Wednesday 7 March 2012

LulzSec Hacking Suspects Are Arrested

LulzSec Leader Was Snitch Who Helped Snag Fellow Hackers

So that would explain why he disappeared from Twitter for a while...and I do wonder how much info the WikiLeaks/Anon fanboys and girls passed on about themselves trying to impress! I also wish that self promoting asshat Barrett Brown would just STFU!!!
Mona's handy internet tip o'the day: NOT everyone is who they say they are on this here intertoob thingy!!!

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Sir Viv Richards at 60

The 60th anniversary of the master blaster's birth is a reminder how his strut alone could turn bowlers to quivering wrecks...
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Dear Mr Gove: Letter from a curious parent

I wonder if I can tell you about some rumours that are doing the rounds?
First, we've all seen that you're going to perform that miracle much beloved by those who like measuring human beings: changing the pass level of exams.
I come from an era when this was standard practice in the 11-plus exam. The pass level in any area wasn't a statement about how good or bad that cohort of children were. It was simply tied to how many grammar school places that particular local authority had created. The collective memory of this sort of thing makes people wonder, you know.
I mean, there couldn't be a tiny possibility, could there, that the reason why you're fiddling around with exam pass levels is so that you can regulate the numbers of school students applying for university? After all, it has become quite embarrassing that thousands of young people we all thought were qualified to benefit from three years more education are now deemed not to be so, with the only visible reason for this shift in view being that you agree with the bankers that we can't "afford" that level of university provision. Handy for you, I suppose, if you can dampen a bit of the young people's ardour for more education by labelling more of them as failures.
Talking of labelling people as failures, I see it's full steam ahead with June's phonics test. The results for your pilot tests are in and they make interesting reading. The pass level was put at 34 correct readings of the 40 single words. (I'm not sure why reading single words, not in sentences nor in passages of writing counts as "reading". Wouldn't it have been more honest to have called it a "decode test"?) Sad to say, only 32% of the children reached the pass score. Now, one rumour I heard was that even the "outstanding schools" that did the pilot scored at this sort of a level. If so, will your new head of Ofsted have to change the word "outstanding" to "crap"? He's rather good at that sort of thing, isn't he?
Moving on, I gather that you say, parents of children who fail will, by law, have to be told they failed (which, in my experience, is the same as telling the children). Perhaps you could prepare the speech that a headteacher could give to the year 1 children: "Hello children, all of you, sitting over there are failures. It's about two thirds of you." What a good way to encourage them to become eager learners!
Now here's the next rumour bit – people are saying that this is all a cunning plan so that you can run a big press conference in the summer announcing that we have a nation of illiterates and the present one-hour a day synthetic phonics lessons should be upped to two hours. There are even some cynical people (tush — who would have thought there could be such people!), who are saying that you'll run the pass level at 34 out of 40 for the time being, and then after a year or so of SP, you'll lower it a bit, more children will pass, and, hey presto, you've improved reading! How can people think such things of you? Shocking.
And then, as if all this wasn't enough, you'll never guess what I heard this week? Someone told me that when you ran a press conference to tell the group of lucky journalists assembled there that the free school experiment in Sweden was a success, one journalist asked you if you were aware of the evidence emerging from Sweden that things weren't going quite as swimmingly as you suggested. Whereupon, you asked him if he was aware of the counter-evidence: a master-stroke of repartee, sir, if I may say so. But I cannot find the counter-evidence you mention anywhere, and dare I say I am a bit worried about that.
It slightly reminds me of your party conference speech that time when you compared the questions on science exam papers in the US and Britain, while failing to point out that the paper in the US was a chemistry exam for students aged 16 to 19 and the UK one was for GSCE biology. In a test on use of evidence, that would have had me telling your parents you were a failure, you know.
But these are all rumours and we really need to dump them in the bin marked "false" as soon as possible, don't we?
Via

♪♫ Janis Joplin - To Love Somebody (July 18, 1969 Dick Cavett Show)

Out Of The Past Records: A short film

When the US Government Can Kill You, Explained

For those of us with fond memories of The John Peel Show...

HERE

Linton Kwesi Johnson - Chiemsee Reggae (1999)

Children’s Classics as Minimalist Posters

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(Thanx Claudia!)

