Scientology's Australian 'child labour camp'
(Thanx Sander!)
Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Wax Poetics Presents: A Prince Mix by DāM-FunK
For the Wax Poetics ten-year anniversary and Issue 50 (Prince Issue), DāM-FunK (Stones Throw) creates an exclusive Prince DJ mix, including a new DāM-FunK track!
Track List
1. Prince & the Revolution - 17 Days (original version)
2. DāM-FunK - 17 Days (D-F Re-Freak)
3. Prince - Irresistible Bitch (Props Re-Edit)
4. Prince (featuring Andre Cymone & Pepe Willie) - One Man Jam
5. Prince - Wet Dream Cousin
6. Prince - Dirty Mind (1981 Live Version)
7. Prince - Soft & Wet (original version)
8. Prince - Ballad Of Dorothy Parker (D-F Extended Re-Edit)
9. Prince - Sticky Like Glue (Props Re-Edit)
10. Prince & the Revolution - All My Dreams
DOWNLOAD
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Tuesday, 14 February 2012
Oh do fuck off...
Britain is under threat from a rising tide of "militant secularisation", a cabinet minister has warned.
Religion is being "sidelined, marginalised and downgraded in the public sphere", Conservative co-chairwoman Baroness Warsi wrote in an article for the Daily Telegraph.The Muslim peer said Europe needed to become "more confident and more comfortable in its Christianity".
She will also highlight the issue in a speech at the Vatican on Wednesday.
"I will be arguing that to create a more just society, people need to feel stronger in their religious identities and more confident in their creeds," she wrote in the Telegraph.
"In practice this means individuals not diluting their faiths and nations not denying their religious heritages."
Baroness Warsi, who is Britain's first female Muslim cabinet minister, went on to write: "You cannot and should not extract these Christian foundations from the evolution of our nations any more than you can or should erase the spires from our landscapes."
'Totalitarian regimes'
She wrote that examples of a "militant secularisation" taking hold of society could be seen in a number of things - "when signs of religion cannot be displayed or worn in government buildings; when states won't fund faith schools; and where religion is sidelined, marginalised and downgraded in the public sphere".
She also compared the intolerance of religion with totalitarian regimes, which she said were "denying people the right to a religious identity because they were frightened of the concept of multiple identities".
Her comments come days after the High Court ruled that a Devon town council had acted unlawfully by allowing prayers to be said at meetings.
And, as BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott reports, the Church of England could soon lose its traditional role as the provider of the chief chaplain to the Prison Service.
The Ministry of Justice has confirmed it is "considering arrangements" for appointing a new Chaplain-General - but the job might not go to an Anglican.
Our correspondent says the move may be seen by some Anglicans as the latest sign of the reduced influence of the "established" Church of England in public affairs.
'Outdated and divisive'
On Baroness Warsi's article and speech, BBC political correspondent Louise Stewart said it was not the first time a senior Conservative had called for a revival of traditional Christian values.
"Last December, Prime Minister David Cameron said the UK was a Christian country and 'should not be afraid to say so'," she said.
"In an increasingly non-religious and, at the same time, diverse society, we need policies that will emphasise what we have in common as citizens rather than what divides us," sd BHA chief executive Andrew Copson.
Baroness Warsi's two-day delegation of seven British ministers to the Holy See will include an audience with Pope Benedict XVI, who visited the UK in 2010.
This visit marks the 30th anniversary of the re-establishment of full diplomatic ties between Britain and the Vatican.
Meanwhile, new research suggests Britons who declare themselves Christian display low levels of belief and practice.
Almost three quarters of the 1,136 people polled by Ipsos Mori agreed that religion should not influence public policy, and 92% agreed the law should apply to everyone equally, regardless of their personal beliefs.
It also found that 61% of Christians agreed homosexuals should have the same legal rights in all aspects of their lives as heterosexuals.
And a further 62% were in favour of a woman's right to have an abortion within the legal time limit.
The survey was conducted for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (UK), which describes itself as promoting "scientific education, rationalism and humanism".
@'BBC'
Lou Reed - Live Paris 1974
With:
Danny Weiss - guitar,
Michael Fonfara - keyboards
Prakash John - bass
Pentti “Whitey” Glan - drums
Oren Ambarchi & James Rushford - Melbourne Recital Centre (16 Feb 2012)
We are premiering it here in Melbourne next week at the Melbourne Recital Centre on Thurs Feb 16 with an Aussie ensemble.
