Wednesday, 5 October 2011
'Hands up! This is a bailout!!'
Via
Three Babies, Four Dogs, Two Breasts, and No Radiohead: A Dispatch From Occupy Wall Street
“Hey, you’re communists!” taunted Barry, sporting the latter. “You should move to a communist country.” A quick rejoinder: “Well you’re an asshole!” Barry fired back—“You call me an asshole, asshole? Get out of this park, jerkoff!”—and the defender sank back into the square. “These guys have beef with our country, they’re Marxists,” Barry told me triumphantly, before another interruption. “No,” butted in a bearded occupier. “There are no Marxists here.” “Yeah, whatever, get out of here!” Barry scorned. The occupier laughed and blew him a kiss, “Love you sir!” “Yeah?” responded the beleaguered Barry. “Well I hate you.” “Love you!” “Hate you!”
But Barry had backup. A few yards down, a short, bald accountant began screaming at the sign-wavers: “The gulag is waiting for you! Siberia!” A guy in a fedora shouted back: “Fuck you, Nosferatu!” Nosferatu is actually named Michael; he grew up in the Soviet Union and arrived on Wall Street in 1989. “I know what these kids don’t know,” he told me. “Communism and socialism don’t work.” The cops around us were looking eager. “The more chaos the better,” I overhead one officer say. A day later, the police would have their way, arresting some 700 protesters for blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. But today, twelve days into the occupation and still burning from a Saturday pepper spraying, the makeshift malcontents were testing boundaries.
“Get in there or stay out the way!” an officer yelled, pushing us toward the park. The ranks pressed in and I took an elbow to the sternum. Suddenly, an aggressively tattooed woman in blonde dreadlocks, a Guns-and-Roses tank top, and a plaid bandana strolled confidently into the scrum. She was going where I was going, and I ducked in behind. It was time to occupy.
On September 16, 1920, Italian anarchists detonated a horse-and-carriage bomb 300 yards from Zuccotti Square. Passersby saw tens of bodies, piles of glass, and blood on the stone steps of J.P. Morgan. Wall Street survived. In the course of my Friday afternoon occupation, I saw two drum circles, four dogs, two saxophones, three babies, zero Thom Yorkes, and two breasts. Again, Wall Street survived.
Not that many people were even talking about the American financial sector. Everyone had a different story, grievance, tattoo, or pithy placard. There were some signs calling for “violent revolution” and others insisting “we figure this shit out together.” The simplest one, soothing and all-encompassing: “SHIT IS FUCKED UP AND BULLSHIT...”
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Alex Klein @'The New Republic'
ggreenwald Glenn Greenwald
Amazing how rapidly #OccupyWallStreet narrative transformed from "childish-worthless-losers" to "something-important-is-happening-here"
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
blakehounshell Blake Hounshell
Obama on Americans: "I don't think that they're better off than they were four years ago." Killer quote for GOP ads. theatlanticwire.com/politics/2011/…
Wilco - Live September 22/23 2011 Central Park Summerstage
[photo courtesy of wagz2it]
If there’s a band we hope that people associate with what nyctaper stands for, its Wilco. They have appeared so many times on this site that its often difficult to invent new superlatives to describe the Wilco concert experience. Last night at Summerstage, the band again delivered to its fans another epic NYC show, on par with the legendary Irving Plaza or Hammerstein or McCarren Pool shows of previous years. On tour in support of their latest release, The Whole Love (due on September 27), the band again delivered a two-plus hour high-energy set that dug deep into their catalog (an A.M. cut streaming below) while it also featured eight songs from the new album. The title track has already earned encore status, and we’re streaming it below. Of special note was Jeff Tweedy’s remembrance of the Wilco sets at Town Hall almost exactly ten years to the day, when a still-shocked NYC found some comfort in superbly delivered and heartfelt two nights of music. Ten years later, Wilco is still providing the City with the same gifts.The entire NYCTaper crew was on hand to record this set. While we feared the worst of the elements, fortunately the rain held off and the winds were minimal. We set up near the back of the floor because our original advantageous position was actually an obstruction to the lighting projections. The crew ran 3 separate rigs, featuring twelve high-end microphones. This particular recording is my standard Neumann + DPA 4021 rig, and its a surprisingly excellent recording, all things considered. We will likely feature some of the other captures in the coming weeks. Enjoy!
