Monday, 7 November 2011
Vladimir Putin and the painted skulls
California-based art historian Paul Koudou-naris admits he is "a bit macabre". He has spent three years touring ancient ossuaries, documenting seldom-seen artworks crafted from human bones.
His journey led him to Mount Athos in Greece. "Every Orthodox country has a monastery there," he says. "They paint the skulls to identify the bones of monks raised to sainthood. The Russian monks on Athos are the Rembrandts of skull-painting. I dearly wanted to photograph those skulls."
So Koudounaris asked if he could. "It was like going to see the Wizard of Oz. I was on my knees before this old abbot who looked like Rasputin." The answer was no: nothing personal, but he had to comply with God's wishes.
As he turned to leave, the abbot told him that another man had once come with the same request. His name? Vladimir Putin. "He visited the monastery, and even gave them $1m for repairs," says Koudounaris. "Putin asked if he might take some photos of the skulls, but they told him no." Then the abbot offered something more: "If it makes you feel better, frankly you are a much better photographer than Putin."
Rod Stanley @'The Guardian'
His journey led him to Mount Athos in Greece. "Every Orthodox country has a monastery there," he says. "They paint the skulls to identify the bones of monks raised to sainthood. The Russian monks on Athos are the Rembrandts of skull-painting. I dearly wanted to photograph those skulls."
So Koudounaris asked if he could. "It was like going to see the Wizard of Oz. I was on my knees before this old abbot who looked like Rasputin." The answer was no: nothing personal, but he had to comply with God's wishes.
As he turned to leave, the abbot told him that another man had once come with the same request. His name? Vladimir Putin. "He visited the monastery, and even gave them $1m for repairs," says Koudounaris. "Putin asked if he might take some photos of the skulls, but they told him no." Then the abbot offered something more: "If it makes you feel better, frankly you are a much better photographer than Putin."
Rod Stanley @'The Guardian'
Carlos the Jackal stands trial for 1980s terror bombings
Carlos, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, has spent the last 17 years at the La Sante prison in southern Paris after he was sentenced to life in 1997 for the killing of two French security officers and an alleged Lebanese informant in 1975.
On Monday, 62-year-old Sanchez, once a figure of the far left, appears before special anti-terrorism magistrates at the Justice Palace in the French capital in connection with deadly bombings in 1982 and 1983, in which at least 11 people were killed and another 150 injured.
French prosecutors say the attacks were part of a private terror campaign waged by Carlos against France to secure the release of his jailed comrade Bruno Breguet and then-girlfriend Magdalena Kopp, who were arrested in Paris driving a car carrying explosives in February 1982.
The first explosion hit the express train Le Capitole running from Paris to the southern city of Toulouse in March 1982, in which five people were killed and dozens wounded. This attack was claimed by the "International Terrorist Friends of Carlos"
The bombing was followed by a second explosion in April 1982 outside the Paris offices of anti-Syrian newspaper Al-Watan Al-Arabi on the same day as Breguet and Kopp were convicted in a French court. One person was killed and scores were injured.
On New Year’s Eve 1983, two bombs exploded, one in a high-speed TGV train travelling from the southern French city of Marseille to Paris, killing three people, and the another at the Marseille train station, killing a further two passengers. The attacks were claimed by a group calling itself the “Organisation for the Arab Armed Struggle”.
Evidence from the East
French prosecutors say recently revealed evidence from East Germany, Romania and Hungary proves Carlos’s involvement in the attacks. They also allege that he wrote two letters in which he claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Three of his alleged accomplices - Palestinian Kamal al-Issawi, and the German nationals Christa-Margot Froehlich and Johannes Weinrich - will be tried in absentia.
Carlos denies the charges. His lawyer and third wife, Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, whom he married in prison ten years ago, insists that the evidence from the former communist countries is unreliable...
Continue reading
Tony Todd @'France24'
Sunday, 6 November 2011
InjusticeFacts Injustice Facts
In the McDonald's code of conduct, giving food designated for the garbage to homeless people is strictly forbidden.
Chuck D Files $100M Lawsuit Against Universal
The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco federal court and alleges that UMG routinely miscalculates the royalties owed to artists for digital downloads, such as MP3s and ringtones, by treating them as "sales" of physical records rather than "licenses."
