Saturday 29 October 2011

'Gloombah' raises his fist in solidarity w/ #OccupyMelbourne

(Photos by TimN)
Funnily enough as I was reading 'Where The Wild Things Are' to Spaceboy at bedtime tonight he pointed out that in the picture of Max getting up to 'mischief' the teddy hanging from the sheet-rope had his fist raised!!!
Bless his little (revolutionary) cotton socks!

Le 'garçon d'espace' et son père (TimN) @OccupyMelbourne (29/10/11)

(Thanx Monica!)

(Thanx Jeff!)

Spaceboy on the front line @ #OccupyMelbourne (29/10/11)

The continuing adventures of...
(Photos by TimN)

Julian Assange: BBC World Have Your Say

Brian Eno: Control VS Surrender (Moogfest 27/10/2011)


Brian Eno describes his exhibit, "77 Million Paintings," and talks about the idea of control versus surrender in the randomization of images and sound in his work.
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Dark Shark

Steve Barker interviews Adrian Sherwood @ Rough Trade East 27/10/11



Laurie Penny: If I can’t wear a short skirt, I don’t want your revolution

Lefty journalism professor tries to discredit the Tea Party by passing along sensational footage to his buddies at the Times!!!



DATA Made FLESH

How Occupy Wall Street Cost Me My Job

David Harvey: The Party of Wall Street Meets its Nemesis

The Party of Wall Street has ruled unchallenged in the United States for far too long. It has totally (as opposed to partially) dominated the policies of Presidents over at least four decades (if not longer), no matter whether individual Presidents have been its willing agents or not. It has legally corrupted Congress via the craven dependency of politicians in both parties upon its raw money power and access to the mainstream media that it controls. Thanks to the appointments made and approved by Presidents and Congress, the Party of Wall Street dominates much of the state apparatus as well as the judiciary, in particular the Supreme Court, whose partisan judgments increasingly favor venal money interests, in spheres as diverse as electoral, labor, environmental and contract law.
The Party of Wall Street has one universal principle of rule: that there shall be no serious challenge to the absolute power of money to rule absolutely. And that power is to be exercised with one objective. Those possessed of money power shall not only be privileged to accumulate wealth endlessly at will, but they shall have the right to inherit the earth, taking either direct or indirect dominion not only of the land and all the resources and productive capacities that reside therein, but also assume absolute command, directly or indirectly, over the labor and creative potentialities of all those others it needs. The rest of humanity shall be deemed disposable.
These principles and practices do not arise out of individual greed, short-sightedness or mere malfeasance (although all of these are plentifully to be found). These principles have been carved into the body politic of our world through the collective will of a capitalist class animated by the coercive laws of competition. If my lobbying group spends less than yours then I will get less in the way of favors. If this jurisdiction spends on people’s needs it shall be deemed uncompetitive.
Many decent people are locked into the embrace of a system that is rotten to the core. If they are to earn even a reasonable living they have no other job option except to give the devil his due: they are only “following orders,” as Adolf Eichmann famously claimed, or “doing what the system demands” as others now put it, acceding to the barbarous and immoral principles and practices of the Party of Wall Street. The coercive laws of competition force us all, to some degree or other, to obey the rules of this ruthless and uncaring system. The problem is systemic, not individual...
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David Graeber, the Anti-Leader of Occupy Wall Street

Philip K. Dick on the language virus theory of William S. Burroughs

Dick spent some time thinking about the information virus theory of William Burroughs, which he uses here to clarify his own thinking about "living information." Burroughs' theory interests and troubles him, as he indicates by praising Burroughs for getting the problem right. But he ends up disagreeing with Burroughs about the nature of the entity, and takes the opportunity to distinguish his own view in contrast to Burroughs. As is not uncommon in passages like this, Dick proceeds beyond the general theoretical question to speculate about his own experiences. I find this kind of passage beautiful and picturesquely Dickian. He is weaving a tense and compelling portrait, almost Lovecraftian in its description of the theoretical attraction and squeamish repulsion he feels for Burroughs' notion, of his work on the information paradox.
"I cannot accept Burroughs' view that we have been invaded by an alien virus, an information virus, yet on the other hand I cannot readily dismiss this bizarre theory as mere paranoia on his part. I think he is onto something real and important, and that his statements do more good--far more good--than harm (that is, he states the problem correctly, although perhaps his analysis of the cause is faulty; still, merely to be aware of the problem is to achieve a great deal). Now, I have been able to find accounts in ancient times of what seems to be a thinking or perceptual dysfunction or perhaps the thinking or perceptual dysfunction.
...Burroughs may have indeed detected an "information virus" or something like an information virus, but my supposition is that, if you grant its existence, it is of long-standing. World mythology supports this. Not just Christian.
Where Burroughs and I sharply disagree is that my supposition is that if--if--and information life form exists (and this is indeed a bizarre and wild supposition), it is benign; it does not occlude us; on the contrary: it informs us (or perhaps it has no interest in doing either, but simply rides our own information traffic, using our media as a carrier; that is entirely possible. That I myself saw this living information in the spring of 1974 is not something I wish to claim; on the other hand, I will not deny it. The issue is important, vital, and also elusive. If you grant an occluding information virus, are you not then yourself occluded in your very analysis of it, as well as your perception of its existence? There is a paradox involved. I'm sure you can see that. And I try to deal with it in VALIS."
Selected Letters of PKD 1980-1982, p.146
Here's a link to Burroughs on Language as a Virus from Outer Space
Here's a recent article explaining the history of the concept of information
Mr Hand @'Philip K. Dick and Religion'
Check out the link above  for much more PKD...