September 22, 2011
Whereas the previous evening we saw the damp weather held at bay, for Wilco’s second night at Central Park’s Summerstage the band and attendees weren’t quite as lucky. All parties took it in stride and the crowd, despite the rain or maybe because of it, seemed particularly enthusiastic. Once again pulling a lion’s share of tracks from the new album, The Whole Love (which has its official release today), we were also treated to crowd-pleasers “Passenger Side”, “Impossible Germany” and “Heavy Metal Drummer”, and wonderful takes on live staples “Bull Black Nova”, “Misunderstood” and “Jesus, Etc.”, which Jeff Tweedy dedicated to us. With all the good stuff going on stage, Wilco made it pretty easy to forget about the drizzle on our heads.
As with the night before, the entire NYCtaper crew made it out for the concert. Paring down our rig considerably due to the inclement weather, we were still able to get an excellent recording and hope you like what you hear as much as we did. Enjoy!
September 23, 2011
@'NYCtaper'
Wilco live on All Songs Considered, 2011
9/11 Terrorists Debunk 9/11 Conspiracies
Muslims Against Crusades protests outside the American Embassy in London's Grosvenor Square on the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Credit: Corbis
In a surprising twist, terrorist group al-Qaeda recently issued a statement ridiculing 9/11 conspiracy theories claiming U.S. involvement in the attacks.The victims and the perpetrator of the terrorism are both saying that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda acted alone and without any knowledge or support from the American government. The statement came in response to a speech that the Iranian President gave at the U.N. General Assembly in which he repeated his claim that the U.S. masterminded the terrorism. As ABC News reported last week,
The terror group al-Qaeda has found itself curiously in agreement with the "Great Satan"--which it calls the U.S. -- in issuing a stern message to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: stop spreading 9/11 conspiracy theories. In the latest issue of the al Qaeda English-language magazine Inspire, an author appears to take offense to the "ridiculous" theory repeatedly spread by Ahmadinejad that the 9/11 terror attacks were actually carried out by the U.S. government in order to provide a pretext to invade the Middle East. "The Iranian government has professed on the tongue of its president Ahmadinejad that it does not believe that al Qaeda was behind 9/11 but rather, the U.S. government," an article reads. "So we may ask the question: why would Iran ascribe to such a ridiculous belief that stands in the face of all logic and evidence?"PHOTOS: CONFRONTING TERROR ON 9/11
If anyone in the world would have hard evidence of American collusion in carrying out the September 11, 2001, attacks (and strong motivation for making it public), it would be al-Qaeda. If the conspiracy claims are true, al-Qaeda would have no reason to deny that America helped organize and carry out the attacks. It would call into question the American government’s credibility in a way that various ad hoc conspiracy theorists could never hope to, and forever tarnish America’s political and moral legitimacy.
Of course terrorism has fueled many conspiracy theories. Earlier this year, conspiracies circulated that Osama bin Laden had not actually been killed by American commandos. I wrote a column about it, pointing out that the best proof that bin Laden is dead is that he hasn’t been seen since his death was announced by President Obama. If bin Laden is alive, what better way to embarrass and discredit the United States than to make a smiling public appearance? In fact, not only has bin Laden not emerged from hiding since his (alleged) killing in May, but al-Qaeda itself publicly acknowledged that bin Laden was killed.
The fact that al-Qaeda has denied that America had any role in the attacks strikes a heavy blow to the already shaky credibility of the “Truther” movement and other 9/11 conspiracy theorists. They must not only explain the stark lack of evidence implicating the American government in the attacks, but also explain why America’s longtime sworn enemy would deny U.S. involvement if it were true.
PHOTOS: LESSER-SEEN PHOTOS OF 9/11
When investigation after investigation finds no American involvement in the attacks, conspiracy-minded folks can dismiss the findings by saying that it’s all part of the cover up. But when a group of ruthless terrorists like al-Qaeda (who everyone acknowledges actually committed the attacks regardless of who gave the orders) questions the logic and evidence behind the conspiracy claims, that’s a sign that your conspiracy arguments and theories are in deep trouble.
Part of the reason that conspiracy theories linger is that any contradictory evidence -- no matter how conclusive or compelling—can just be dismissed by claiming that it’s part of the cover-up. There is ultimately no evidence that would satisfy most conspiracy theorists. Those who distrust the government will use any excuse to support their beliefs, logical or not. Conspiracy theorists prefer complex mysteries over simple truths, and find mystery where none exists.
Benjamin Radford @'DiscoveryNews'
UP#15 Future Shock mixed by Philip Sherburne
This is one of the more schizophrenic mixes I've ever recorded, but that's appropriate, I suppose, given the subject matter. The introduction comes from the 1972 film adaptation of Alvin Toffler's book Future Shock, narrated by Orson Welles. I actually watched the film when I was still in grade school—just 12 or 13 years
old, as I recall. I suppose some well-meaning teacher wanted to teach us to think critically about media and technology, but at that age, I remember feeling only baffled. Today, the film (which you can watch on YouTube, appropriately enough) feels both comically dated and woefully prescient. That collision of sensations dictated the overall shape of the mix, which leans heavily on broken-down techno and tangled retro-futurism. Instead of the streamlined designs and elegant circuitry that electronic music has supposedly promised, this mix is all about shuddering gears and time out of joint.