Chuck D's complaint follows on the heels of a federal judge's decision on Tuesday to move forward on a similar consolidated class action brought by Rob Zombie and the estate of Rick James.
In announcing the lawsuit, Chuck D's lawyers at Hausfeld LLP says that UMG has underpaid hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties and pointed to a decision in 2010 by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that offers some precedent that digital downloads should be treated as "licenses."
"Chuck D has been 'fighting the power' for over two decades and will continue to do so through this suit in order to help all musicians, including many legacy artists who are living on fixed incomes," said James Pizzirusso, a partner at Hausfeld LLP involved in the case.
"This complaint suffers from serious flaws and weaknesses, not the least of which is that the claims asserted are not appropriate for class treatment," a UMG spokesperson tells THR. "We will vigorously defend against it."
The suit arrives as the digital marketplace continues to prove itself a key component of album and single sales. Coldplay's Billboard 200-topping "Mylo Xyloto" just moved over 500,000 copies worldwide in its first week, an iTunes record as well as a number that bested the band's overall domestic sales of 447,000 units.
Eriq Gardner @'Billboard'
A Look Inside the Communal Tents of the Occupy Movement
New games legislation: written by the uninformed, influenced by lobbyists
Minister for Home Affairs, Brendan O'Connor, today released the proposed Guidelines for the introduction of Australia's new adult category for computer games. The release has something of a triumphalist air about it but the reaction from the games community, which has been waiting over ten years for this to happen, is muted to say the least. Why? Have unelected, moral-outrage, lobbyists really influenced government policy?
Those who have been following the argument, will note how a large chunk of the release is spent placating the hysterical, ultra-conservative family groups who have railed at the notion all along. It says,The amendments reflect concerns expressed by the public, stakeholders and governments about the draft Guidelines.
Bans on violence, sexual violence and drug use have been strengthened at all levels.
"Games with high impact violence that is, in context, frequently gratuitous, exploitative and offensive to a reasonable adult will not be permitted in the R 18+ category," Mr O'Connor said.
"And I want to make it clear that sexually explicit games, or games with very frequent and unduly repetitive strong and realistic violence, will not be classified under the MA15+ category."
This may be dismissible as politics and paying lip service to the think-of-the-children brigade (actually the last part is very reasonable), but what of the legislation itself? Is it strong policy based upon rigorous research and does it demonstrate a strong understanding of the subject matter?
No. Not at all.
In fact I'd venture that it was written and discussed almost exclusively by people who don't regularly play modern video games and then subsequently passed to the outraged lobby groups for approval. If the latter didn't happen, it reads like their outraged allegations have been foremost on the legislators' minds.
For years, ultra-conservative, pro-censorship lobby groups have cited "research" which shows that playing video games is more harmful than other media. But when the lobbyists appear in mainstream media they typically get given a platform, soap box, some embellishing video/audio packages and are allowed to espouse their "research" unchallenged.
The problem is that just about every single piece of this research is... well... bollocks.
I've yet to see a single study that is a) scientific and b) compelling. I've seen many biased, try-hard articles which try desperately to sound scientific. But when they ignore all the glaring evidence to the contrary, or draw outlandish, partially-related conclusions from their results they lose every semblance of credibility.
If anyone wanted to do an actual scientific study, they'd have to get thousands of kids from all walks of life from all over the world and isolate each group into various subgroups which are then only allowed access to one type of media for some ten years or so.
Until then I'll just rely on my own scientific training and personal observations of playing video games with my friends for the past 30 years and with my nine-year-old son and his friends for the past few years. That is: there is no significant difference in playing games as watching violent films, TV shows, Nerf Guns, watching violence on the news, violent cartoons, Laser Tag, and running around playgrounds shooting each other with sticks.
A government literature review concurs that the "research" is not reliable, and yet the new guidelines shamelessly pander to unelected lobbyists.
For an unknown reason, the guidelines revolve around "impact". Games that have too much "impact" are to be banned. There is a spurious description of what "impact" is and how much is too much:
One eloquent phrase follows thusly, "Assessing the impact of material requires considering not only the treatment of individual classifiable elements but also their cumulative effect. It also requires considering the purpose and tone of a sequence."
