For Yotte!
Wednesday 4 August 2010
Israel Takes Another Step Away from Democracy
According to the BNC(Boycott National Committee) Statement published on the 9th of July “after five years of BDS, the movement has proven, indisputably, to be the most effective and morally consistent form of solidarity with the people of Palestine in our struggle to end Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and persistent denial of the UN-sanctioned right of return for the Palestinian refugees.” With academic and trade Unions (including UNISON), cultural figures including Dustin Hoffman and Elvis Costello and large supermarket chains including Marks and Spencers on board, the BDS campaign is gaining momentum. Furthermore it is beginning to have an economic impact: settlements have been reporting cuts in production as a result of the boycotts.
Israel is showing signs of distress. The non-violent boycott campaign has now joined the ranks of all other forms of Palestinian resistance, being awarded the label of ‘economic terrorism’ by Israeli officials. As is the standard response, alongside the highly effective (though no longer very novel) use of the T-word, Israel is remedying its anxiety with legal force: The prohibition on imposing a boycott bill, is the third in recent months which sets out to criminalise criticism of Israel.
The bill passed the first of three votes almost unanimously, with even so-called centrist parties supporting the bill within the Knesset. However it has also raised concern. Coordinator of the BNC, Ingrid Gardner tells Palestine Monitor “[the bill]’s blatant disregard for even symbolic democracy has triggered criticism among not less racist veteran parliamentarians such as Rubi Rivlin (Kadima) and the former editor in chief of Haaretz David Landau, who has called for a boycott of the Knesset.”
The bill states: “[It] is prohibited to initiate a boycott against the state of Israel, to encourage participation in a boycott, or to provide assistance or information with the intention of promoting a boycott.” It has three targets in mind: Israeli citizens, foreign citizens and foreign political entities. How this will be applied remains to be seen, but there is little doubt that it will be used zealously and with impressive creativity.
Since the bill was put forward in direct response to the Palestinian Authority’s adoption and legal enforcement of the BDS campaign the likelihood is that it will hit them hard. The Israeli government will prevent the transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority which they are obliged to do under international law. However the specific impacts are unknown at present: the BNC told Palestine Monitor that it was too early to make any comment, but that “the BNC is currently arranging for consultation with lawyers, in order to obtain advice about how to relate to this particular law bill”.
Palestinians are unlikely to be directly impacted: according to Ayala Shani of ‘Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from within’:“Palestinians from the West Bank were exempt from the version of the law that passed the preliminary vote last week.”
The boycott bill will be targeting Israeli individuals and organisations however. Though slow to catch on, support for the boycott inside Israel has also been growing. ‘Boycott! Supporting the BDS Call from within’ started last year and has a growing list of signatories from Israel. A wide range of human rights and advocacy organisations based in Israel have also issued statements in support of the BDS movement. Even Israel’s mainstream media is beginning to express understanding rather than blind indignation regarding the cultural boycott: “The Pixies and Elvis Costello are right – we are the problem” was the title of an article published in Ha’ir Tel Aviv recently. However the state will be able to silence such pro-boycott statements, should the new bill come into place...
Continue reading
Insanely Intricate Eggshell Art by Franc Grom
It’s all too easy to accidentally poke a hole into an eggshell – but few people can do it in such a controlled way that it can be called art. Slovenian artist Franc Grom turns these incredibly delicate objects into diminutive, stunningly precise and detailed eggshell sculptures with a steady hand, a sharp eye and a tiny electric drill.
Grom can spend months on a single egg, patiently poking thousands upon thousands of holes into the fragile shell. Grom has created more than three hundred of these masterpieces, many of which have – of course – an Easter egg theme.
Inspired by traditional Slovenian designs, Grom’s work ranges from asymmetrical botanical motifs to cutouts that glow brilliantly when illuminated from the inside. In some works, the remaining bits of eggshell that connect one part of a design to another are little more than a millimeter wide.
Growing up in a small village in Slovenia, Grom never considered turning his interest in art into a career. It wasn’t until he retired that he began a new life as a respected craftsman, discovering an unusual skill which has gained him no small amount of attention, putting the tiny town of Vrhinka on the map. You can’t find art like this anywhere else in the world, and Grom even has a thank-you letter on official White House stationary from pleased collector Bill Clinton.
Music fails to chime with Islamic values, says Iran's supreme leader
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said today that music is "not compatible" with the values of the Islamic republic, and should not be practised or taught in the country.
In some of the most extreme comments by a senior regime figure since the 1979 revolution, Khamenei said: "Although music is halal, promoting and teaching it is not compatible with the highest values of the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic."
Khamenei's comments came in response to a request for a ruling by a 21-year-old follower of his, who was thinking of starting music lessons, but wanted to know if they were acceptable according to Islam, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. "It's better that our dear youth spend their valuable time in learning science and essential and useful skills and fill their time with sport and healthy recreations instead of music," he said.
