alcoholic liver disease is their 40s."
'More harmful than heroin or crack'
Alcohol is undoubtedly a public health issue too.
Earlier this year, NHS figures showed that alcohol-related hospital admissions has reached record levels in 2010. Over a million people were admitted in 2009-10, compared with 945,500 in 2008-09 and 510,800 in 2002-03. Nearly two in three of those cases were men.
At the same time the charity Alcohol Concern predicted the number of admissions would reach 1.5m a year by 2015 and cost the NHS £3.7bn a year.
Last year, a study in The Lancet concluded that alcohol is more harmful than heroin or crack when the overall dangers to the individual and society are considered.
The study by the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs also ranked alcohol as three times more harmful than cocaine or tobacco because it is so widely used.
So how much alcohol is too much? What can we safely drink?
The government guidelines on drinking are being reviewed at present. They currently say that a women should not drink more than two to three units of alcohol per day and a man three to four units a day.
But Paul Wallace, a GP and chief medical adviser of Drinkaware, says people are just not aware of the alcohol content of a large glass of wine.
"Most of us don't realise what we're drinking and you can very easily slip beyond acceptable limits."
Katherine Brown, head of research at the Institute of Alcohol Studies, says the current guidelines and how they are communicated may be giving the public misleading information.
"We need to be very careful when suggesting there is a 'safe' level of drinking for the population. Rather, we need to explain that there are risks associated with alcohol consumption, and that the less you drink the lower your risk is of developing health problems.
"We hope the government use this as an opportunity to help change perceptions about regular drinking being a normal, risk-free practice."
Dr Wallace wants the government to do a better job on the message it sends out by explaining the alcohol guidelines in units per week, rather than per day - no more than 21 units for men, 14 units for women per week.
Dr Sheron agrees: "There is no such thing as a safe level, but the government has got to draw a line somewhere. It's a balance.
"People like having a drink, but they have to accept there's a risk-benefit ratio."
Phillipa Roxby @'BBC'

An Addiction Vaccine, Tantalizingly Close

Hmmm! Not sure that I agree with the idea of an addiction vaccine, and I speak here as an addict myself.
I do remember having a conversation with my eldest son when I first came across this many years ago and even tho he was in his early teens at the time when I asked him, as the child of addicts would he have wanted this vaccine and he said 'no'.
Remember free-will?

At NYC's Chelsea Hotel, The End Of An Artistic Era?

The fabled Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan was home to Mark Twain, Virgil Thomson and Brendan Behan. Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey, there. Jack Kerouac worked on On the Road. Bob Dylan wrote "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." Artists Larry Rivers and Mark Rothko, and scores of painters and photographers also spent creative time there. But now the future of the hotel is up in the air.
Multimedia and performance artist Nicola L. has been at the Chelsea some 30 years. She came, she returned to France, she rented another New York apartment, and then she returned. "You come back to Chelsea like you go to your mother when something is wrong," she says.
But the building has been sold. Once filled with art by residents, the walls and stairwells are mostly bare now. Only the long-term residents remain. The staff — some of whom had been there for decades — have been let go. When the staff left, says Nicola L., "the bellman, the people at the desk — it was like we didn't have family anymore and we were in an empty boat. "
The Chelsea Hotel is unlike any other in New York. It's split between rental apartments, and tiny hotel rooms where people could stay for a night. Ed Hamilton, author of Legends of the Chelsea Hotel, has lived there for 16 years. The first apartment he had cost him $500 a month.
"It must have been 100 square feet," he says. Now he lives with his wife in a room that's twice that size but seems minuscule: no kitchen, the bathroom is down the hall, clothes are hanging on the walls.
"I came here to be a writer because it seemed like the place to go," he says. "I was in my mid-30s. We had always heard about this place because Thomas Wolfe had lived here, and the beat writers."
The hotel is filled with ghosts. Not only those of Dylan Thomas, who drank himself to death at the Chelsea, or Nancy Spungen, the girlfriend of Sid Vicious, who was stabbed to death in their room, but all kinds of ghosts. Sherill Tippins has spent six years writing a book on the Chelsea. She once brought a friend to the hotel who claimed she could see ghosts.
The friend was up all night, talking to the ghosts, Tippins reports. "She told me, 'They're everywhere — in the elevators and in the lobby, and they want attention so much.' " Larry Rivers, the "leading ghost," told the friend: "It is not about the art, it is about the life. That is the important thing here..."