This is followed by,
"Impact may be lessened where reference to a classifiable element is verbal rather than visual. For example, a verbal reference to sexual violence is generally of less impact than a visual depiction. Also, some visual impacts have less impact than others: for example, an incidental depiction may have less impact than a direct one. Some depictions in computer games may have less impact due to the stylised nature of computer generated images."
At no point anywhere are we told what is wrong with "impact". Imagine banning films because of impact? Who made this up? I've been playing games for thirty years and I've never once remotely had an issue with "impact". What evidence did the writer base this on? The global games and computer industry has striven for years for games to become like interactive cinematic movies. The more impact, the better.
I should reign myself in a bit here. To be fair, when dealing with kids, separating different content into different age ranges using impact can make sense. But the problem is that the new legislation is being formed because of the discussion about what adults are allowed access to in Australia...
Continue reading
Nick Ross @'ABC'
Saturday, 5 November 2011
Turkish court reduces sentences for 26 men accused of raping 13-year-old
Human rights groups have reacted with outrage after a Turkish appeals court reduced prison sentences for 26 men convicted of having sex with a 13-year-old girl, because the victim had given "consent".
In a judgment this week, the court ruled that the sentence was based on the old Turkish penal code, under which rape of a minor could be punished with a minimum prison sentence of 10 years – unless the child consented.
Two women accused of having sold the girl – known only as NÇ – for sex have each been sentenced to nine years in prison, for leading "immoral lives", but the 26 men, who include teachers, civil servants and a village elder, were given sentences ranging from one to six years.
Activists protesting outside Istanbul's palace of justice on Friday called for the decision to be overturned.
"Is it necessary to discuss consent when 26 men rape a 13-year-old girl?" asked Nilgün Yurdalan, a women's rights activist of the Istanbul Feminist Collective.
"We think that the government itself has committed a serious crime. This does not concern only the five judges, but the laws of this country, the mentality of the government and their view of women," she said.
The supreme court said the sentence could, however, still be appealed, and that no further comments could be made on the case.
One of NÇ's lawyers, Reyhan Yalçindag Baydemir, warned that further delay might lead to the case breaching the Turkish statute of limitations, which would result in all 26 defendants going free. The case will now also be reviewed by the European court of human rights.
The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has distanced itself from the ruling, and family and social policies minister Fatma Sahin called the sentence "unacceptable and worrying".
Human rights activist Leman Yurtsever, who together with human rights lawyer Erin Keskin has been a foster mother to NÇ, told a local newspaper that the court ruling was a severe shock for the young woman, who had suffered severe injuries and trauma. NÇ, now 19, has just finished high school and plans to become a journalist or a lawyer.
According to statistics published by the justice ministry, killings of women in Turkey increased by 1,400% between 2002 and 2009.
Yurdalan said the figures reflect an increase in women's willingness to report abuse, but also an increase in violence.
"Men in Turkey, be it husbands, fathers or politicians, cannot bear that women demand equal rights and make their voices heard," she said.
Constanze Letsch @'The Guardian'
In a judgment this week, the court ruled that the sentence was based on the old Turkish penal code, under which rape of a minor could be punished with a minimum prison sentence of 10 years – unless the child consented.
Two women accused of having sold the girl – known only as NÇ – for sex have each been sentenced to nine years in prison, for leading "immoral lives", but the 26 men, who include teachers, civil servants and a village elder, were given sentences ranging from one to six years.
Activists protesting outside Istanbul's palace of justice on Friday called for the decision to be overturned.
"Is it necessary to discuss consent when 26 men rape a 13-year-old girl?" asked Nilgün Yurdalan, a women's rights activist of the Istanbul Feminist Collective.
"We think that the government itself has committed a serious crime. This does not concern only the five judges, but the laws of this country, the mentality of the government and their view of women," she said.
The supreme court said the sentence could, however, still be appealed, and that no further comments could be made on the case.
One of NÇ's lawyers, Reyhan Yalçindag Baydemir, warned that further delay might lead to the case breaching the Turkish statute of limitations, which would result in all 26 defendants going free. The case will now also be reviewed by the European court of human rights.
The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has distanced itself from the ruling, and family and social policies minister Fatma Sahin called the sentence "unacceptable and worrying".