Unlike other clerics in Iran, whose religious rulings are practised by their own followers, Khamenei's views are interpreted as administrative orders for the whole country, which must be obeyed by the government. Last month Khamenei issued a controversial fatwa in which he likened his leadership to that of the Prophet Muhammad and obliged all Iranians to obey his orders.
Khamenei has rarely expressed his views on music publicly, but he is believed have played a key role in the crackdown on Iran's music scene following the revolution. When Khamenei was president, he banned western-style music, forcing many stars to go into exile.
Houshang Asadi, a former cellmate of Khamenei before the Islamic Revolution said: "He hated the music from the beginning."
"There were times I sang a song by Banan (a popular vocalist) for him and he told me to avoid music and instead pray to God", said Asadi, who shared a cell with Khamenei for four months in Moshtarak prison in Tehran in 1976 and stayed friend with him for several years after the revolution. "The only music he liked was revolutionary and religious anthems," said Asadi.
After the reformist President Khatami took office in 1997, official attitudes towards music and especially pop began to thaw.
After his election in 2005, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cracked down on music. His ministry of culture and Islamic guidance has refused permission for the distribution of thousands of albums. Since last year's disputed elections the authorities have given even fewer permits for public concerts, fearing they could be used by the opposition.
Iran has rarely given permission to concerts, as it fears that the opposition might use it as an opportunity to express itself, said Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Iran's most prolific and popular classical vocalist.
"They are afraid of my concerts because of those moments before the concert is begun, when the whole hall is in silence and darkness when someone suddenly shouts 'death to dictator' and everybody accompanies and they are unable to identify that person," Shajarian said.
Saeed Kamali Dehghan @'The Guardian'
ggreenwald It's a little tiresome watching Americans continuously decide that the wars they supported were "a mistake," only to cheer for the next oneVietnam? A mistake. Iraq? A mistake. Afghanistan? A mistake. http://is.gd/e0nAt
Iran? DO IT!!! http://is.gd/e0nI8
Tuesday 3 August 2010
New weapon against the oil spill
BP has trained a cadre of specialized oil spill cleaning animals so they'll put less humans at risk. Here's a picture of one of them.
LaraABCNews A top tier UN source just said Israel-Lebanon border fight is ongoing - actually 'deteriorating.' Three confirmed dead and several wounded
Phew!
The Spaceboy and I had a little adventure a bit like this today. We had just crossed a level crossing and turned a corner when we heard an almighty bang and two cars had crashed with one coming onto the pavement where we had been seconds before!
Classification And Internet Censorship As An (Australian) Election Issue
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Mongolian neo-Nazis: Anti-Chinese sentiment fuels rise of ultra-nationalism
Their right hands rise to black-clad chests and flash out in salute to their nation: "Sieg heil!" They praise Hitler's devotion to ethnic purity.
But with their high cheekbones, dark eyes and brown skin, they are hardly the Third Reich's Aryan ideal. A new strain of Nazism has found an unlikely home: Mongolia.
Once again, ultra-nationalists have emerged from an impoverished economy and turned upon outsiders. This time the main targets come from China, the rising power to the south.
Groups such as Tsagaan Khass, or White Swastika, portray themselves as patriots standing up for ordinary citizens in the face of foreign crime, rampant inequality, political indifference and corruption.
But critics say they scapegoat and attack the innocent. The US state department has warned travellers of increased assaults on inter-racial couples in recent years – including organised violence by ultra-nationalist groups.
Dayar Mongol threatened to shave the heads of women who sleep with Chinese men. Three years ago, the leader of Blue Mongol was convicted of murdering his daughter's boyfriend, reportedly because the young man had studied in China.
Though Tsagaan Khass leaders say they do not support violence, they are self-proclaimed Nazis. "Adolf Hitler was someone we respect. He taught us how to preserve national identity," said the 41-year-old co-founder, who calls himself Big Brother.
"We don't agree with his extremism and starting the second world war. We are against all those killings, but we support his ideology. We support nationalism rather than fascism."
It is, by any standards, an extraordinary choice. Under Hitler, Soviet prisoners of war who appeared Mongolian were singled out for execution. More recently, far-right groups in Europe have attacked Mongolian migrants.
Not all ultra-nationalists use this iconography; and widespread ignorance about the Holocaust and other atrocities may help to explain why some do.
Tsagaan Khass points out that the swastika is an ancient Asian symbol – which is true, but does not explain the group's use of Nazi colours, the Nazi eagle and the Nazi salute; or the large picture of the Führer on Big Brother's cigarette case.
Nor does it seem greatly relevant, given their unabashed admiration for Hitler's racial beliefs.
