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Happy Birthday you auld bastard!
Stuff From Lo – The Letter I
59 minutes ago
Friday 25 December 2009
Just arrived in the stocking
The new album from Danger Mouse & James Mercer from The Shins.
(Oops gone from there already but I am sure if you look hard enough you will find 'Broken Bells')
Ho! Ho! Ho! (?)
I can't stand Kevin 'Bloody' Wilson but this was a request from someone who complained that for an Australian blog I actually don't have that much Australian content.
I hope this makes you happy...
I hope this makes you happy...
Thursday 24 December 2009
Iran sends former government spokesman to prison
A semiofficial Iranian news agency says a former government spokesman who became an opposition supporter has been sentenced to six years in prison.
Abdollah Ramazanzadeh was charged with fomenting unrest in order to topple the Iranian ruling system.
His trial was part of mass proceedings under way against more than 100 leading moderates, opposition figures and supporters who have challenged President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June.
The Fars news agency reported on Thursday that Ramazanzadeh was found guilty of "acts against national security, propagating against the Islamic establishment and keeping classified documents."
Ramazanzadeh served until 2004 as spokesman under reformist President Mohammad Khatami.
Banned - GBL and other 'legal highs' (UK governments Xmas present to you!)
A range of former so called ‘legal highs’ including GBL, BZP and man-made chemicals sprayed on herbal smoking products such as ‘Spice’ are now illegal, Home Secretary Alan Johnson announced today.
As part of the government’s commitment to tackle the emerging threat of so called ‘legal highs’, the substances now banned under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 include:
- Chemical solvent GBL (Gamma-Butyrolactone) and a similar chemical – which are converted into GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) in the body and often used as ‘club drugs’ – are now controlled as Class C drugs when intended for human consumption;
- Synthetic cannabinoids – man-made chemicals sprayed on herbal smoking products such as ‘Spice’, which act on the body in a similar way to cannabis but can be far more potent, are now controlled as Class B drugs alongside cannabis; and
- BZP (Benzylpiperazine) and related piperazines, which are stimulants, similar to amphetamine, are now controlled as Class C drugs.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson said:
"We are cracking down on so called ‘legal highs’ which are an emerging threat, particularly to young people. That is why we are making a range of these substances illegal from today with ground- breaking legislation which will also ban their related compounds.
"We are sending out a clear message to anyone who is thinking about experimenting with them, particularly over the festive period, that not only are they putting themselves in danger they will also be breaking the law."
"We are sending out a clear message to anyone who is thinking about experimenting with them, particularly over the festive period, that not only are they putting themselves in danger they will also be breaking the law."
Tim Hollis, Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) lead on drugs, said:
"Police are all too well aware of the harms caused in local communities, particularly to young people, by these drugs and we support the decision taken by the Home Office to clearly spell this out.
"Enforcement will be proportionate and will focus particular attention on those who traffic in drugs and put people at harm. Practical advice has already been circulated to forces to support them in this respect. We want people to enjoy the festive season without exposing themselves to unnecessary risk by taking what are potentially dangerous substances."
The government continues to raise awareness of the dangers of psychoactive substances via the FRANK campaign.
In addition, 15 anabolic steroids, testosterone-like products often used by sports people and increasingly being used by the general public for their growth promoting properties, are to be controlled as Class C drugs, alongside two growth promoters.
The control of these substances follows advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). Following receipt of their advice and after consulting with industry on those substances which have legitimate use, the government announced its intention to bring these substances under control using the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The ACMD continue to look at the use of so called ‘legal highs’ as a priority and will report back to the government on the cathinones in 2010.
Exile's gig of the year: Nick Cave's ATP festival at Mount Buller
A brilliant weekend, just a real pity it is not on again next year, tho' they would have found it hard to top the bill of this year.
My award for gig of the decade goes to Mark Lanegan at Cherry Bar...a night that will remain with me for lots of reasons!
My award for gig of the decade goes to Mark Lanegan at Cherry Bar...a night that will remain with me for lots of reasons!
