Friday, 7 October 2011
#SteveWorkers
Wu_Ming_Foundt Wu Ming Foundation
Steve Workers says: Planet Earth is like one big Foxconn plant. Don't kill yourself, organize! Beat the crap out of your boss! #SteveWorkers
Wu_Ming_Foundt Wu Ming Foundation
Here's a blog devoted to Steve Workers, the guru of the working class steveworkers.tumblr.com #SteveWorkers
Help the Next Steve Jobs
But there was one machine he couldn’t fix: his body.
Jobs died yesterday at 56 because of a glitch in his programming. The glitch was cancer. A lot of smart people are trying to fix this glitch in future releases of the human body. But that’s going to take a while. In the meantime, there’s something you can do to help people such as Jobs. You can supply replacement parts for the machines that keep them alive. You can sign up as an organ donor.
Two years ago, Jobs got a liver transplant to prolong his life. Apparently his cancer, which began in his pancreas, had damaged his liver. To get the liver, Jobs went to Tennessee, because the waiting list in Northern California was too long. There weren’t enough livers to go around. Lots of other people in Northern California needed livers but couldn’t get them, because they didn’t have the kind of money or savvy Jobs did. They couldn’t afford to fly around the country, go through extensive evaluations at multiple transplant centers, and guarantee their availability within an hour for the next liver that became available.
Go to the data page of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network and look at the numbers. More than 100,000 people are on waiting lists for organs. Sixteen thousand are waiting for livers. Ninety thousand are waiting for kidneys. Three thousand are waiting for hearts. In the past decade and a half, more than 100,000 people—on average, more than 6,000 per year—were removed from the lists not because they got organs, but because they died. Another 30,000 were removed because they became too ill. Right now, more than 3,000 people are waiting for livers in California. Most of them have been waiting more than two years.
Spending that liver on Jobs seems unfair, given the scarcity of organs. But why should we accept scarcity? Jobs didn’t. He used his influence to prod California to enact a new law that requires applicants for a driver's license to be asked whether they'd like to be organ donors. He recognized that the wait for organs doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. If more organs become available, people like Jobs can get transplants, possibly prolonging their lives, without sentencing others on the waiting list to death.
In the hours since the world learned of Jobs’ death, I’ve seen lots of people posting tributes to him online. They say he was one of a kind. They say he did things nobody else could do. But medically, he was one of thousands. And the thing he needed most was something any of us can do. He needed an organ donor. There are 100,000 people behind him—people who didn’t have his wealth or connections—still waiting.
If you want to honor Jobs and his donor, don’t just recycle your computer. Recycle your body. Register as an organ donor, and spread the word. You can help the next Steve Jobs reboot the machine that matters most.
William Saletan @'Salon'
William Saletan @'Salon'
Family donates organs of boy hit by train
Fred Shuttlesworth RIP
I've chosen to use this mugshot of Shuttlesworth because to me it symbolizes how oppression and adversity can reveal strength, and how defiance in and of itself can be a kind of grace. As the Times obituary recounts, Shuttlesworth was arrested dozens of times, brutally assaulted, targeted by politicians and police, and the victim of repeated attempted murder. He neither backed down nor succumbed to cynicism or the use of violence himself.
What's more, Shuttlesworth demonstrates that pacifism is natural partners with radicalism, pugnacity, and a refusal to compromise. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King are such toweringly complex and symbolically rich figures-- and our public consciousness has such little space for history-- that there is an unfortunate tendency to think of the Civil Rights movement as being defined only by the conciliatory message of King and the combative message of Malcolm X. This itself is a reductive reading of history. But Shuttlesworth was at once dedicated to the vehicle of nonviolence that King espoused and yet was fiery and obstinate as well. And he came from the same poor background that defined the lives of many of the black Americans living during the Civil Rights era and continues to define the lives of too many today.
A culture makes choices in the virtues it celebrates. What is celebrated determines what is valued and what is valued determines what endures. It is necessary for us to remember men like Fred Shuttlesworth, and in doing so to remember that what should endure in memory is real heroism, real sacrifice, and real principle.