Hackers Steal Michael Jackson's Unreleased Tracks

Michael Jackson's entire back catalogue, including an unreleased collaboration with Will.I.AM, has been stolen by hackers.
The Sony Music archive has been infiltrated by cyber-crooks, who have illegally downloaded more than 50,000 digital files.
Record company bosses paid $250 million (£156 million) to Jackson's estate in 2010 for the catalogue, including unheard material from studio sessions when the superstar recorded Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad.
A source tells Britain's Sunday Times, "Everything Sony purchased from the Michael Jackson estate was compromised.
"It caused them to check their systems and they found the breach. There was a degree of sophistication. Sony identified the weakness and plugged the gap."
The haul is also said to include a duet with the late Freddie Mercury and Black Eyed Peas rapper will.i.am.
The attack was discovered weeks after hackers targeted Sony's PlayStation Network in April (11), but was only confirmed by a Sony Music representative on Saturday.
Via

Yoga and Sex Scandals: No Surprise Here

How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body

DJ Spooky - Infinite Abstraktion Mix

Tracklist:

1. Robot Working. Then Stopping
2. Radical Change - Malcolm X
3. Invaders from the Planet Sqratch (feat. DJ Qbert) - DJ Revolution vs Dj Qbert
4. Multiphonic - Dj Spooky featuring Rob Swift
5. 5 Million Ways to Kill a CEO DJ Spooky featuring The Coup (Medeski, Martin & Wood remix)
6. Volcano (Four Tet Remix) Anti-Pop Consortium
7. Bassnectar's Superstylin Smashup - Bassnectar vs Groove Armada
8. Decehall Party - DJ Xela
9. Fakir Alternate Remix - DJ Rekha (DJ Spooky remix)
10. Insh'allah - Sub Swara 11. Hold The Line (Mr Lex and Santogold) - Major Lazer
12. Hi Fidelity (Shambhala Riddim) - Sub Swara
13. Earth Break - Mr. Magic
14. Triple Trouble - The Beastie Boys
15. Big Money Comin' - Crookers
16. Aerodynamic - Daft Punk (Dj Spooky remix)
17 Michael Jackson 2 Many DJs vs DJ Spooky
18. 25 or 6 to 4 (Instrumental Track) [Karaoke In the Style of Chicago]
19. Say It Loud/Mind Power - James Brown
20. Respect - Aretha Franklin
21. Superstition - Stevie Wonder
22. Jamrock Collage - Damien Marley vs Dj Spooky
23. Anonymous Skulls - Medeski, Martin & Wood
24. Everything In Its Right Place (Dub Tribute to Radiohead) - Vitamin Dub
25. Two Face - Ticklah & Victor Axelrod

Download
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UK Police privatisation plans defended by senior officers


Hundreds detained after Moscow anti-Putin protest

Monday 5 March 2012

First Listen: Krzysztof Penderecki And Jonny Greenwood

Jonny Greenwood, AUKSO Chamber Orchestra conductor Marek Mos and Krzysztof Penderecki, on stage after a 2011 concert. Photo: Marcin Olivia Soto
How do you capture the energy — both positive and negative — of the past 50 years by using instruments perfected in the 18th century and made of wood, glue and horsehair?
That challenge lies at the very heart of this album, which brings together one of rock and electronic music's superheroes, Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, with one of his own idols: the septuagenarian Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. The collection features two string pieces written by the elder composer, 1960's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima and 1961's Polymorphia for 48 strings, juxtaposed with two of Greenwood's similarly set answers to Penderecki's work: Popcorn Superhet Receiver (inspired by Threnody) and 48 Responses to Polymorphia. Here, they both choose to use a seemingly antiquated vehicle — orchestral strings — to convey the noise, chaos and energy of our time. The results are ear-tingling.
Penderecki is an idol to Greenwood: In a recent charming joint interview with the London Guardian, Greenwood describes the unlikely duo's first meeting: "I shook his hand after a concert like a sad fan-boy." But there's no fan-boyism here: What we hear on this album is a meeting of two artistic visionaries connected in a real dialogue, the decades separating their work and their chronological ages all but collapsed and deflated. Recorded in Kraków after a joint performance of their music last September, the performances are by Poland's AUKSO Ensemble with the composers' direct oversight; Penderecki conducted his own scores, while violinist, chamber musician and conductor Marek Moś led the group for Greenwood's pieces.
Penderecki's Threnody originally carried a thoroughly abstract and deliberately unevocative title: 8'37" (a nod to composer John Cage's infamous 4'33"); it was only after the piece premiered that Penderecki linked his work explicitly to the horror of the atom bomb, though the piece's howls of anguish, expressed in all kinds of screams, rumbles and wails, speak clearly enough. The title change struck some observers as an opportunistic move, but the piece's popularity — and Penderecki's renown — skyrocketed after the name switch.
Written in 2005 with 34 individual string parts, and written as a response to Threnody, Greenwood's Popcorn Superhet Receiver takes its name and inspiration from shortwave radio: It's the sharply articulated chaos of 34 individuals often going on their own trajectories, not the tightly controlled, gleaming unified mass that one might traditionally associate with classical players.
Penderecki's Polymorphia also had a fascinating birth. The composer played a recording of Threnody for patients with mental illnesses at the Krakow Medical Center while the patients had encephalographs (brain-wave charts) made; he then based Polymorphia's musical lines around the shapes on their charts. In his reply to Polymorphia, Greenwood takes up that big, glorious and triumphant C Major chord — and then shatters that harmonic glow into smithereens. He begins with a strangely Bach-reminiscent chorale ("Es Ist Genug," or "It Is Enough," which is also the name of a famous Bach chorale) that Greenwood then distorts and dissolves over and over again. He builds tension and lets it drain away, takes up an idea and then lets it go in swirling eddies of motion.
Anastasia Tsioulcas @'npr'