Piercing the Paleolithic Penis

The NYPD Is Now Threatening To Sue Occupy Wall Street Protesters

Drug hallucinations look real in the brain

Pablo Amaringo: Sky Spirits
The visions induced by an Amazonian brew used by shamans may be as real as anything the eyes actually see, according to brain scans of frequent users of the drug.
Draulio de Araujo of the Brain Institute at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Natal, Brazil, and colleagues recruited 10 frequent users of the brew – called ayahuasca. They asked the volunteers to look at images of people or animals while their brains were scanned using functional MRI, then asked the volunteers to close their eyes and imagine they were still viewing the image. Unsurprisingly, the researchers found that neural activity in the primary visual cortex dropped off when volunteers imagined seeing the image rather than actually viewing it.
But when the team then gave the volunteers a dose of ayahuasca and repeated the experiment, they found that the level of activity in the primary visual cortex was virtually indistinguishable when the volunteers were really viewing an image and when they were imagining it. This means visions seen have a real, neurological basis, says de Araujo – they are not made up or imagined.
Michael Brammer, head of the brain imaging unit at King's College London, says the study's statistics appear to indicate something relatively robust. However, he says it's difficult to pin down whether the eyes-closed responses on the drug are quantitatively the same as normal, eyes-open neural activity. "Functional MRI is not a one-to-one mapping of cerebral activity. If it were, things would be easier," he says.
Robin Carhart-Harris of Imperial College London has done similar fMRI work using the "magic mushroom" hallucinogen psilocybin. He says the results also have practical implications, such as for the application of psychedelics in psychotherapy.
Ayahuasca may also find its way into the psychiatrist's drug kit. The pharmacology of its ingredients tallies with the way some conventional drugs work; because of this, researchers are interested in ayahuasca's potential for treating addiction, depression or conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder. One of the brew's two ingredients is the vine Banisteriopsis caapi, which contains chemicals that act as monoamine oxidase inhibitors – a major class of antidepressant drugs. The other ingredient is the shrub Psychotria viridis: it contains the powerful hallucinogen DMT (dimethyltryptamine), which acts on the mood-altering serotonergic system, the target of antidepressants such as Prozac.
Arran Frood @'NewScientist'

Ryan Casey: I Am The Asshole %

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Pumpkin Porn

People should be free to take smart drugs if they choose to

Out of Iraq

Australian ISP Boss Brands Copyright Trolls “Scum”, Vows To Stop Them

Friday 28 October 2011

HA!

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan Says She Will Minimize Police Presence And That She Supports The Movement

After the first heavy-handed police crackdown on demonstrators in Oakland, Mayor Jean Quan wrote a statement on her Facebook page praising police for closing down the Occupy Oakland protest encampment. Now, facing anger from across the world, Quan is backing down on her aggressive language and even says she supports the goals of the movement. She is committing to minimize police presence in the plaza and “build a community effort to improve communications and dialogue with the demonstrators.” View her full statement:
We support the goals of the Occupy Wall Street movement: we have high levels of unemployment and we have high levels of foreclosure that makes Oakland part of the 99% too. We are a progressive city and tolerant of many opinions. We may not always agree, but we all have a right to be heard.
I want to thank everyone for the peaceful demonstration at Frank Ogawa Park tonight, and thank the city employees who worked hard to clean up the plaza so that all activities can continue including Occupy Wall Street. We have decided to have a minimal police presence at the plaza for the short term and build a community effort to improve communications and dialogue with the demonstrators.
99% of our officers stayed professional during difficult and dangerous circumstances as did some of the demonstrators who dissuaded other protestors from vandalizing downtown and for helping to keep the demonstrations peaceful. For the most part, demonstrations over the past two weeks have been peaceful. We hope they continue to be so.
I want to express our deepest concern for all of those who were injured last night, and we are committed to ensuring this does not happen again. Investigations of certain incidents are underway and I will personally monitor them.
We understand and recognize the impact this event has had on the community and acknowledge what has happened. We cannot change the past, but we are committed to doing better.
Most of us are part of the 99%, and understand the spirit of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. We are committed to honoring their free speech right.
Finally, we understand the demonstrators want to meet with me and Chief Jordan. We welcome open dialogue with representatives of Occupy Wall Street members, and we are willing to meet with them as soon as possible.
@'ThinkProgress'