Freddie @'L'Hôte'
Bin Laden death: 'CIA doctor' accused of treason
A Pakistani commission investigating the US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden says a doctor accused of helping the CIA should be tried for high treason.
Dr Shakil Afridi is accused of running a CIA-sponsored fake vaccine programme in Abbottabad, where Bin Laden was killed, to try to get DNA samples.He was arrested shortly after the 2 May US raid that killed the al-Qaeda chief.
The commission has been interviewing intelligence officials and on Wednesday spoke to Bin Laden family members.
Pakistan, which was deeply embarrassed by the raid, has described the covert US special forces operation as a violation of its sovereignty.
A government commission, headed by a former Supreme Court judge, has been charged with discovering how the US military was able to carry out the raid deep within Pakistan without being detected.
It is also investigating how Bin Laden was able to hide in Abbottabad, a garrison town, for several years.
DNA sought After questioning Dr Afridi, the commission said that in view of the record and evidence it was "of the view that prima facie, a case of conspiracy against the State of Pakistan and high treason" should be launched against him.
Washington has been arguing that Dr Afridi should be freed and allowed to live in the US.
In the weeks after the Bin Laden raid, reports emerged that Dr Afridi, a senior Pakistani doctor, had been recruited by the CIA to organise the phoney vaccine drive.
After having tracked down a Bin Laden courier to a high-walled compound in Abbottabad, the CIA wanted to confirm Bin Laden's presence by obtaining a DNA sample from the residents.
It is not clear if any DNA from Bin Laden or any family members was ever obtained.
After the raid, Pakistani authorities took three of Bin Laden's widows and two of his daughters into custody.
The commission said on Thursday that statements had been taken from them and they were no longer required for its investigation.
@'BBC'
Seemingly Bogus Website Uses 'Occupy Party' Name... To Sell Ads
Registered here in Australia!
(Thanx Sander!)
(Thanx Sander!)
Gruen Planet | The Pitch - Trust Murdoch
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/gruenplanet What happens when your name is your brand and that name has become, well, a little bit toxic. We've challenged our agencies to come up with a campaign to re-establish "Murdoch as a name everyone can trust."
Syria's electronic army
In the midst of a virtual blackout on the city of Hama, citizen videos - often shaky and unverifiable - document the brutality of the Syrian military's crackdown on the city, ongoing since July 31 - the day before the start of Ramadan - while online campaigns, hosted on Facebook and Twitter, aim to draw attention to events on the ground. The narrative: Syrians are suffering and want the world to take notice.
At the same time, and often on the same networks, a different story can be seen, as Syrians in favour of the Assad regime stake out online ground in attempt to shift the narrative in their favour. And though there are individuals who post supportive sentiments about Assad, the overwhelming majority of pro-regime content online appears well-coordinated; the work of organised groups coming together to support the beleaguered president.
The Syrian electronic army
Tunisia's Ben Ali promised a more open internet just one day before he was ousted. In Egypt, Mubarak sought a different strategy, shutting down the majority of the internet for a week in the hopes of disabling activist networks. Syria has taken a different approach to the internet altogether, first unblocking popular social networking sites, then throwing support to pro-regime hackers in the hopes of countering opposition forces online.
As Helmi Noman has documented, the Syrian Electronic Army - a cabal of hackers, acknowledged as a positive force by Assad himself in a June 20 speech - has overtaken certain Facebook pages, such as those belonging to French and US presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Barack Obama, TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey, and the page for ABC News and flooding them with comments like "we love Bashar al-Assad" and "I live in Syria, stop lying, nothing is happening in Syria".
More recently, the group has targeted the US Department of Treasury, in light of US government plans to impose further sanctions on the Syrian regime.
In addition to flooding Facebook pages, it has coordinated hacking attempts from their own Facebook page, and have defaced or disabled a number of websites. Although Facebook has removed a number of their pages, a quick search of the site brings up numerous new ones, suggesting a strong sense of determination.