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Margot Adler @'npr'

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I Remember You Well

Michael Sorkin & Occupy Wall Street: 'Liberty Square'

Synthetic cannabis back on the market in NZ three months after ban

Occupying Wall Street

The big bronze bull is surrounded by metal fences and strategically placed members of NYPD's finest. The famous statue, the symbol of aggressive market optimism, is normally open for tourists to grope and fondle, but today, in part because of the "Occupy Wall Street" protest, it has been penned. Today, the Wall Street Bull looks amusingly like a panicked animal in a cage.
It might have been spooked by the couple of thousand activists, hippies, union members, laid-off workers and schoolkids camped out around the corner in Liberty Plaza. When I arrive at Occupy Wall Street, they've already been there for a fortnight, and have turned the square, which is normally scattered with City workers snatching lunch and chattering on their smartphones, into a little peace village, complete with a well-stocked library, free kitchen, professional childcare centre, sleeping areas, meeting spaces, and crowds of young people dancing and playing music.
The protest, which began on 17 September after a call-out by activist magazine Adbusters and the hacker collective Anonymous, has swelled from its original few hundred members after a weekend of police crackdowns. Images of New York police pepper-spraying young women in the face and arresting peaceful protesters spread around the world, which has been shocked not so much by the response of the police in a city where the term 'police brutality' was coined, but by the fact that here, in America, at the symbolic heart of global capitalism, ordinary people have turned off their televisions and come out to shout in the streets. "I never thought I'd live to see this in New York City," says my friend, a native New Yorker, as we watch a drum circle forming underneath the looming skyscrapers of Manhattan's financial district, speckled with rain.
Right now, as I write from the occupied Plaza, a mass arrest is taking place on Brooklyn Bridge, where 2,500 activists have marched to express their distaste for corporate greed. 'Banks got bailed out - we got sold out!' chanted the marchers, hesitantly at first, and then more confidently, keeping to the sidewalks, before they were led onto the car portion of the bridge by police - who promptly sealed the exits and began to arrest everybody...

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Laurie Penny @'New Statesman'

Working out what they want in the shadow of skyscrapers

The Monster of Florence

The Hidden Power of Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street: A Tea Party for the Left?

Anonymous Vibe beats cops at Wall Street protest

Bahraini princess accused of torturing hospital medical staff

The Secret Memo That Explains Why Obama Can Kill Americans

Afghans rock at first music festival in three decades

Live rock returned to Afghanistan after three long decades on Saturday as young men and women cheered and leapt into the air to the sound of heavy bass beats and punk rock.
Bands from Australia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan served up a six-hour musical feast of blues, indie, electronica and death metal to hundreds of fans, many of whom had never seen live music before.
Sound Central was something new in a deeply conservative Muslim country where music was banned under the austere Taliban regime. Even now music shops are attacked in some cities and musicians taunted for their clothes or hair.
The festival retained a distinctly Afghan accent, with alcohol banned, kebabs the only snacks and a respect for strong religious values amid the rock and roll.
Bands left the stage and the microphones were turned off twice in the late afternoon to allow the call to prayer to sound out uninterrupted from nearby mosques.
"Where I live, there's nothing like this. I heard about it so I had to come," said Ahmad Shah, dressed in a traditional white shalwar kameez and waistcoat, who traveled from Kandahar, a southern city roiled by insurgent violence.
"I came to escape the cancer of the Taliban and this makes a refreshing change." Violence is at its worst in Afghanistan since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001.
Young Afghans lunged toward the stage, jumping and thrusting their arms into the air to the sound of local band White Page, and the handful of security guards were overwhelmed.
The crowd briefly parted when one man in jeans and a tight t-shirt took to the floor for an impromptu burst of back flips and break-dancing.
The festival was held under tight security in a corner of picturesque Babur Gardens, a normally tranquil park surrounding the centuries-old tomb of Babur, the first Mughal emperor.
The date and venue was kept a closely guarded secret until the last moment to ward off the chance of an insurgent attack.
Despite the secrecy, the concert attracted more than 450 paid-up revelers and scores more trickled in from street markets outside. A few elderly men with turbans and long beards appeared taken aback, but not entirely disapproving.
CHANGE THE WORLD
The crowd's enthusiasm persuaded even security staff and police to join in, nodding and moving their legs in time with the beat.
Loud cheers erupted when singer Sabrina Ablyaskina of Uzbek band Tears of the Sun jumped, gyrated and screamed into the microphone: "Kabul, my new friends -- let's rock!"
Tears of the Sun, now recording their sixth album, said they were surprised by the event's success.
"We didn't expect this crowd -- it's amazing, such energy," Ablyaskina told Reuters. "We love Kabul, more and more every day and we'll be coming back again, of course."
Guitarist Nikita Makapenko said: "Rock and roll will change the world, and we hope it will change Afghanistan too. This is historic, and it's just the beginning."
Sound Central was the brainchild of Travis Beard, an Australian photojournalist who joined a band when he moved to Kabul and was inspired by the talent and dedication of local musicians.
In the run-up to the festival, he held workshops to nurture the local talent showcased by Sound Central, and underground concerts to build the buzz and help bands rehearse.
The festival seemed to have served his goal of not just providing a day's entertainment, but kindling a love for modern music among young Afghans.
"We heard about the music festival from the radio, and when my friend asked whether we should go, I said 'Why not?'," said Lauria, a 19-year-old university student dressed in a bright headscarf, jeans and strappy sandals.
"This is great. I hope we can see more of it in Kabul," she said.
Martin Petty @'Reuters'