Hear 'Krzysztof Penderecki And Jonny Greenwood' In Its Entirety

♪♫ Eddie & The Hot Rods - Get out of Denver (Live The Rainbow London 19 February 1977)

One of the greatest live bands I ever saw and I saw them a number of times. Moving at the sound of speed indeed!!!

Does seeking happiness lead to loneliness?

Rightbloggers Ride Rush Limbaugh's Slut Wagon Into a Ditch

The Department of Homeland Security is searching your Facebook and Twitter for these words

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Via
(Thanx GKB!)
Yes, the Department of Homeland Security is searching social media for…'social media' LOL!!!

Mary Anne Hobbs - DVA Mix (Xfm 11/02/12)


Tracklist

Creditors & Debtors

(Click to enlarge)
(Thanx Gennady!)

Burial + Four Tet - Nova


(Thanx Helen - safe travels XXX)
New collaboration...

Asylum / Did You Use To Be RD Laing




A short film about Alan Vega


Bonus:

Suicide performing live at Rothko NYC on Sep 3 2004. This was the evening of the last day of the Republican Convention and the 'devil' he refers to is, of course, George W. Bush
Tony Fletcher, author of ""All Hopped Up and Ready to Go: Music from the Streets of New York" reads from the book and interviews Alan Vega of Suicide at Brooklyn Public Library NYC on Dec 10 2009
(Thanx Joly!)
Who woulda thought that young what 14/15 year old hawking copies of his (really good) fanzine 'Jamming' would end up here...

Africa Hitech Interview - AllSaints Basement Sessions



Africa Hitech is the collaboration between the multi-alias production wunderkind Mark Pritchard and the celebrated soul singer Steve Spacek. The project combines the clinical beats and heavy bass dynamics of grime with the organic feel of soca and reggae to devastating effect.
Sound familiar?

Libyan militants filmed desecrating war graves






On 'Wrecking Ball,' Bruce Springsteen takes aim at robber barons and bankers

Costello covers Springsteen

Why the music industry as we know it must die...

(Thanx Paul!)