Though the "electronic army" doesn't seem to have much of a presence on Twitter, other groups vie for influence there by flooding popular hashtags with largely irrelevant content, such as photographs of the Syrian landscape, often accompanied by other, unrelated hashtags...
Continue reading
Jillian C. York @'Al Jazeera'
The Dandy Warhols wade into the Primal Scream Tory row
The Dandy Warhols have followed Primal Scream's lead in attacking the Conservatives for using their music at the Tory party conference.
Yesterday (October 5), in a case of mistaken identity, Primal Scream believed the Tories had used their track 'Rocks' during Home Secretary Theresa May's speech, causing them to write a furious missive saying they were "totally disgusted" by the news.
But the song actually played was The Dandy Warhols' 'Bohemian Like You', and the Portland, Oregon band are just as unimpressed to discover they were the real soundtrack to the event.
Frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor took to the band's website to launch his own tirade against the Conservatives, saying he was so angry, "I wanna puke". He wrote:
Yesterday (October 5), in a case of mistaken identity, Primal Scream believed the Tories had used their track 'Rocks' during Home Secretary Theresa May's speech, causing them to write a furious missive saying they were "totally disgusted" by the news.
But the song actually played was The Dandy Warhols' 'Bohemian Like You', and the Portland, Oregon band are just as unimpressed to discover they were the real soundtrack to the event.
Frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor took to the band's website to launch his own tirade against the Conservatives, saying he was so angry, "I wanna puke". He wrote:
Why don't these assholes have right-wing bands make them some right-wing music for their right-wing jerkoff politics? Oh, because right-wing people aren’t creative, visionary or any fun to be around.It wasn't just the right wing that came under fire, though, as Taylor-Taylor went on to rant: "Jesus, I tend to really dislike ANY people who take sides in politics. It is the single greatest contributor to getting nothing done. Fuck 'politics'."
@'NME'
Hmmm! that last sentence really negates all you said before Mr Asshat!
'After all, stupidity—and I don’t mean ignorance—is a central issue of our time.' – William Gaddis
'Carpenter's Gothic' is up there in my all time fave books...
International: Pump v. Well (1932)
Millions and millions of loudspeakers flood the U. S. with a mighty, surging bath of warm, sweet music. At the pump is Radio; the wellspring is Tin Pan Alley. Without the well, the pump is not much good. Both realize it but they do not love each other. Last week pump and well— the National Association of Broadcasters and the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers—came to grips.
Tin Pan Alley is sadly aware that Radio has virtually plugged up its oldtime outlets, sheet music and gramophone discs. The average music publisher used to get $175,000 a year from disc sales. He now gets about 10% of this. No longer does a song hit sell a million copies. The copious stream of music poured out by Radio puts a song quickly to death. The average song's life has dwindled from 18 months to 90 days; composers are forced to turn out a dozen songs a year instead of the oldtime two or three.
The American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers is Tin Pan Alley's clearing house. Its 800 composer & publisher-members own the copyrights to nearly all the music composed in the U. S. since 1914. It is affiliated with similar societies abroad. To many radio listeners and broadcasters the phrase "by special permission of the copyright owners" has been irksome. A. S. C. A. & P. used to insist upon it, permitting no facetious trifling with the announcement. Lately, however, it lifted this requirement. Most of its songs may be performed without special permission, but a number are restricted, for example musical comedy songs which the producers do not wish to be too soon familiarized. On the current special list are also Deems Taylor's Through the Looking Glass, his operas Peter Ibbetson and The King's Henchman; George Gershwin's An American in Paris, Rhapsody in Blue, Second Rhapsody; Ferde Grofe's Five Pictures of the Grand Canyon and Metropolis; seven songs sung by Sir Harry Lauder. who will sing no song previously broadcast...
