Let's Not Push Things Forward
28 minutes ago
Thursday 30 June 2011
Wednesday 29 June 2011
Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris Live
Big Mouth Blues
Streets of Baltimore
Gram Parsons on meeting Emmylou Harris
Michele Bachmann's Holy War
It may be the hardest thing you ever do, for Michele Bachmann is almost certainly the funniest thing that has ever happened to American presidential politics. Fans of obscure 1970s television may remember a short-lived children's show called Far Out Space Nuts, in which a pair of dimwitted NASA repairmen, one of whom is played by Bob (Gilligan) Denver, accidentally send themselves into space by pressing "launch" instead of "lunch" inside a capsule they were fixing at Cape Canaveral. This plot device roughly approximates the political and cultural mechanism that is sending Michele Bachmann hurtling in the direction of the Oval Office.
Bachmann is a religious zealot whose brain is a raging electrical storm of divine visions and paranoid delusions. She believes that the Chinese are plotting to replace the dollar bill, that light bulbs are killing our dogs and cats, and that God personally chose her to become both an IRS attorney who would spend years hounding taxpayers and a raging anti-tax Tea Party crusader against big government. She kicked off her unofficial presidential campaign in New Hampshire, by mistakenly declaring it the birthplace of the American Revolution. "It's your state that fired the shot that was heard around the world!" she gushed. "You are the state of Lexington and Concord, you started the battle for liberty right here in your backyard."
I said lunch, not launch! But don't laugh. Don't do it. And don't look her in the eyes; don't let her smile at you. Michele Bachmann, when she turns her head toward the cameras and brandishes her pearls and her ageless, unblemished neckline and her perfect suburban orthodontics in an attempt to reassure the unbeliever of her non-threateningness, is one of the scariest sights in the entire American cultural tableau. She's trying to look like June Cleaver, but she actually looks like the T2 skeleton posing for a passport photo. You will want to laugh, but don't, because the secret of Bachmann's success is that every time you laugh at her, she gets stronger.
In modern American politics, being the right kind of ignorant and entertainingly crazy is like having a big right hand in boxing; you've always got a puncher's chance. And Bachmann is exactly the right kind of completely batshit crazy. Not medically crazy, not talking-to-herself-on-the-subway crazy, but grandiose crazy, late-stage Kim Jong-Il crazy — crazy in the sense that she's living completely inside her own mind, frenetically pacing the hallways of a vast sand castle she's built in there, unable to meaningfully communicate with the human beings on the other side of the moat, who are all presumed to be enemies.
Bachmann's story, to hear her tell it, is about a suburban homemaker who is chosen by God to become a politician who will restore faith and family values to public life and do battle with secular humanism. But by the time you've finished reviewing her record of lies and embellishments and contradictions, you'll have no idea if she actually believes in her own divine inspiration, or whether it's a big con job. Or maybe both are true — in which case this hard-charging challenger for the GOP nomination is a rare breed of political psychopath, equal parts crazed Divine Wind kamikaze-for-Jesus and calculating, six-faced Machiavellian prevaricator. Whatever she is, she's no joke...
Continue reading
Matt Taibbi @'Rolling Stone'
Bachmann's had her share of government aid
Michele Bachmann sets record straight: 'I'm a substantive, serious person'
JAMA on 60s Psychedelic Drug Culture
Continue reading
Maybe he could lend us a few quid....Prince Charles's income from taxpayers rises 18%
The Prince of Wales received £1,962,000 from taxpayers last year, up from £1,664,000 the year before
@'TheGuardian'
Tuesday 28 June 2011
Alien encounters 'within twenty years'
A top Russian astronomer say he expects humans to encounter extraterrestrial civilisations within the next two decades
@'The Guardian'
Cancel Lord Monckton's university lecture, say academics
Academics in Australia are calling for the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle to cancel a lecture due to be given by the prominent climate sceptic Lord Monckton on Thursday.
In a letter seen by the Guardian, which is currently being circulated among academics, the undersigned say that Monckton "stands for the kind of ignorance and superstition that universities have a duty to counter" and "Notre Dame has a responsibility to avoid promoting discredited views on an issue of public risk". Signatories already supporting the open letter include professors and lecturers across Australia, but also academics in the UK and US.
The letter, which is addressed "from the Australian academic community" to Notre Dame, a Catholic university in Western Australia, was originally drafted by Natalie Latter, a political science postgraduate student at the University of Western Australia. The letter says Monckton's lecture is particularly unwelcome in light of recent death threats made against Australian climate scientists.