"We have to make sure that as a nation our blood is pure. That's about our independence," said 23-year-old Battur, pointing out that the population is under three million.
"If we start mixing with Chinese, they will slowly swallow us up. Mongolian society is not very rich. Foreigners come with a lot of money and might start taking our women."
Big Brother acknowledges he discovered such ideas through the nationalist groups that emerged in Russia after the Soviet Union's fall; Mongolia had been a satellite state. But the anti-Chinese tinge is distinct and increasingly popular.
"While most people feel far-right discourse is too extreme, there seems to be a consensus that China is imperialistic, 'evil' and intent on taking Mongolia," said Franck Billé of Cambridge University, who is researching representations of Chinese people in Mongolia.
Hip hop tracks such as Don't Go Too Far, You Chinks by 4 Züg – chorus: "shoot them all, all, all" – have been widely played in bars and clubs. Urban myths abound; some believe Beijing has a secret policy of encouraging men to have sex with Mongolian women.
Yet Tsagaan Khass claims it welcomes law-abiding visitors of all races, and Big Brother can certainly be hospitable.
Enthusiastically shaking hands, he says: "Even though you are a British citizen, you are still Asian, and that makes you very cool."
He says the younger members have taught him to be less extreme and the group appears to be reshaping itself – expelling "criminal elements" and insisting on a good education as a prerequisite for membership. One of the leaders is an interior designer.
But critics fear ultra-nationalists are simply becoming more sophisticated and, quietly, more powerful. Tsagaan Khass say it "works closely" with other organisations and is now discussing a merger.
"Some people are in complete denial … [but] we can no longer deny this is a problem," said Anaraa Nyamdorj, of Mongolia's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Centre.
The US state department has noted increased reports of xenophobic attacks since the spring. The UN country review cites a recent vicious assault on three young transgender women. When one of the victims publicly blamed an ultra-nationalist group – not Tsagaan Khass – death threats quickly followed.
"They are getting more support from the public," added Enkhjargal Davaasuren, director of the National Centre Against Violence, who fears that ultra-nationalists are growing more confident and victims too scared to come forward. She pointed to a YouTube video posted last year, showing a man roughly shaving a woman's long hair. The victim's face is buried in her hands, but her hunched body reeks of fear.
Others in Ulan Bator suggest the movement is waning and suspect the groups' menacing stance and claims of 3,000 members are bluster. Billé thinks there is "a lot of posturing".
"We have heard of instances [of violence]. They are not necessarily all right or all wrong," said Javkhlan, a Tsagaan Khass leader. But the group is simply a "law enforcement" body, he maintained: "We do checks; we go to hotels and restaurants to make sure Mongolian girls don't do prostitution and foreigners don't break the laws.
"We don't go through and beat the shit out of everyone. We check our information and make sure it's true."
They rely on police and media pressure to reform such businesses, he added. And if that failed? "We try to avoid using power," he said. "That would be our very last resort."
Tania Branigan @'The Guardian'
WTF?
Mongolian Nazi hip-hop!!!
Just shows that there are (confused) boneheads in every culture eh?
Cassette tapes are back in the mix
When the vinyl LP began its modest but highly publicized commercial comeback a few years ago, the format felt easy to love again. With sprawling artwork, pristine sound quality and the adoring ritual of flipping album sides, its return united young bohemia and their boomer parents alike.
Not so for the lowly cassette tape. To mainstream music fans who spent the '80s detangling spools with a paper clip, listening to heat-damaged sounds warble out of the speakers and blindly fast-forwarding and reversing to get to a favorite song, cassettes might be the most despised, instantly discarded and fidelity-challenged medium to ever vie for mass popularity...
Not so for the lowly cassette tape. To mainstream music fans who spent the '80s detangling spools with a paper clip, listening to heat-damaged sounds warble out of the speakers and blindly fast-forwarding and reversing to get to a favorite song, cassettes might be the most despised, instantly discarded and fidelity-challenged medium to ever vie for mass popularity...
Continue reading
August Brown @'LA Times'
Ah cassettes - I still have boxes and boxes (and boxes!) of them. There was nothing like making up mix tapes for people you wanted to get closer to. I thoroughly recommend this book on the 'mix tape culture'...
...and it goes without saying that I made fugn great mixes!Don't Change Your Dial!!
Good advice from the "inventor of Reggae music" Toots Hibbert of Toots & the Maytals backstage @ The Barbican, London, July 2010
Monday 2 August 2010
HA!
A friend received this e/mail...
which reads in part:
"This is the only way I could contact you for now, I want you to be very careful about this and keep this secret with you until I make out space for us to see. You have no need of knowing who I am or where I am from. I know this may sound very surprising to you but it's the situation. I have been paid some ransom in advance to terminate you with some reasons listed to me by my employer. It's someone I believe you call a friend; I have followed you closely for a while now and have seen that you are innocent of the accusations he leveled against you. Do not contact the police or try to send a copy of this to them, because if you do, I will know, and I might be pushed to do what I have been paid to do. Besides, this is the ist time I turn out to be a betrayer in my job. I took pity on you, that is why I have made up my mind to help you if you are willing to help yourself.