Exile's album of 2009: Brock Van Wey aka Bvdub - White Clouds Drift On And On
HERE
So much great music this year, never let anyone tell you that music is dead or boring or not as good as it used to be.
Honourable mentions go to Moderat/Volcano Choir/ Sunn O)))/Animal Collective/Flaming Lips' 'Embryonic' & Monolake/The Bug/King Midas Sound and everything else that was related to the label of the year, Kode9's 'Hyperdub', but this was the album that gotta hold of me the most this year...works on so many levels.
If you haven't heard it well give yourself a treat (it is hexmass after all!)US balloon boy parents are given jail sentences
A US man who triggered a major alert by falsely claiming his son was adrift in a helium balloon has been sentenced to 90 days in jail - and his wife to 20.
Richard Heene, 48, and his 45-year-old wife Mayumi said in October their son had been carried off by the balloon.
Six-year-old Falcon Heene was finally found hiding at home.
In court in Colorado, Heene appeared to fight back tears as he apologised to rescue workers and the community, saying he was "very, very sorry".
The judge also ordered four years of supervised probation for the couple and banned them from receiving any form of financial benefit from the case.
Heene and his wife Mayumi had pleaded guilty to charges that they carried out the balloon stunt to promote a reality TV show.
The prosecutor had argued the couple should face time in jail to act as a deterrent to others who may be considering mounting similar stunts for financial gain and publicity.
Prosecutors had asked for a jail sentence to deter others
He said Heene had "wasted a lot of man power and a lot of money in wanting to get himself some publicity".
He argued that the couple had acted not on the behest of any TV companies, but that "they came up with it all on their own, not necessarily just to get a TV show but at least to put their name out there again and maybe in hopes that somebody would pick them up".
"For that," he said, "they do need to be punished".
Richard Heene will be allowed to serve 60 days of his 90-day sentence on release, allowing him to work as a construction contractor during the day, while spending the night in jail.
He will start his sentence on 11 January 2010.
Mayumi Heene will begin her sentence after her husband's to ensure their children are still cared for.
She will be allowed to report to jail on two days a week, return home at night, and serve the sentence through jail-supervised community service.
The judge also ruled that her husband must serve 100 hours of community service and write a letter of apology to the community and public service agencies which helped search for his son.
The couple have already been ordered to pay $42,000 (£26,000) in restitution for the emergency services' rescue efforts.
RePost: Exile's worst album of 2009
I can't stand 'Sgt. Peppers'. Don't understand why it is often (still) voted the best album of all time. Twee sentimentality, cod mysticism, music hall numbers and Ringo Starr. Jesus, I would have left home too.So now the Easy Star All Stars (after full reggae versions of 'Dark Side of the Moon' and 'OK Computer') have turned to this. Despite the calibre of some of the artists involved: Michael Rose, The Mighty Diamonds, Luciano, Max Romeo etc. this is just a complete aural abortion. And why do I find it hard to picture any of the artists rolling up a large number and settling down to listen to Sgt. Peppers at the end of a hard day in the studio?
So this begs the question who is this designed for? Blokes in their sixties who still think that punk was the end of good music or young college kids just discovering the joys of dope and how well reggae and it go together. There is some great reggae music out there but this is certainly not an example of it.
As for the Easy Star All Stars, 'Dub Side of the Moon' sort of worked and I am afraid I am not a fan of the original version of that either. It always struck me as the perfect album for the time as stereo moved into more and more homes. I feel that the Floyd worked more on the FX and stereo separation than the words and tunes of the songs, which I was under the impression had been more important until then.
'Radiodread', sort of OK. White guys with dreads who go to college probably like it much more than me!
The Easy Star All Stars are playing at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne on April 11. I won't be there.
Wednesday 23 December 2009
My album(s) of the decade
So much great music in the past decade but I cannot choose between these two so both are #1!
Just the right amound of pop and noise!
Mousavi fired as head of Arts Institution
Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has been fired as head of the Arts Institution.
The Council for Cultural Revolution, a high-ranking body chaired by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, dismissed him on Tuesday night, state media said.