Human rights activist Leman Yurtsever, who together with human rights lawyer Erin Keskin has been a foster mother to NÇ, told a local newspaper that the court ruling was a severe shock for the young woman, who had suffered severe injuries and trauma. NÇ, now 19, has just finished high school and plans to become a journalist or a lawyer.
According to statistics published by the justice ministry, killings of women in Turkey increased by 1,400% between 2002 and 2009.
Yurdalan said the figures reflect an increase in women's willingness to report abuse, but also an increase in violence.
"Men in Turkey, be it husbands, fathers or politicians, cannot bear that women demand equal rights and make their voices heard," she said.
Constanze Letsch @'The Guardian'
exiledsurfer exiledsurfer
Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits, fart, turd, twat. No one ever said them better. youtu.be/3_Nrp7cj_tM
Iran boosts anti-U.S. rhetoric ahead of nuclear report
Iran marked the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy on Friday with burning flags and chants of "Death to America," escalating its anti-U.S. rhetoric ahead of the release of a pivotal U.N. report on its nuclear program.
Thousands of students burned the Stars and Stripes, an effigy of Uncle Sam and pictures of President Barack Obama outside the leafy downtown Tehran compound that once housed the U.S. mission.
The embassy was stormed by hardline students on November 4 1979, shortly after Iran's Islamic revolution toppled the U.S.-backed shah, and 52 Americans were held hostage there for 444 days. The two countries have been enemies ever since.
Tehran has raised the volume of its anti-American rhetoric since October when the United States accused Iran of plotting to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington. Iran calls the accusations false.
Tension between Iran and the West is particularly high ahead of the publication next week of a report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, expected to suggest Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.
Iran says its nuclear program is aimed at peaceful generation of electricity, but its failure to allay suspicions that it is seeking a bomb has prompted the United Nations to impose four rounds of economic sanctions on Tehran.
For its part, Tehran accuses the United States and Israel of killing several Iranian nuclear scientists in recent years.
"America has carried out terrorist acts against Iran and other countries ... We will support those who are against America's policies outside and inside America," the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, told the crowd outside the former embassy.
He said Iran would present the United Nations with evidence of U.S. plots against Iran, and the foreign ministry would summon the Swiss ambassador on Friday to protest. The Swiss embassy represents U.S. interests in Iran.
Iran's top authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday he had 100 "undeniable documents" proving the U.S. was behind "terrorist acts" in Iran.
PRESSURE
The United States, Britain and France have turned up the pressure on Iran this week ahead of next week's IEAE report, expected to unveil detailed intelligence pointing to military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program.
"One (issue) in particular that I want to mention is the continuing threat posed by Iran's nuclear program," U.S. President Barack Obama told reporters after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the resort of Cannes.
"The IAEA is scheduled to release a report on Iran's nuclear program next week and President Sarkozy and I agree on the need to maintain the unprecedented pressure on Iran to meet its obligations."
The United States and Israel have refused to rule out military strikes against Iranian nuclear sites. Iran has warned of a fierce response to any attack.
"Nuclear technology is our absolute right," read one banner carried by students at Friday's protest.
"We came here to show America that it cannot do a damn thing and we will destroy them if they attack Iran," said Mehdi Asadi, 13, who said he was attending the ceremony to pay homage to the takeover of the embassy.
Ramin Mostafavi @'Reuters'
Thousands of students burned the Stars and Stripes, an effigy of Uncle Sam and pictures of President Barack Obama outside the leafy downtown Tehran compound that once housed the U.S. mission.
The embassy was stormed by hardline students on November 4 1979, shortly after Iran's Islamic revolution toppled the U.S.-backed shah, and 52 Americans were held hostage there for 444 days. The two countries have been enemies ever since.
Tehran has raised the volume of its anti-American rhetoric since October when the United States accused Iran of plotting to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington. Iran calls the accusations false.
Tension between Iran and the West is particularly high ahead of the publication next week of a report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, expected to suggest Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.
Iran says its nuclear program is aimed at peaceful generation of electricity, but its failure to allay suspicions that it is seeking a bomb has prompted the United Nations to impose four rounds of economic sanctions on Tehran.
For its part, Tehran accuses the United States and Israel of killing several Iranian nuclear scientists in recent years.