The majority of it was mixed with vinyl, using two Technics 1210s and an Allen & Heath mixer; the final two tracks, along with additional passages taken from the film, were added in Ableton at the end.
Ironically, as difficult as mixing some of the tracks proved, figuring out how to close it all out was infinitely harder. Just like the film says, "Every day we're bombarded by choices, we need to make instant decisions, we're in endless combat with our own environment with all its pace and variety, its choice and over-choice."
1. Intro – Future Shock (1972, narrated by Orson Welles)
2. The Hafler Trio, "Suppressed Noise" [Doublevision 1972/1984]
3. Vibert/Simmonds, "Submarine" [Rephlex 1993]
4. Roswell Return, "A Goldbach Vibe (Clean Cut Remix)" [SD Records
2009]
5. Caribou, "Bowls (Holden Remix)" [City Slang 2010]
6. P. Eladan, "Monochordium II" [Muting The Noise 2010]
7. Juju & Jordash, "Chelm Is Dubbing" [Golf Channel Recordings 2011]
8. Morphosis, "Dirty Matter (NWAQ's Via Mezzacapo Dub)" [Delsin
2011]
9. Redshape, "Kracken's Game" [Present 2011]
10. Terekke, "Damn" [L.I.E.S. 2011]
11. Grackle, "Jungle (Original Mix)" [Discos Capablanca 2008]
12. About Group, "You're No Good (A Theo Parrish Translation)"
[Domino 2011]
13. Daphni, "NPE" [Resista 2011]
14. Tilt (Trouble Funk), "Arkade Funk" [D.E.T.T. Records 1983]
15. Autechre, "Lost" [Warp 1994]
16. Laurel Halo, "Strength In Free Space" [Hippos In Tanks 2011]
old, as I recall. I suppose some well-meaning teacher wanted to teach us to think critically about media and technology, but at that age, I remember feeling only baffled. Today, the film (which you can watch on YouTube, appropriately enough) feels both comically dated and woefully prescient. That collision of sensations dictated the overall shape of the mix, which leans heavily on broken-down techno and tangled retro-futurism. Instead of the streamlined designs and elegant circuitry that electronic music has supposedly promised, this mix is all about shuddering gears and time out of joint.
The majority of it was mixed with vinyl, using two Technics 1210s and an Allen & Heath mixer; the final two tracks, along with additional passages taken from the film, were added in Ableton at the end.
Ironically, as difficult as mixing some of the tracks proved, figuring out how to close it all out was infinitely harder. Just like the film says, "Every day we're bombarded by choices, we need to make instant decisions, we're in endless combat with our own environment with all its pace and variety, its choice and over-choice."
1. Intro – Future Shock (1972, narrated by Orson Welles)
2. The Hafler Trio, "Suppressed Noise" [Doublevision 1972/1984]
3. Vibert/Simmonds, "Submarine" [Rephlex 1993]
4. Roswell Return, "A Goldbach Vibe (Clean Cut Remix)" [SD Records
2009]
5. Caribou, "Bowls (Holden Remix)" [City Slang 2010]
6. P. Eladan, "Monochordium II" [Muting The Noise 2010]
7. Juju & Jordash, "Chelm Is Dubbing" [Golf Channel Recordings 2011]
8. Morphosis, "Dirty Matter (NWAQ's Via Mezzacapo Dub)" [Delsin
2011]
9. Redshape, "Kracken's Game" [Present 2011]
10. Terekke, "Damn" [L.I.E.S. 2011]
11. Grackle, "Jungle (Original Mix)" [Discos Capablanca 2008]
12. About Group, "You're No Good (A Theo Parrish Translation)"
[Domino 2011]
13. Daphni, "NPE" [Resista 2011]
14. Tilt (Trouble Funk), "Arkade Funk" [D.E.T.T. Records 1983]
15. Autechre, "Lost" [Warp 1994]
16. Laurel Halo, "Strength In Free Space" [Hippos In Tanks 2011]
Neal Stephenson: Innovation Starvation
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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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 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
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 BillVia
Libyan Jew blocked from Tripoli synagogue
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'
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'
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!
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'
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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When I tweeted about News international hiring staff for the Sun in Sunday last week, the company dismissed it: ind.pn/oigm0F
What damage does alcohol do to our bodies?
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?
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'
Listen to the Story
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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...
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
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