Mr Mousavi had run the institution, affiliated to the president's office, since its inception 11 years ago.
In recent days, hardliners have urged Iran's judiciary to put Mr Mousavi on trial for instigating unrest.
Mr Mousavi came second in the June election, and anger at the result saw mass protests in Tehran and other cities that led to thousands of arrests and some deaths.
Mr Mousavi has said the poll, that returned President Ahmadinejad to power, was fraudulent.
'Plainclothes men'
News of Mr Mousavi's sacking comes a day after his car was reportedly attacked as he travelled back to Tehran from the holy city of Qom, where he had joined tens of thousands for the funeral of a dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri.
An earlier report suggested that the Arts Institution job was Mr Mousavi's only public post, but he also remains on the Expediency Council.This is seen a key body within the Iranian politics and at times a forum for reconciling legislation when debate in the legislature becomes deadlocked.
@'BBC'
@'BBC'
Iranian Cleric’s Office Reportedly Attacked
According to an Iranian opposition Web site, members of the Basij militia, which supports Iran’s government, attacked the office of a senior reformist cleric in Iran’s holy city of Qum on Tuesday, one day after a funeral for another dissident cleric there turned into an opposition protest.
Citing a report on the Web site Norooz News, Reuters and AFP said that militia members broke the windows of Grand Ayatollah Youssef Sanei’s office and beat up some of his associates.
Two days after June’s disputed presidential election, another opposition Web site, Peykeiran, reported that Ayatollah Sanei had issued a religious edict proclaiming that Mr. Ahmedinejad was “not the president” of Iran and that “it is forbidden to cooperate with his government.”
Following the death of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri this week, Ayatollah Sanei is the most senior cleric among Iran’s reformers. During Monday’s funeral for Ayatollah Montazeri, Reuters reported that some mourners carried photographs of Ayatollah Sanei, who was among the mourners.
The Norooz News report also said that the attackers posted photographs of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, in the reformist cleric’s office. According to Norooz, police officers stopped supporters of Ayatollah Sanei from defending the office...
Why Hollywood Security Is Better Than The Pentagon's
It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood blockbuster: A group of insurgents hack into American military drones, using software they got off the Internet, according to The Wall Street Journal. But, for the benefit of that screenwriter likely pounding away right now to get his idea in first -- as well as for the general public -- what actually happened?
Essentially, three trends are coming together in war.
First is the growing use of unmanned systems, something I explore in my book "Wired for War." Just a few years ago, the U.S. military had no interest in unmanned systems. Indeed, when the U.S. invaded Iraq, we had only a handful of unmanned systems in the air and zero on the ground in the invasion force, none of them armed.
Today, we have more than 7,000 in the air, ranging from the 48-foot-long Predator to tiny ones that can fit in a backpack, and 12,000 on the ground, such as the Packbot and Talon systems that hunt down roadside bombs. Many of these systems are armed, giving new meaning to the term "killer app."
This 180-degree turn to robotics, however, often came in an ad-hoc manner. The back-end networks didn't perfectly fit with the wide variety of unmanned systems that were being plugged in.
Even more, the pressure was on to push the systems out as rapidly as possible, for very good reason. There was a war on, and these unmanned systems were proving to be far more useful to our troops than what the regular Pentagon acquisitions process had been providing.
One robotics company executive described how he couldn't even get his phone calls returned a few years ago. Now, he was told, "Make them as fast as you can."
Second, though, was a dash of arrogance. In not coming through the regular planning and purchasing system, many of the systems used proprietary software as well as commercial, off-the-shelf hardware. So many of the communications feeds going back and forth were poorly protected, and, in some cases, not even encrypted.
This was the case, for example, for some of the overhead surveillance video feeds that the unmanned systems were collecting and, in turn, beaming back both to command posts as well as to American patrols on the ground, who watch the feed off ROVER. (Akin to Dick Tracy's watch, this is a rugged video monitor a soldier can strap onto his or her arm or gear.)