More info here: http://www.melbournerecital.com.au/whatson/buytix?perfid=3672
Additionally James will be performing A. Lucier's stunning "Still Lives" piece
maybe see you there in your tux?
Kim Tan - bass flute
Karen Heath - bass clarinet
Phoebe Green - viola
Judith Hamann - cello
Nat Grant - percussion
James Rushford - piano
Oren Ambarchi - guitar
& whilst I'm at it, my new solo release on touch is finally out & features Mr.Rushford along with an all-star cast http://touchshop.org/product_info.php?products_id=495
Via
The Pirate Bay Says Goodbye to (Most) Torrents on February 29
For half a decade The Pirate Bay has been the leading BitTorrent site, but soon its users will no longer be able to download .torrent files.
The first step in this direction will be taken on February 29, the Pirate Bay announced today.
Instead of deleting all torrent files at once, the Pirate Bay crew will start with all files that have more than 10 peers. This is to guarantee that people will still be able to download less popular files, which tend to start slower through magnets.
While there are fears that this is the end of The Pirate Bay, nothing could be further from the truth. For users of the site the upcoming switch is expected to go smoothly.
People will be able to download all files as usual, but instead of using a .torrent file downloads will be initiated through a magnet link. The actual content of the .torrent file will then be downloaded from other people instead of the Pirate Bay’s servers.
Although it might take a little longer for less popular downloads to get started, all files will remain available. Also, users will still be able to upload .torrent files, which will be converted into magnet links by The Pirate Bay.
The Pirate Bay team told TorrentFreak that the transition to a magnet site is “a step forward in technology,” and one that will make the site more resistant to being shut down.
Without torrents it takes less bandwidth to host a Pirate Bay proxy site which are used to circumvent ISP blockades in countries like Italy, Ireland, The Netherlands and Belgium. In addition, the Pirate Bay will become much more portable and thus easier to move around.
How easy it is to carry a copy of a torrent-less Pirate Bay became apparent last week, when a user reduced the entire site to 90 megabytes – small enough to fit on a tiny thumb drive. The Pirate Bay team likes the idea of a “portable” backup of the site and told TorrentFreak that they are considering releasing an official version in the future.
It’s quite remarkable to see how The Pirate Bay has transformed in recent years. The site is no longer hosting a tracker, and soon .torrent files will be entirely replaced by magnet links. Despite these changes the iconic file-sharing site is picking up new users every week.
The Pirate Bay crew told TorrentFreak that users can be assured that they have no intention of going anywhere in the near future. With or without torrents, the site is here to stay.
Ernesto @'TorrentFreak'
♪♫ Drew Smith - Smoke And Mirrors
Drew very kindly sent me a copy of his album and the great back story to the video above:
To celebrate the release of my album I decided to 'outsource' my video to India. I found a virtual assistant from a quick google search and then sent them my song, “Smoke and Mirrors”. By chance, the director ended up being a dance choreographer! After a couple of emails back and forth (plus a few early morning wake-up calls) I found this video in my inbox. It has kind of blown up over that weekend, going to #27 on the youtube charts, and spent half a day on front page of reddit. 160000 plays in three days! Crazy!
Previously my ex-E.S.L. student Sohee Jeon, had become an established animator in South Korea and made a video for The Secret Languages first single “Love Teeth”. The overwhelming positive response to that beautiful work convinced me to again look for a non-traditional video accompaniment. I hope you enjoy the music and feel free to share.
cheers,
Drew
Get the album here:
(Thanx Drew!)
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Black Captain/Coconuts (Black Cab Session)
At last count, one hundred. Not at the same time of course, and you have to ask the cab driver before you can let them in. Confused? Don’t be. Five ingenious London men—Jono Stevens, Gen Stevens, Chris Pattinson, Jonny Madderson and Will Evans from Hidden Fruit Promotions and Just So Films—were sitting down one day and trying to figure out a way to get their favorite musicians to play for them. They came up with the ‘Black Cab Sessions’. This is how you do it.