"America has carried out terrorist acts against Iran and other countries ... We will support those who are against America's policies outside and inside America," the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, told the crowd outside the former embassy.
He said Iran would present the United Nations with evidence of U.S. plots against Iran, and the foreign ministry would summon the Swiss ambassador on Friday to protest. The Swiss embassy represents U.S. interests in Iran.
Iran's top authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday he had 100 "undeniable documents" proving the U.S. was behind "terrorist acts" in Iran.
PRESSURE
The United States, Britain and France have turned up the pressure on Iran this week ahead of next week's IEAE report, expected to unveil detailed intelligence pointing to military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program.
"One (issue) in particular that I want to mention is the continuing threat posed by Iran's nuclear program," U.S. President Barack Obama told reporters after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the resort of Cannes.
"The IAEA is scheduled to release a report on Iran's nuclear program next week and President Sarkozy and I agree on the need to maintain the unprecedented pressure on Iran to meet its obligations."
The United States and Israel have refused to rule out military strikes against Iranian nuclear sites. Iran has warned of a fierce response to any attack.
"Nuclear technology is our absolute right," read one banner carried by students at Friday's protest.
"We came here to show America that it cannot do a damn thing and we will destroy them if they attack Iran," said Mehdi Asadi, 13, who said he was attending the ceremony to pay homage to the takeover of the embassy.
Ramin Mostafavi @'Reuters'
Tom Waits: The Fresh Air Interview
"I never had my own place before," he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "[In a studio], you know there was a band before you and you know you have to pack up at the end of your session because there was a band behind you. You have to photograph the board so no one changes your settings. Now, this is my own rig. It's my own trailer."
Bad As Me, Waits' 20th album, references the people he normally sings about: loners, losers, drunks and eccentrics. The "poet of outcasts," as The New York Times once called Waits, romanticizes loneliness, the city of Chicago, death and love, among other topics. The album also pays homage to some of Waits' favorite singers, including James Brown, Peggy Lee and Howlin' Wolf.
"I've always looked to [Wolf] for guidance, and probably always will," Waits says. "He does have a voice that is otherworldly. It should be in a time capsule somewhere. When you're a kid and you're trying to find your own voice, it's rather daunting to hear somebody like Howlin' Wolf, because you know that you'll never achieve that. That's the Empire State Building. You can scream into a pillow for a year and never get there."
One of the torch ballads on Bad As Me is called "Kiss Me," and has opening chords reminiscent of "Cry Me a River." The title, Waits says, was inspired by Kiss Me Like a Stranger, Gene Wilder's book about Gilda Radner.
"As soon as I heard it," Waits says, "I said, 'That's a tune waiting to be written.'"
To make the recording sound older, Waits added the sound of vinyl pops and clicks — using a piece of chicken barbecuing on a grill.
"It sounds exactly like vinyl if you hold the microphone up to your barbecue," he says. "It's the same sound, actually. ... I wanted to go back in time a little bit and give it a feeling like you're alone in a hotel with a record player."
For the words in "Kiss Me," Waits says he drew inspiration from songwriters like Peggy Lee, Julie London and Bessie Smith.
"For a songwriter, you don't really go to songwriting school; you learn by listening to tunes. And you try to understand them and take them apart and see what they're made of, and wonder if you can make one, too," he says. "And you just do it by picking up the needle and putting it back down and figuring it how these people did this magical thing. It's rather mystifying when you think about songs — where they come from and how they're born. Many times, it's very humble and very mundane, the origin of these songs."
Waits says he also grew up listening to James Brown and Ray Charles, whom he admired for his ability to sing in falsetto. Waits takes his own turn singing in falsetto in "Talking At the Same Time," which he says was inspired by Charles, as well as Marvin Gaye, Skip James, Prince and Smokey Robinson.
"Sometimes the magnetism of a song is impossible to ignore, and it demands that it be sung in a certain way," Waits says. "And that's really your job as an interpreter, to discover: 'What is the way in? Do I growl this? Do I eliminate all my growl and try to do it like a younger man? What does this song mean?' You're more like an actor."
But Waits says performing night after night on the road takes its toll on his voice.
"I bark my voice out through a closed throat, pretty much," he says. "It's more, perhaps, like a dog in some ways. It does have its limitations, but I'm learning different ways to keep it alive."...
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