The problem of the relatively open video feeds has been known for a while. Indeed, back during our operations in the Balkans, it was discovered that just about anyone in Eastern Europe with a satellite dish could watch live overhead footage of U.S. Special Operations forces going out on raids of suspected war criminals. One joker commented that it was harder to tap into the Disney Channel.
But the Pentagon assumed that foes in the Middle East wouldn't be smart enough to figure this out, and underestimated how quickly the technology to tap in to the feeds would advance, becoming cheaper and widely available. The problems were not fixed, and more and more of these relatively open systems were deployed.
Unfortunately, we all know what happens when we "assume" our enemies are dumb (they make something out of "u" and "me."). Using a $26 software package called Skygrabber, originally designed to allow customers to download movies and songs off the Internet (none of them pirated, of course), insurgents were able to tap into the various U.S. military video feeds, The Wall Street Journal reported. U.S. forces became aware of it after they captured a Shiite militia member in Iraq, whose laptop had files of the pirated footage saved on it.
To be clear, these insurgents were not able to take over control of the drones. They really weren't even doing "hacking" by the true meaning of the term. It was more like someone snooping in on a police radio scanner listening to unencrypted transmissions.
Some people used to listen to these scanners for entertainment, but for criminals, it proved useful to know what the police know and where they might be headed, which is why the police now encrypt these scanners.
Here too, it seems more likely the insurgents weren't watching themselves on the pirated video for amusement, but rather because the video feeds let them know what the U.S. military was monitoring. If I see that the U.S. military is watching a house with a station wagon out front, and I am sitting in a house with a station wagon out front, then I might well suspect that they are on to me.
This leads to the third trend -- the shifting domains of warfare. War is not merely about bullets and bombs, it is also becoming about bits and bytes. This was a relatively old security opening that wasn't fixed because we assumed it couldn't be exploited by insurgents or groups in the Middle East. What are our assumptions then about sophisticated, large-scale efforts funded by certain state powers on the Eurasian landmass "that shalt not be named"?
More importantly, not everyone is merely going to want to snoop, merely to learn what we know. Instead, we are entering an era of "battles of persuasion." In these, the goal is not to blow up the enemy's soldiers and weapons, as in traditional warfare, but to jam or disrupt their controls, change critical information they rely on to operate properly or even "persuade" them to do things contrary to the goals.
To use a Hollywood example, if Goose told Maverick in "Top Gun" to "recode all American F-14s fighters as Mig-29s," Tom Cruise would have just laughed his maniacal cackle and ignored him. A robotic Cruise would simply follow the instruction to recode the software and now view IceMan as a legitimate target to shoot down.
The U.S. military has responded to the reports with a mix of public calm and private consternation. Officials have said they are fixing the problem, such as by working to encrypt the video downlinks, and that this is a tempest in a teapot.
The first problem, though, is the scale. There are literally thousands of unmanned systems in the air (as well as the current ROVER models that only receive the unencrypted video feed) that will need to be retooled for encryption. This will be expensive and arduous, and all while the war goes on. There are also worries that layering the encryption on top of the system software will slow down the communications and make them hard for multiple users to access at once.
More important, though, is the ad-hoc, back-end nature of the response. It is far different from having your entire system design of both hardware and software take into account how to protect information efficiently but effectively, throughout the communications and operations chain.
The result could be that our patched systems may end up still less protected than the movies or video games you download at home on your DVR or X-Box.
The best explanation of this comes from arstechnica:
"Operating system vendors have built entire 'protected path' setups to guard audio and video all the way through the device chain. TVs and monitors now routinely use HDCP copy protection to secure their links over HDMI cables.
"Game consoles are packed with encryption schemes to prevent copied games from playing. Microsoft even goes out of its way to add encryption when Windows Media Center records unencrypted over-the-air TV content. Even the humble DVD, with its long-since-breached CSS encryption, offers more in the way of encryption."