First, approach a musician. Every indie great has been in the back of a black cab for a session; Brian Wilson, Fleet Foxes, Laura Marling, Weezer, The Flaming Lips, Martha Wainwright and Death Cab For Cutie number among them. Second, approach a cabbie. Every performance is shot entirely in the back of the cab (providing the driver says yes) and is shot in a single take. The final step is to post the videos to the internet for quality viral musical infamy.
This is probably the most exciting set of musical performances since Queen teamed up with David Bowie. This latest clip from the ‘Black Cab Sessions’ is the hundredth in the series and features Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy performing Black Captain in all his crusty glory, accompanied by the darling Angel Olsen. The pink furry hat and the handlebar mustache are proof of how no one will ever be cooler than BPB.
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy is performing around Australia during March this year and across the UK in April and May. Check the dates here.
Via
Ms Mona-S
Dolly Parton performs her song "I will always love you" as Miss Mona Stangley in the movie The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with Burt Reynolds from 1982.
My Funny Valentine
Milan (1964)
Miles Davis - trumpet
Wayne Shorter - tenor sax
Herbie Hancock - piano
Ron Carter - bass
Tony Williams - drums
Miles Davis - trumpet
Wayne Shorter - tenor sax
Herbie Hancock - piano
Ron Carter - bass
Tony Williams - drums
Monday, 13 February 2012
Rick Santorum Says Women Should Buy Their Own Birth Control Because It Only Costs A Few Dollars
Former Senator and current Republican golden boy Rick Santorum has a huge problem with women. He thinks they’re a distraction on the battlefield, he thinks they can’t make their own decisions about their bodies, thinks they should be told who to have sex with (no gays) and when (only when married), and thinks women are just baby carriers who should serve the demands of men. Santorum may well be the most anti-women candidate in the field...
Kashgari’s deportation a black day
DAP international bureau secretary Liew Chin Tong said it was often cynically observed that foreign policy was merely an extension of domestic politics.
“In the case of Malaysia, it is unfortunately true.
“It was a black day for Malaysia’s international image,” the Bukit Bendera MP said in his e-statement here today.
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s government detained and deported the young Saudi at Kuala Lumpur International Airport following an Interpol request.
Kashgari was en route to New Zealand to seek asylum.
The journalist had fled his country after his twitter comments about Prophet Muhammad triggered calls for his execution.
The Arabian columnist was detained by Malaysian authorities despite fears voiced by human rights groups that he could face execution in his home country.
He was deported despite his lawyers obtaining a Malaysian court order to prevent it.
Liew noted that Malaysia was now also the butt of international jokes as a result of the BBC’s global apology over the FBC Media scandal.
The Malaysian government paid public relation company FBC Media to make a series of eight documentaries for the BBC about Malaysia, while failing to declare it was paid 17 million pound by the Malaysian government for “global strategic communications”.
Investigations into the scandal uncovered 15 breaches of editorial guidelines of which eight were related to FBC’s programmes on Malaysia.
But, Liew said the millions that the Najib administration spent on public relations companies were meaningless if the government cannot uphold basic human rights principles in the case of Kashgari and uphold integrity in the BBC-FBC case.
“Malaysia is not a backwater banana republic.
“We used to pride ourselves as an important and supposedly principled player in the international arena.
“The deportation was a black day for Malaysia in the eyes of the world,” Liew added.
Arrested in Riyadh
Meanwhile Saudi newspaper Arab News says Kashgari has been detained on arrival in Riyadh after being deported from Malaysia.Kashgari caused an outcry among devout Saudis earlier this month, when he used his Twitter account to post thoughts about the Prophet Muhammad they deemed insulting to Islam.
The comments by the 23-year-old columnist for Jeddah-based newspaper al-Bilad triggered tens of thousands of Twitter responses, many from enraged Saudis calling for his death.
Kashgari quickly apologized and deleted his Twitter account, but fled the country last Tuesday as the outrage grew.
A day later, a committee of senior Saudi clerics appointed by the king declared Kashgari to be an apostate – a crime punishable by death – and called for him to be put on trial.
Christoph Wilcke, a senior researcher with New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch, told Voice of America that Kashgari is “very unlikely” to get a fair trial in which the offending remarks can be explained.
Wilcke said the senior Saudi clerics who called for Kashgari to face trial also have predetermined its outcome by declaring him an apostate. He said one cleric even called for the blogger to be executed.