Israel to demand adjustment of Quartet Mideast peace plan, official says

Occupy Wall Street Activist Slams Fox News Producer In Un-Aired Interview

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Glenn Greenwald: So much evidence, there’s no need to show it

The Torrid Romantic Life of Kim Jong-il

Kim Ok, Song Hye-rim and Ko Yong-hui

Yun Hye-yong was a woman beyond the reach even of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il. Yun, the lead singer of Kim's former favorite band Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble, was brutally executed after she spurned Kim's persistent advances and fell in love with another man.
Or so claims Chang Jin-song, an author formerly affiliated with the North Korean Workers' Party, in "Kim Jong-il's Last Woman." Published in May, it is an epic poem that details Kim's private life and inside story of his regime based on the true story of the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble.
According to the book, Kim ordered Yun Hye-yong's songs to be used for the mass gymnastic performance "Arirang," and attended a concert with her on his birthday. Although many women had found the dictator's favor before, none had ever merited a place next to him at a public event. Kim even sent officials to Europe to buy her stage costumes and accessories. Yet Yun loved the band's pianist. When Kim's agents discovered their relationship by tapping her phone, Yun jumped from the roof of Mokran House, an official banquet hall, with her lover. Although the man died instantly, Kim ordered his men to kill Yun after resuscitating her by any means. She was eventually executed at the end of 2003, while still in coma.
Kim Ok, another of Kim's paramours, was introduced in the South Korean media in July 2006 as his fourth wife. However, the woman whom the media named "Kim Ok" was not the woman who features in a book by Kenji Fujimoto, Kim Jong-il's former personal chef. According to the June issue of the Monthly Chosun, "Kim Ok was in fact Kim Son-ok, a former aide to Jo Myong-rok, the first vice chairman of North Korea's National Defense Commission.
The real Kim Ok was the pianist of Wangjaesan Light Music Band and a graduate of Kumsong Senior Middle School, known for extensively training Kim's private entertainers. Kim loved her more for her bold personality and sharp wit than her looks, and granted her the privilege of speaking informally to him. To Kim, long used to absolute obedience to his authority, Kim Ok's gestures would've appeared refreshing.
Although Kim's former wives Song Hye-rim and Ko Yong-hui were artists, they were civilians to begin with, not women exclusively trained to entertain Kim. But Kim Ok had been selected for such a purpose, and often entertained Kim at the orgies he held with his inner circle. It would have been unthinkable, therefore, for Kim to make Kim Ok his official wife.
Most women with whom Kim was involved were celebrities. It is widely known that he moved in with the actress Song Hye-rim after abandoning his fiancé Kim Yong-sook. Hong Yong-hui, who was bestowed the title of "distinguished actress" at the age of 18, or Woo In-hui, an actress publicly executed for openly speaking about her relationship with Kim, were among many celebrities who had become Kim's paramours.
@'The Chosun Ilbo'

Kim Jong-Il’s Teenage Grandson Is Having a Facebook Scandal

Motörhead - Live @ Rock In Rio 2011 [Full Show]

Tweet Science

Nutsandolts Nuts and Dolts

Proud Progressives Daily Digest is out! bit.ly/f6df5e ▸ Top stories today via @exilestreet

Radiohead Take Over Boiler Room

To celebrate/promote the release of their massive remix compilation, the snappily titled Tkol Rmx 1234567, Radiohead are due to take over the Boiler Room on 11th October. Thom Yorke is set to DJ, alongside appearances from Caribou, Lone, the excellent Illum Sphere and steel pan loving bass-head Jamie XX.
For anyone unfamiliar with the Boiler Room, it's a watch-from-your-computer club music event that's taken the net by storm over the last nine months or so; to learn more, read Angus Finlayson's recent comment piece, where he very adeptly frames it as 'Top Of The Pops for the UStream generation'.
Tickets are invite only, but you can stream the entire show live from the Boiler Room website - it runs from 8-11pm GMT on October 11th.
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