Tin Pan Alley is sadly aware that Radio has virtually plugged up its oldtime outlets, sheet music and gramophone discs. The average music publisher used to get $175,000 a year from disc sales. He now gets about 10% of this. No longer does a song hit sell a million copies. The copious stream of music poured out by Radio puts a song quickly to death. The average song's life has dwindled from 18 months to 90 days; composers are forced to turn out a dozen songs a year instead of the oldtime two or three.
The American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers is Tin Pan Alley's clearing house. Its 800 composer & publisher-members own the copyrights to nearly all the music composed in the U. S. since 1914. It is affiliated with similar societies abroad. To many radio listeners and broadcasters the phrase "by special permission of the copyright owners" has been irksome. A. S. C. A. & P. used to insist upon it, permitting no facetious trifling with the announcement. Lately, however, it lifted this requirement. Most of its songs may be performed without special permission, but a number are restricted, for example musical comedy songs which the producers do not wish to be too soon familiarized. On the current special list are also Deems Taylor's Through the Looking Glass, his operas Peter Ibbetson and The King's Henchman; George Gershwin's An American in Paris, Rhapsody in Blue, Second Rhapsody; Ferde Grofe's Five Pictures of the Grand Canyon and Metropolis; seven songs sung by Sir Harry Lauder. who will sing no song previously broadcast...
Steve Jobs: The man who changed everything
When I first started at Creative Review, in the mid-90s, we used to hammer out our stories on typewriters. The deputy editor would mark up these 'galleys' with typesetting instructions and, every evening, a man would come up on the train from our printer in Brighton, put these sheaves of paper in a leather satchel and take them back to be set. Also in his satchel were the day's layouts - marked up sheets of paper onto which 'bromide' headlines and photocopied columns would be affixed along with transparencies or flat artwork to be scanned. And then came the Mac.
No doubt every one of our readers of a similar vintage - be they designers, art directors, filmmakers, photographers, illustrators or writers - can look back and reflect on their own Apple-driven upheaval not just in how they work but also what they work on. But no matter how old you may be, Steve Jobs will have changed the life of every one of our readers, even those who profess to hate Apple and all it stands for.
Following the advent of the Mac, almost every aspect of the production of visual communications was changed for ever. Of course it wasn't all down to Jobs: many others helped build Apple and let's not forget the contributions of Jobs' contemporaries at the likes of Xerox, Adobe, Aldus, Macromedia, Quark and a host of other start-ups. Crafts such as typesetting, retouching and illustration, previously the domain of highly-trained specialists, were suddenly accessible to all. On one machine, we could design a typeface, retouch an image, create an illustration, layout a poster and edit a film.
But just because we could, it didn't necessarily mean we should. Thanks to the Mac, designers could do it all - but for no more money and with no more hours in the day. For all the enormous and undoubted benefits that the Mac and the digital revolution it symbolised brought to the creative industries, it has also resulted in the undervaluation of many of the crafts on which it relies. The Mac, the DTP Revolution, whatever you want to call it, drew back the curtain. Now anyone with a computer could set a line of type, design a logo, touch up an image. In every revolution there are winners and losers.
And yet would anyone want to go back to those pre-Mac days? Creative Review readers are, in the main, Apple people. We stuck by Apple in the dark days of the clones before Steve (and a certain Jonathan Ive) returned to lead us (by the wallet) into the sunny uplands of the iWorld. We had Macs, the suits had PCs: they symbolised the great divide. They were 'ours' and, despite their faults, we loved them. Before iTunes and iPods, before the phones and the pads, we embraced Apple and we never let it go.
As TBWA Chiat Day's famous campaign had it, with an Apple Mac you could 'Think Different'. Such innate understanding of the power of his brand is perhaps the other reason why Jobs was held in such high regard by our industry.
It has often been said that Apple is not a technology company but a design company. It redesigned the way we live and gave us the tools to do it. Its products were not just the best looking but also offered the best user experience. The interfaces, the materials, even the boxes the products came in were leagues ahead of the competition, as was the advertising.