But, Wilcke said there is a chance that Kashgari could appeal to Saudi King Abdullah for leniency and avoid execution. He noted the case of Hadi al Mutif, a member of the minority Ismaili sect whom the government pardoned last week after arresting him for apostasy in 1993 and later sentencing him to death.
Athi Shankar @'Free Malaysia Today'
Wow! Unbelievable: Norway's pension fund may have invested 2 billion USD in companies that make surveillance tech goo.gl/nk2R2
Original (Norwegian)
Original (Norwegian)
Ghandi - Masala Mix (Bhangra 'n' Breaks)
Tracklisting/Details:
Smith & Mighty 'U Dub'
Asian Dub Foundation 'Riddim I Like'
Meat Beat Manifesto 'Radio Babylon'
Donaeo 'Riot Music' (Shy FX rmx)
Panjabi MC 'Jugni' ft. Kuldip Manak
DJ Swami 'Reached Amritsar'
DJ Sanj & Karan MC 'Babulla'
Subbs ft. Binder Bajwa 'Nach Ke'
Sub Swara 'Inshallah' (Gislain Poirier rmx)
Bass Bin Twins 'Woppa'
Groove Chronicles 'Blackjack'
PMC 'Panj Pind'
Charged 'Electro Punjabi Dakoo' (Wayward Soul rmx)
PMC 'Pyar Wich/ Planet Rock'
David Starfire 'Ashes'
MJ Cole 'Ruff Like We'
Artful Dodger 'Ruffneck Sound'
Dee Pattern 'Who's The Badman?'
Sully 'In Some Pattern'
Jason Sparks 'Gangsters'
PMC 'GT Road'
Kuldip Manak 'Sharaab' (Swami rmx)
Tigerstyle 'Bol! Bol! Bol!' (SteamerPilot Dholstep rmx)
Bhang Bros ft. Juz D 'Hik Taan Kay'
Lightnin MC 'Sum Nex Auntie'
Via
Asian Dub Foundation 'Riddim I Like'
Meat Beat Manifesto 'Radio Babylon'
Donaeo 'Riot Music' (Shy FX rmx)
Panjabi MC 'Jugni' ft. Kuldip Manak
DJ Swami 'Reached Amritsar'
DJ Sanj & Karan MC 'Babulla'
Subbs ft. Binder Bajwa 'Nach Ke'
Sub Swara 'Inshallah' (Gislain Poirier rmx)
Bass Bin Twins 'Woppa'
Groove Chronicles 'Blackjack'
PMC 'Panj Pind'
Charged 'Electro Punjabi Dakoo' (Wayward Soul rmx)
PMC 'Pyar Wich/ Planet Rock'
David Starfire 'Ashes'
MJ Cole 'Ruff Like We'
Artful Dodger 'Ruffneck Sound'
Dee Pattern 'Who's The Badman?'
Sully 'In Some Pattern'
Jason Sparks 'Gangsters'
PMC 'GT Road'
Kuldip Manak 'Sharaab' (Swami rmx)
Tigerstyle 'Bol! Bol! Bol!' (SteamerPilot Dholstep rmx)
Bhang Bros ft. Juz D 'Hik Taan Kay'
Lightnin MC 'Sum Nex Auntie'
Via
John Barnes: Liverpool are 'blameless' for lack of handshake
Luis Suárez must show Liverpool he is worth the trouble of keeping him
Liverpool apologies seek to quell ugly echoes of Luis Suárez affair
David Hepworth made an interesting point yesterday about modern footballers over at his blog but as a life long Liverpool fan and a life long anti-racist, I really do think it is time for Suárez to go.
Meanwhile...
Meanwhile...
'Uncle Tom' jibe at Kop star Johnson
Kavanagh attacks arrest of Sun journalists
Trevor Kavanagh said the senior members of staff had been treated like "an organised gang" and the tabloid was "not a swamp that needed draining".
He said money sometimes changed hands while unearthing stories, and this had always been standard practice. The Met Police were unavailable for comment.
The Sun staff were held over alleged corrupt payments to police and others.
A Surrey Police officer, a member of the armed forces and a Ministry of Defence employee were also arrested - and all eight were released on police bail.
'Homes ransacked'
Writing in the Sun, Mr Kavanagh said at any other time the treatment of the journalists would have caused uproar at Parliament and among civil liberty and human rights campaigners.