:)

Campfire democracy

Rio Tinto accused over Bougainville 'genocide'

A US federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit seeking to hold Rio Tinto responsible for human rights violations and thousands of deaths linked to a Bougainville copper and gold mine it once ran.
A divided 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed a lower court's dismissal of claims against the mining giant for genocide and war crimes, while upholding the dismissal of claims for racial discrimination and crimes against humanity.
"The complaint alleges purposeful conduct undertaken by Rio Tinto with the intent to assist in the commission of violence, injury, and death, to the degree necessary to keep its mines open," Judge Mary Schroeder wrote.

The 6-5 decision on Tuesday revives an 11-year-old lawsuit on behalf of about 10,000 current and former residents of the South Pacific island of Bougainville, where a late 1980s uprising led to the use of military force and many deaths.
The Bougainville residents claimed Rio Tinto's Panguna mine operations polluted the island and the company forced native workers to live in "slave like" conditions.
They also contended that after workers began to sabotage the mine in 1988, Rio Tinto goaded the government of Papua New Guinea into exacting retribution and conspired to impose a blockade that resulted in the deaths of 10,000 civilians by 1997.
Rio Tinto shut the mine in 1989.
Steve Berman, a lawyer for the Rio Tinto plaintiffs, said: "My clients believe Rio has been covering up its complicity in war crimes and genocide. We're pleased to be able to return to the district court and begin proving our case."
Writing for the 9th Circuit, Judge Schroeder said the complaint's allegation that Rio Tinto's "worldwide modus operandi" was to treat indigenous non-Caucasians as "expendable" justified restoring the genocide claim to the case.
She also said the allegation that Rio Tinto acted for its own private ends in inducing Papua New Guinea's military to murder civilians justified restoring the war crimes claim.
Rio Tinto spokesman Tony Shaffer said: "We intend to defend ourselves vigorously against these improper claims."
The appeals court has returned the case to US District Judge Margaret Morrow in Los Angeles for further proceedings.
But some dissenting judges protested against allowing a lawsuit to proceed in federal courts brought by non-US residents against non-US companies such as Rio Tinto, which has corporate offices in the UK and Australia.
The case is one of several in which non-US residents seek to hold companies responsible in US courts for alleged human rights violations on foreign soil, under a 1789 US law known as the Alien Tort Statute.
Rio Tinto is one of the world's largest mining companies, with a market value exceeding $95 billion.
@'ABC'

Don't forget #OccupyMelbourne tomorrow...Spaceboy and I will be there

#OccupyMelbourne

They're spending money, Jim, but not as we know it

Jaraparilla 
Ironic? Instead of taking the lead on Oz Republic, Gillard is signing off on changes to UK Monarchy:

Pig Centipede Fail

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New Social Justice Index Places U.S. Near Bottom

Australia not too hot either...