Jobs and Apple created their own exquisitely designed universe. As a result he will be remembered not just as the man at the heart of revolutionising the creative industries but also perhaps as its ideal client: a man in charge of one of the world's biggest companies who understood the power of what we do, invested in it and championed it.
He got it. And he got us.
Patrick Burgoyne @'Creative Review'
McKenzie Wark: 'Zuccotti Park, a psychogeography'
The confrontations with the police usually get the most attention, but they're not the only thing going on at Occupy Wall Street. I went down to Zuccotti Park at about 9PM on Wednesday, 5th October after putting the kids to bed. I was alarmed by stuff on the twitter feed that detailed incidents of contact with the police but which were not clear about the location. I wanted to make sure our Park was still there.
Just off the subway, and heading down Church Street, I caught a glimpse of a march going North, up the street parallel to the east. I saw a mass of closely ranked bodies and banners and heard some vigorous chants. I wasn't sure where they'd be going, as Wall street is to the south. I decided to keep going down Church to Zuccotti Park and maybe catch up with that group later.
I could hear the Park before I saw it. At the western end, about a hundred people were chanting, singing, dancing, banging on drums. I hung out with the for a while. This crowd was young, fun, and a bit crusty. The financial district is usually so dead after working hours. Even the idea of a party at night here is something.
It was hard to work my way into the Park. Piles of stuff were arranged around the planting beds. Mostly disassembled tents. The police have been pretty clear that they will not tolerate “structures” without a permit, and apparently a tent is a “structure.”
A young man lay flat on his back in a sleeping bag. I narrowly missed kicking him in the head on my way by. He looked exhausted, as did a few others in sleeping bags that I found in the west end of the Park just past the drum circle at its westerly end.
Under the sound of the drumming was the thrumb of a generator. A small knot of young men crouched around it, powering up devices. Most of the signs of organized activity were east of the crumpled tents and random sleepers. Knots of people clustered around tables dedicated to one function or other of keeping the Park running.
Here was where I found people you might think of as “anarchists,” if only in the sartorial sense. People who have some experience at self-organization. Otherwise the crowd was mostly dressed like any other crowd of college or post college age young people in New York City, although here and there you would find older people as well.
A young woman explained what was “problematic” about the occupation to two friends, and allowed me to listen in to their conversation for a while. There were a lot of small groups talking amongst themselves A man in a business suit raised a red and black flag, while talking to another man in a track suit and hoodie.
A woman smiled at a man sitting on one of the stone benches. She parted her thighs and planted herself on his lap. He kissed her; she kissed him back. Her hands were in his hair. I thought of that line in Raoul Vaneigem about those who go on and on about class struggle without speaking of love. They speak with a corpse in their mouth, he says...
Just off the subway, and heading down Church Street, I caught a glimpse of a march going North, up the street parallel to the east. I saw a mass of closely ranked bodies and banners and heard some vigorous chants. I wasn't sure where they'd be going, as Wall street is to the south. I decided to keep going down Church to Zuccotti Park and maybe catch up with that group later.
I could hear the Park before I saw it. At the western end, about a hundred people were chanting, singing, dancing, banging on drums. I hung out with the for a while. This crowd was young, fun, and a bit crusty. The financial district is usually so dead after working hours. Even the idea of a party at night here is something.
It was hard to work my way into the Park. Piles of stuff were arranged around the planting beds. Mostly disassembled tents. The police have been pretty clear that they will not tolerate “structures” without a permit, and apparently a tent is a “structure.”
A young man lay flat on his back in a sleeping bag. I narrowly missed kicking him in the head on my way by. He looked exhausted, as did a few others in sleeping bags that I found in the west end of the Park just past the drum circle at its westerly end.
Under the sound of the drumming was the thrumb of a generator. A small knot of young men crouched around it, powering up devices. Most of the signs of organized activity were east of the crumpled tents and random sleepers. Knots of people clustered around tables dedicated to one function or other of keeping the Park running.