"Lord Monckton propounds widely discredited fictions about climate change and misrepresents the research of countless scientists," says the letter. "With zero peer-reviewed publications, he has declared that the scientific enterprise is invalid and that climate science is fraudulent … Over the last month there has been a great deal of coverage in the Australian media of the death threats and abusive emails that have targeted Australian scientists working on climate change. These threats are fuelled by misinformation spread by figures like Lord Monckton and the distorted coverage that they receive in the Australian media. As academics, we expect our universities to support us against this kind of abuse. We expect our universities to foster academic standards of conduct and argument."
The letter continues: "We all support academic freedom and the freedom to express our ideas and beliefs … [However] Notre Dame's invitation to Lord Monckton makes a mockery of academic standards and the pursuit of evidence-based knowledge."
Monckton, the deputy leader of the UK Independence party, apologised over the weekend for remarks he made this month during a lecture in Los Angeles in which he likened Prof Ross Garnaut, a climate change adviser to the Australian government, to a Nazi, while showing a slide of a large swastika next to one of Garnaut's quotes. In online footage of the speech, Monckton can be heard saying in a mock German accent, "Heil Hitler, on we go" when referring to Garnaut.
The comment drew criticism from across the Australian political spectrum last week. Julia Gillard, the prime minister, condemned the comments as "offensive and grossly inappropriate". Tony Abbott, the opposition leader who is fighting to stop the government's proposed carbon tax and who is scheduled to attend a mining conference in Perth at which Monckton is due to speak, described the comments as "over the top".
During a television interview on Sunday, Monckton apologised to Garnaut "for having made the point I was trying to make in such a catastrophically stupid and offensive way". He added: "I have written to him to withdraw that unreservedly."
It is not the first time Monckton has been criticised for making such remarks. In 2009, at the Copenhagen climate summit, he described a group of young climate activists as "Hitler youth".
Monckton is scheduled to begin a three-week lecture tour of Australia on Thursday when he addresses the annual conference of the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies in Perth. The organisers have
confirmed that Monckton is still scheduled to speak, despite the controversy over his remarks. Later that day, he will deliver the Lang Hancock lecture at Notre Dame, a lecture series sponsored by Hancock Prospecting, a mining company owned by Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart.
Chris Doepel, the university's dean of business, has confirmed some invited conference guests have also called for Monckton's speech to be cancelled, but he insisted the event will go ahead. "The university will hold it because we have a commitment to academic freedom," he told local media over the weekend. "I think Lord Monckton is coming into this country with a clear understanding of the boundaries around polite discussion." Doepel added that there is no plan to censor Monckton's presentation and that the 200-strong audience will be free to ask questions.
Not all of Australia's academic community believes Monckton should be censored or barred from speaking, however. Prof Ian Chubb, Australia's chief scientist, told the Guardian: "I think that we have to put up with deplorable people if we value our democracy. And we do. So I couldn't argue that action should be taken, though I find his comments as outrageous as his abuse of science. I don't think making him some sort of victim would serve any purpose, other than to add to the weight of his wallet. There will always be people somewhere in the world who will pay to hear people like him; and enhancing his celebrity through censorship will encourage more of them to pay. He just needs to be exposed for what he is."
Anna-Maria Arabia, the CEO of Science & Technology Australia, which recently organised the Respect the Science event in Canberra in which 200 scientists marched to show solidarity for climate scientists receiving death threats, also feels that Monckton should be free to speak: "Everyone is entitled to their views, but it is important that personal views are differentiated from the scientific evidence that has been through the rigorous peer-review process. The challenge for Lord Monckton is to have his ideas tested through the peer review process."
She added: "The misinformation campaign designed to create fear and uncertainty will not intimidate climate scientists who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of knowledge and know the importance of placing their results in the public domain so that fair and democratic debate can ensue. Critical decisions about making the world we live in a better and safer place must be informed by the best possible information we have, not by fear. The best possible information we have is the peer-reviewed science."
After visiting Fremantle, Monckton is scheduled to speak at venues across Australia, including the German Club in Adelaide. Last week, Elke Pfau, the club's president said she was "looking into" the booking following Monckton's "unfortunate" remarks about Garnaut. In April, a private school near Brisbane cancelled a business event due to feature Monckton next month after the head teacher deemed his participation to be "too controversial".
Monckton's lecture tour is being co-ordinated by the Climate Sceptics party, a political party set up in 2009 by an Australian farmer to "expose the fallacy of anthropogenic climate change".