The paper's former high-profile political editor said they were subjects of the biggest police operation in British criminal history - bigger even than the Pan Am Lockerbie murder inquiry.
He said 171 officers are involved in three separate operations, and claimed two officers on one raid revealed they had been pulled off an elite Olympics anti-terror squad. "Instead of being called in for questioning, 30 journalists have been needlessly dragged from their beds in dawn raids, arrested and held in police cells while their homes are ransacked," he wrote.
"Wives and children have been humiliated as up to 20 officers at a time rip up floorboards and sift through intimate possessions, love letters and entirely private documents."
Sun editor Dominic Mohan has said he was "shocked" by the arrests but pledged to continue to lead the paper.
They were arrested as part of the Operation Elveden probe into payments to police.
The BBC understands they were picture editor John Edwards, chief reporter John Kay, chief foreign correspondent Nick Parker, reporter John Sturgis and associate editor Geoff Webster.
Meanwhile, the solicitor representing alleged victims of phone hacking is said to be heading to the US to take legal action against Rupert Murdoch.
Mr Murdoch is the boss of News Corporation, the parent company of News International, which runs the Sun.
Mark Lewis, who represents the family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, told the Press Association he was not prepared to deny the reports.
He is expected to travel to America within weeks to meet lawyers and is said to be close to bringing at least one case against Mr Murdoch's US company.
@'BBC'
Witch-hunt has put us behind ex-Soviet states on Press freedom
Niels Shoe Meulman
Niels Shoe Meulman
Interview
Caught this expo in Melbourne last week. Simply stunning...
Barak: make peace with Palestinians or face apartheid
Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, last night delivered an unusually blunt warning to his country that a failure to make peace with the Palestinians would leave either a state with no Jewish majority or an "apartheid" regime.
His stark language and the South African analogy might have been unthinkable for a senior Israeli figure only a few years ago and is a rare admission of the gravity of the deadlocked peace process.
There have been no formal negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in more than a year, but Barak was speaking at a rare joint event with the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, as part of an annual national security conference in the Israeli city of Herzliya. The pair shook hands and both were warmly applauded.
Barak, a former general and Israel's most decorated soldier, sought to appeal to Israelis on both right and left by saying a peace agreement with the Palestinians was the only way to secure Israel's future as a "Zionist, Jewish, democratic state".
"As long as in this territory west of the Jordan river there is only one political entity called Israel it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic," Barak said. "If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state."
He described Israel and the Palestinian territories as the historic "land of Israel" to which Israelis had a right.
"We have to demarcate a border within the land of Israel," he said.
"We have a linkage, we have a right, but the reality of standing on the stage of history in realistic terms requires us to pay attention to international constraints." Barak is in a delicate political position. He leads the Labour party, supposedly a centre-left movement, but accepted a position in a rightwing coalition under Binyamin Netanyahu, a decision that split his party.
Though Barak articulates a willingness for peace talks, he represents a government that has defied US and Palestinian calls for a full settlement freeze as a prelude to any negotiations. He was also defence minister during last year's Gaza war in which nearly 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
The Herzliya conference has echoed Israeli concerns about growing international criticism, particularly in the year since Gaza. Barak himself alluded to the danger that Israel might lose legitimacy if no peace deal was forthcoming. "The pendulum of legitimacy is going to move gradually towards the other pole," he said.
He acknowledged that Washington was pushing the two sides towards "proximity talks" but said this was "only an initial stage" before any return to full negotiations.
Fayyad, who has a limited political following among Palestinians, called on Israel to stop settlement building in the occupied territories and to halt military incursions in Palestinian cities as a sign of seriousness about negotiations.
"Things have to begin to happen in order to give the suggestion that this occupation is going to end," he said. "That Palestinian state is supposed to emerge precisely where settlements are expanding." Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has refused to start fresh negotiations with Israel unless settlement construction stops, in line with the 2003 US road map. Nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers live in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, even though settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law.
"How confident can we all be that once relaunched that political process is going to be able to deliver that which needs to be delivered, the permanent status issues and the key question of ending the occupation?" Fayyad asked.
Rory McCarthy @'The Guardian'
UN report accuses Israel of pushing Palestinians from Jerusalem, West Bank
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