Occupy Wall Street: Sgt. Shamar Thomas calls on veterans to support the movement

Jon Stewart questions Oakland police crackdown

Psychologists' DSM5 Petition Catching like Wildfire

Agencies split over #OccupyMelbourne eviction

Oakland Riot Cat

Iranian actress freed, spared lashing

Church Of Scientology Investigated 'South Park' Creators Matt Stone, Trey Parker

Gaddafi killer faces prosecution, says Libyan interim government


Libya's interim government says it will prosecute anyone found responsible for the death of Muammar Gaddafi after his capture, in a retreat from its earlier insistence that the dictator had been killed by crossfire.
The change in position comes after a week of sustained criticism of the Libyan leader's captors, who used their camera phones to chronicle his death. The footage, including images of a wounded Gaddafi being sodomised with what looked like a bayonet, caused widespread revulsion outside the country.
Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, deputy chief of the National Transitional Council, said it would try to bring to justice anyone proven to have fired the shot to the head that killed Gaddafi.
"With regards to Gaddafi, we do not wait for anybody to tell us," he told the al-Arabiya satellite channel. "We had already launched an investigation. We have issued a code of ethics in handling of prisoners of war. I am sure that was an individual act and not an act of revolutionaries or the national army. Whoever is responsible for that [Gaddafi's killing] will be judged and given a fair trial."
Attempts to launch an investigation are unlikely to be welcomed in Misrata, where the rebels who captured Gaddafi in his home town of Sirte are based. Asked this week about the questions surrounding his death by people outside Libya, Misrata's military chief, Ibrahim Beit al-Mal, said: "Why are they even asking this question? He was caught and he was killed. Would he have given us the same? Of course."
Talk of an inquest was being seen by Misrata officials as an attempt by the Benghazi-dominated NTC to claim prominence in post-Gaddafi affairs.
"Everybody knows who caught him and who fought the most during the past nine months," an official said. "It was us. It was no one else."
The identity of the man who allegedly pulled his 9mm pistol from his waistband and shot the wounded dictator in the left temple around 20 minutes after his capture is widely known in Misrata, as is the unit he belonged to, the Katiba Ghoran.
"They won't come near us," said the rebel who pulled Gaddafi from a drain last Thursday. "They won't dare. Gaddafi was saying: 'What's this, what's this?' After nine months of blood, he was saying: 'What's this?'. What does he expect?"
There is little sympathy on the streets of Misrata for Gaddafi's violent end, despite the troubling images and his rotting body being publicly displayed for the next four days.
Meanwhile, Gaddafi son and former heir apparent Saif al-Islam is thought to be in southern Libya approaching the Niger border, where Nigerien officials believe he is planning to join his brother Saadi and the former regime's spy chief Abdullah Senussi in exile.
The NTC maintains that Saif al-Islam is interested in handing himself in to the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant against him and Senussi. The court in The Hague says it has had no contact from Libya.
The United Nations on Thursday said it would terminatethe Nato mandate enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya at the end of October, formally ending an eight-month blockade of the country's skies and military operations on the ground. The NTC had earlier asked for operations to continue until the end of the year.
"This marks a really important milestone in the transition in Libya," Britain's ambassador to the UN, Mark Lyall Grant, said. "It marks the way from the military phase towards the formation of an inclusive government, the full participation of all sectors of society, and for the Libyan people to choose their own future."
The security council said it looked forward "to the swift establishment of an inclusive, representative transitional government of Libya" committed to democracy, good governance, rule of law, national reconciliation and respect for human rights.
It strongly urged Libyan authorities "to refrain from reprisals", to take measures to prevent others from carrying out reprisals, and to protect the population, "including foreign nationals and African migrants"
Martin Chulov @'The Guardian'

Victoria has banned the bong

It’s hard to believe that in 2011, retailers in Victoria are still able to sell cannabis water pipes – or more popularly referred to as, bongs – on display out in the open. Yes, the author of this piece was surprised to learn of this fact… because isn’t marijuana illegal? The answer to that question is of course marijuana is illegal in Australia, but how are Victorian shopkeepers still able to sell bongs in stores? Well, cannabis water pipes can be displayed in shops and markets if the owner displays a sign stating that the bong is for tobacco use. Needless to say, the loophole was finally closed down with the introduction of the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Prohibition of Display and Sale of Cannabis Water Pipes) Bill 2011 (the bill) which was recently assented by the Victorian Parliament, making it illegal for shops in the State to display or sell bongs, and additionally, the bill has also limited the sale of hookahs as well. The assenting of the bill signifies that the new laws will come into force from 1 January 2012.
The elements of the bill
The new bill has made it an offence for retailers from displaying and selling any implement which can be used to inhale cannabis, whether it is a cannabis water pipe or bong kits, or any other components which allows a person to consume marijuana.
Anyone found to be in breach of the new laws will find themselves being hit in the hip pocket. So for instance, any natural person who is found to be displaying or selling a bong, a bong kit, or any other associated components, will face a maximum fine of $7,167, while a body corporate can be fined up to $35,835. Ouch. 
Additionally, the bill has also limited the sale of hookahs, although there is no outright ban of the smoking implement being sold in Victoria. Instead, shops are limited to displaying no more than three hookahs, and any person who is found to be selling more than the proscribed amount, can face a maximum fine of $1,194.50, while a body corporate that is found guilty, may be fined a maximum of $5,972.50. We here at FindLaw cannot help but wonder as to how big the demand is of hookahs if a retail owner feels compelled to display more than the allowable amount, anyway.
We should conclude this piece with one of the more interesting aspects of the bill, which requires the police to return any seized items under this Part, and must take reasonable steps to return the items to the lawful owner – either once the reason for seizure of the item no longer exists, or within three months after seizure of the item. However, the caveat is that no proceedings have commenced or has not yet been completed, or a Magistrates’ Court has issued an order extending the retention period. Although, we should point out, that the Court may order that the bong or any other associated component can be destroyed if a person has been found guilty of an offence against the related section.
@'FindLaw' 
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