Leo Hickman @'The Guardian'
Elliott Sharp - Solo Guitar (2003)
This footage of Elliott Sharp improvising on guitar in his NYC apartment was shot by Steve Elkins in June 2003 for what eventually evolved into the feature documentary 'The Reach Of Resonance,' though this footage was not actually used in the film.
Composer, multi-instrumentalist, sound artist, and instrument builder, Sharp has devised innovative ways of applying fractal geometry,chaos theory and genetic metaphors to musical composition and interaction, as well as pioneering use of computers in live improvisation.
elliottsharp.com
reachofresonance.com
Brothers In Arms
Romanian President Nicolae Ceaucescu and his wife, Elena, meeting with Pol Pot, his wife, Kien Samphan, and Khmer Rouge cabinet members.(28-30.V.1978).
source:wikipedia
Monday 27 June 2011
Hand-hacking lets you pluck strings like a musical pro
Want to learn a musical instrument, but can't find the time to practise? A device now under development can take control of your hand and teach you how to play a tune. No spirits of dead musicians are involved.
PossessedHand, being developed jointly by the University of Tokyo, Japan, and Sony Computer Science Laboratories, also in Tokyo, electrically stimulates the muscles in the forearm that move your fingers. A belt worn around that part of the subject's arm contains 28 electrode pads, which flex the joints between the three bones of each finger and the two bones of the thumb, and provide two wrist movements. Users were able to sense the movement of their hands that this produced, even with their eyes closed. "The user's fingers are controlled without the user's mind," explains Emi Tamaki of the University of Tokyo, who led the research.
Devices that stimulate people's fingers have been made before, but they used electrodes embedded in the skin, which are invasive, or glove-like devices that make it hard to manipulate an object. Tamaki claims that her device is far more comfortable. "The electric stimulations are similar to low-frequency massage stimulations that are commonly used," she says.
Having successfully hijacked a hand, the researchers tried to teach it how to play the koto, a traditional Japanese stringed instrument. Koto players wear different picks on three fingers, but pluck the strings with all five fingertips, so each finger produces a distinctive sound. A koto score tells players which fingers should be moved and when, and from this Tamaki and her team were able to generate instructions telling their device how and when to stimulate the wearer's muscles.
PossessedHand does not generate enough force to pluck the koto strings, but it could help novice players by teaching them the correct finger movements. Tamaki and her team found that two beginner players made a total of four timing errors when using PossessedHand, compared with 13 when playing unassisted. After prompting from the device, the players also made one less mistake about which finger to use.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the players found it unsettling to have the device move their hand by itself. "I felt like my body was hacked," said one. Tamaki is confident that people will get used to the idea once they see how useful it can be: "We believe convenient technology will overcome a feeling of fear."
As well as helping would-be musicians, PossessedHand could be used to rehabilitate people who have suffered a stroke or other injury that impairs muscle control. Therapists already use electrical muscle stimulation to help these people, but existing non-invasive devices can only achieve crude movements such as contracting the entire arm.
Henrik Gollee, who researches rehabilitation devices at the University of Glasgow, UK, says PossessedHand could help patients train a wider range of movements. "I was surprised by the level of fine movement they can actually achieve," he says.
Simon Holland, director of the Music Computing Lab at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, points out that there is a big difference between learning to play one song and being a competent musician. "You might learn a fingering and be able to reproduce that performance, without necessarily being able to perform simple variants," he says.
Jacob Aron @'NewScientist'
Libya: ICC issues arrest warrant for Muammar Gaddafi
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.
The court had accused him of crimes against humanity and of ordering attacks on civilians after an uprising against him began in mid-February.The Hague-based court also issued warrants for two of Col Gaddafi's top aides - his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi.
Thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the conflict.
ICC presiding judge Sanji Monageng said there were "reasonable grounds to believe" that Col Gaddafi and his son were "criminally responsible as indirect co-perpetrators" for the persecution and murder of civilians in Libya.
The warrants had been requested by chief ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in May, who said the three men bore responsibility for "widespread and systematic attacks" on civilians.
Mr Moreno-Ocampo said the court had evidence that Col Gaddafi had "personally ordered attacks on unarmed Libyan civilians and was behind the arrest and torture of his political opponents.
The Libyan authorities have previously said they do not recognise the court and were not concerned by the threat of a warrant.
On Sunday, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the court was overly preoccupied with pursuing African leaders and had "no legitimacy whatsoever".
The arrest warrant was welcomed by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, who said it further demonstrated "why Gaddafi has lost all legitimacy and why he should go immediately".
Mr Hague called on people within the Libyan regime to abandon Gaddafi and said those responsible for "atrocities" must be held to account.
@'BBC'
(PDF)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