Here was where I found people you might think of as “anarchists,” if only in the sartorial sense. People who have some experience at self-organization. Otherwise the crowd was mostly dressed like any other crowd of college or post college age young people in New York City, although here and there you would find older people as well.
A young woman explained what was “problematic” about the occupation to two friends, and allowed me to listen in to their conversation for a while. There were a lot of small groups talking amongst themselves A man in a business suit raised a red and black flag, while talking to another man in a track suit and hoodie.
A woman smiled at a man sitting on one of the stone benches. She parted her thighs and planted herself on his lap. He kissed her; she kissed him back. Her hands were in his hair. I thought of that line in Raoul Vaneigem about those who go on and on about class struggle without speaking of love. They speak with a corpse in their mouth, he says...
Continue reading
Beyond Methadone: Improving the Health of Patients in Opioid Treatment Programs
New York has increasingly recognized that drug use is more effectively addressed through health and rights-based approaches, rather than through the criminal justice system. One important example is Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs), which offer methadone and buprenorphine to people who are dependent on heroin and other opioids (e.g. painkillers).
But methadone treatment programs are not perfect, and we have found they miss a lot of opportunities to address unmet health needs among their patients.
VOCAL-NY members who are current or former methadone patients worked with the Urban Justice Center (UJC) to develop a community–led research report that would document the challenges faced by methadone patients in OTPs and develop recommendations to make these programs more patient-centered.
Our new report, Beyond Methadone – Improving Health and Empowering Patients in Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs): Hepatitis C, Overdose Prevention, Syringe Exchange, Buprenorphine, & Other Opportunities to Make Programs Work for Patients is the result.
Our research findings cover topics as diverse as hepatitis C, overdose prevention, syringe access, alternatives to methadone (burprenorphine), treatment interruptions, patient rights and involvement, and harassment by security and police.
Highlights of findings include:
Hepatitis C: About one-quarter of patients we surveyed did not know their hepatitis C status and did not recall ever being offered a test, and more than half of those who did test positive were offered no viral testing or further care.
Overdose Prevention: One in ten patients surveyed had experienced an overodse in the past two years and one in five had been with someone else who had overdosed, but most reported that there was no education or services to prevent overdose at their program.
Syringe Access: Three in four patients surveyed said they supported allowing syringe exchange services onsite to prevent the spread of HIV and hepatitis C.
Treatment Interruptions: More than half of survey respondents had missed a methadone dose, which can trigger severe withdraw symptoms and cause someone to use illicit drugs, which were caused by limited clinic hours, Medicaid case closures, and delays with transportation assistance.
Recommendations include onsite hepatitis C testing and care coordination, naloxone distribution and education about the new “911 Good Samaritan” law to prevent overdose deaths, onsite syringe exchange, and administrative reforms to prevent treatment interruptions.Download the executive summary or the new report for Beyond Methadone – Improving Health and Empowering Patients in Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs): Hepatitis C, Overdose Prevention, Syringe Exchange, Buprenorphine, & Other Opportunities to Make Programs Work for Patients to find our more about our findings and comprehensive recommendations.
Via
Ada Lovelace Day 2011 has begun!
Via email from Suw Charman-Anderson:
[Public domain image via Wikipedia]
Ada Lovelace Day has already begun in the island nation of Kiribati! One of the curious things about a 'day' is that, due to various dateline shenanigans, it's Ada Lovelace Day somewhere around the world for a grand 50 hours. This means that you have plenty of time to create your tribute to a woman in science, technology, engineering or maths and add it to our collection.
To take part, just follow this simple guide:
- Visit FindingAda.com and create a profile
- Create your story about your heroine, in whatever medium you prefer, and copy the URL
- Add your URL to our collection of stories here http://findingada.com/stories/
You can also browse the other stories from our archives, via our map!
If you don't have your own blog or website, please do feel free to use the comments on our blog post (below) as a place to add your tribute:
http://blog.findingada.com/blog/2011/10/06/ada-lovelace-day-2011-begins-in-kiribati/
Let the celebrations begin!
[Public domain image via Wikipedia]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