Now listen, I will arrange for us to see face to face, but before that, I need $15,000. I will come to your home or you determine where you wish we meet; I repeat, do not arrange for the cops and if you play hard to get, it will be extended to your family. Do not set any camera to cover us or set up any tape to record our conversation; my employer is in my control now. Payment details will be provided for you to make a part payment of $9,000 first, which will serve as guarantee that you are ready to co-operate, then I will post a copy of the video tape that contains his request for me to terminate you which will be enough evidence for you to take any legal action against him before he employs another person for the job. You will pay the balance of $6,000 once you receive the tape.
Warning; do not contact the police, make sure you stay indoors once it is 7.30pm every day until this whole thing is sorted out, if you neglect any of these warnings, you will have yourself to blame. You do not have much time, so get back to me immediately
Note: I will advise you keep this to yourself alone, not even a friend or a family member should know about it because it could be one of them."
Now listen, I will arrange for us to see face to face, but before that, I need $15,000. I will come to your home or you determine where you wish we meet; I repeat, do not arrange for the cops and if you play hard to get, it will be extended to your family. Do not set any camera to cover us or set up any tape to record our conversation; my employer is in my control now. Payment details will be provided for you to make a part payment of $9,000 first, which will serve as guarantee that you are ready to co-operate, then I will post a copy of the video tape that contains his request for me to terminate you which will be enough evidence for you to take any legal action against him before he employs another person for the job. You will pay the balance of $6,000 once you receive the tape.
Warning; do not contact the police, make sure you stay indoors once it is 7.30pm every day until this whole thing is sorted out, if you neglect any of these warnings, you will have yourself to blame. You do not have much time, so get back to me immediately
Note: I will advise you keep this to yourself alone, not even a friend or a family member should know about it because it could be one of them."
Gotta give this scammer some credit...
DMCA notices for Radiohead's 'In Rainbows'
In 2007 Radiohead sent a shockwave through the music industry by allowing fans to download their new 'self-released' album 'In Rainbows' for whatever price they wanted to pay, including nothing. Fast-forward three years and the RIAA and IFPI are sending takedown notices to people who share that album online. What happened?
After sitting out their contact with EMI, Radiohead self-released their latest album ‘In Rainbows’ and gave fans the option to download it for the price they felt comfortable paying. Not only was this one of the best promotional campaigns of the last decade, it also brought in serious money.
Radiohead said that the scheme made more money online than all of their other albums combined. The band was obviously proud that they had bypassed the major labels successfully. In the years that followed the band members lobbied for more rights for artists, and less power for the labels.
Last year, Radiohead and several other well known artists formed a lobby group with the aim of ending the extortion-like practices of record labels and allowing artists to gain more control over their own work. The artists were unhappy with the fact that the labels, represented by lobby groups such as the RIAA and IFPI, push their anti-piracy agenda without consulting the artists they claim to represent.
Going after fans is not the solution to the problems the industry is facing, they argued.
Considering the above, it came as a surprise to us when we found out that the RIAA and IFPI are still taking anti-piracy measures on behalf of Radiohead. Both the RIAA and IFPI have been sending out takedown notices to Google (RIAA, IFPI), urging it to disable blogger accounts and filter search results where Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ is offered for free. What went wrong here?
Although some people think that the ‘In Rainbows’ album is still available for free, the free offer really only lasted a few months. After that, the revolutionary ‘pay-what-you-want’ model was traded in for traditional licensing schemes with major labels.
The download versions of the album are still self-released, but for the physical copies Radiohead teamed up with record labels such as Warner and Sony. Because of these deals, major record labels now have the ‘rights’ to a piece of ‘In Rainbows’ and they are using this power to take down copies that are distributed online without their authorization.
It is of course ironic that an album that was once seen as the next step towards a new business model in the music industry, is now heavily protected by industry anti-piracy bodies. On the other hand, it is doubtful if the takedown requests are actually legitimate because the labels have the rights to physical distribution, not digital.
TorrentFreak contacted a Radiohead representative to discuss RIAA and IFPI practices but they declined to comment. Still, with all the sensible comments the band’s members have made about sharing in the past, we assume that they don’t approve of the tactics employed by the RIAA and IFPI. Or do they?
Ernesto @'Torrent Freak'
♪♫ Bad Brains - Live in Netherlands 1988
The Bad Brains smoking and playing a couple of songs in 1988:
With the Quickness
The Prophet's Eye
I Against I
via I smoke two joints
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