DJ Zhao - Punk In Africa Mix

Official Punk In Africa Mix by DJ Zhao (Ngoma Soundsystem, Berlin)
presented by www.punkinafrica.co.za / ngomasound.wordpress.com
In the era of branded lifestyle packaging, still sometimes something happens which makes us question our ideas of who makes/listens to what, what that means, how this informs the construction of social identity, whose values are projected by which aesthetic, and which “genres” are assigned to what class and ethnic group. I think the release of this film (www.punkinafrica.co.za) may be one of those times, and i hope this mix is one of those things, demonstrating the connectedness between Rock and Roll and its African roots, between power chords and dance beats, between decades past and today, between defiant youth in London and defiant youth in Zimbabwe – and that the same rhythmic blood and spirit of revolt runs in all of our veins.
This mix includes exclusive mashups and re-edits, and goes from Punk to heavily Africanized Rebel Rock to Post-Punk, Dance-Punk, Political Dub, Punk Step, 60s Afro-Garage Techno, Bass Music and beyond, features remixes of Congotronics and a couple of tunes not from the motherland, but surely in keeping with the Afro-Punk spirit.
01 [South Africa] National Wake – Black Punk Rockers
02 [South Africa] National Wake – Mercenaries
03 [South Africa] KOOS – Is Jy N Moegoe
04 [South Africa] National Wake – Dreams In My Head
05 [Zimbabwe] Chikwata 263 – Dudumduri
06 [South Africa] Dread Warriors – Xighangu Xamina
07 [South Africa] National Wake – Tchindi (live]
08 [UK] Andy Moor – From E to F + Pinch – Warlord
09 [South Africa] Kalahari Surfers – Don’t Dance (live) + Bass Boy – Stamp
10 [DR Congo] Docteur Nico & African Fiesta – Save Me
11 [Mozambique] 340ML – Shotgun (Zhao Fix)
12 [Zimbabwe] Evicted – Mapurisa (Remix)
13 [Zimbabwe] Chikwata 263 – In the Jungle
14 [South Africa] National Wake ft. Warrick Sony –Bolina (Kalahari Mix) + Cyrus – Manhatten Blues
15 [UK] Andy Moor – Ella Speed + Unknown
16 [DR Congo] Kasai Allstars – The Incident At Mbuji-Mayi (Bass Clef Remix)
17 [DR Congo] Kasai Allstars – Mukuba Special (Shackleton Remix)
18 [France / UK] DJ Rupture & Andy Moor – Broken Minded
19 [South Africa] Powerage – Waiting For the War
20 [South Africa] Powerage – Freedom + FilthyBeatz – Bounced
21 [Angola] Acromaniacos – unknown
22 [South Africa] KOOS – Ek Is My Dilemma
23 [South Africa] Fuzigish – Burn the Fucking House Down
24 [South Africa] Wild Youth – All Messed Up
25 [South Africa] Wild Youth – Wot About Me
26 [Tanzania] Jagwa Sound System – Watu na Maisha Yao
27 [South Africa] A-Cads – Down The Road
28 [South Africa] The Dynamics – Garlic Baloney
DJ Zhao:
http://listn.to/djzhao
djzhao
http://www.mixcloud.com/djzhao/
http://ngomasound.wordpress.com/
Punk In Africa:
http://www.punkinafrica.co.za
http://www.facebook.com/PunkInAfrica
(Thanx Jeff/Judy!)

Rush Limbaugh ‘Apologizes’ To Sandra Fluke

Sixth Seventh Eighth Advertiser Drops Limbaugh Despite His ‘Apology’ Because He’s Beyond The ‘Bounds Of Decency’

Stefan Abrahams: type face made from deconstructed camera

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Gang Of Souls: A Generation of Beat Poets



'Gang of Souls' (1989) is Maria Beatty's engaging documentary exploring the insights and influences of the American Beat Poets. The film conveys their consciousness and sensibility through candid interviews with William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Diane Di Prima, among others. Designed as a tribute to them and to their spirit of artistic freedom, Gang of Souls also weaves in additional commentary from contemporary musicians, poets and writers such as Marianne Faithfull, Richard Hell, Lydia Lunch and Henry Rollins. The film seeks to truly capture the magic of the Beat generation and it's continuing legacy. It brilliantly expands upon how the poets reached new levels of creativity and inspired unprecedented social change.

Watch big cats get spooked by their own reflections

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Why the Rich Are Less Ethical: They See Greed as Good

(Thanx Dirk!)

"Israel’s own leaders understand the necessity of peace" may be one of the more absurd things Obama's said in office.

Miles Davis - Montreux July 8th 1973


Miles Davis (tp, org)
Dave Liebman (ss, ts, fl)
Reggie Lucas (el-g)
Pete Cosey (el-g, per)
Michael Henderson (el-b)
Al Foster (d)
Mtume (per)
Directed by Jean Bovon

via Mark Stewart on FB

Sunday 4 March 2012

Minimalistic Pixar Poster Series

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@'Design Fetish'

New Art by Christian Chapiron (AKA Kiki Picasso)

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