In sum, unfortunately for would-be scriptwriters, the overall danger of this incident is certainly not up to the level of a Hollywood blockbuster. But, moving forward, it is also a bit worrisome for the rest of us that Hollywood had put more efforts into protecting the "Terminator" movies from illegal download than our military had in protecting its robotic systems at war today.
First is the growing use of unmanned systems, something I explore in my book "Wired for War." Just a few years ago, the U.S. military had no interest in unmanned systems. Indeed, when the U.S. invaded Iraq, we had only a handful of unmanned systems in the air and zero on the ground in the invasion force, none of them armed.
Today, we have more than 7,000 in the air, ranging from the 48-foot-long Predator to tiny ones that can fit in a backpack, and 12,000 on the ground, such as the Packbot and Talon systems that hunt down roadside bombs. Many of these systems are armed, giving new meaning to the term "killer app."
This 180-degree turn to robotics, however, often came in an ad-hoc manner. The back-end networks didn't perfectly fit with the wide variety of unmanned systems that were being plugged in.
Even more, the pressure was on to push the systems out as rapidly as possible, for very good reason. There was a war on, and these unmanned systems were proving to be far more useful to our troops than what the regular Pentagon acquisitions process had been providing.
One robotics company executive described how he couldn't even get his phone calls returned a few years ago. Now, he was told, "Make them as fast as you can."
Second, though, was a dash of arrogance. In not coming through the regular planning and purchasing system, many of the systems used proprietary software as well as commercial, off-the-shelf hardware. So many of the communications feeds going back and forth were poorly protected, and, in some cases, not even encrypted.
This was the case, for example, for some of the overhead surveillance video feeds that the unmanned systems were collecting and, in turn, beaming back both to command posts as well as to American patrols on the ground, who watch the feed off ROVER. (Akin to Dick Tracy's watch, this is a rugged video monitor a soldier can strap onto his or her arm or gear.)
The problem of the relatively open video feeds has been known for a while. Indeed, back during our operations in the Balkans, it was discovered that just about anyone in Eastern Europe with a satellite dish could watch live overhead footage of U.S. Special Operations forces going out on raids of suspected war criminals. One joker commented that it was harder to tap into the Disney Channel.
But the Pentagon assumed that foes in the Middle East wouldn't be smart enough to figure this out, and underestimated how quickly the technology to tap in to the feeds would advance, becoming cheaper and widely available. The problems were not fixed, and more and more of these relatively open systems were deployed.
Unfortunately, we all know what happens when we "assume" our enemies are dumb (they make something out of "u" and "me."). Using a $26 software package called Skygrabber, originally designed to allow customers to download movies and songs off the Internet (none of them pirated, of course), insurgents were able to tap into the various U.S. military video feeds, The Wall Street Journal reported. U.S. forces became aware of it after they captured a Shiite militia member in Iraq, whose laptop had files of the pirated footage saved on it.
To be clear, these insurgents were not able to take over control of the drones. They really weren't even doing "hacking" by the true meaning of the term. It was more like someone snooping in on a police radio scanner listening to unencrypted transmissions.
Some people used to listen to these scanners for entertainment, but for criminals, it proved useful to know what the police know and where they might be headed, which is why the police now encrypt these scanners.
Here too, it seems more likely the insurgents weren't watching themselves on the pirated video for amusement, but rather because the video feeds let them know what the U.S. military was monitoring. If I see that the U.S. military is watching a house with a station wagon out front, and I am sitting in a house with a station wagon out front, then I might well suspect that they are on to me.
This leads to the third trend -- the shifting domains of warfare. War is not merely about bullets and bombs, it is also becoming about bits and bytes. This was a relatively old security opening that wasn't fixed because we assumed it couldn't be exploited by insurgents or groups in the Middle East. What are our assumptions then about sophisticated, large-scale efforts funded by certain state powers on the Eurasian landmass "that shalt not be named"?
More importantly, not everyone is merely going to want to snoop, merely to learn what we know. Instead, we are entering an era of "battles of persuasion." In these, the goal is not to blow up the enemy's soldiers and weapons, as in traditional warfare, but to jam or disrupt their controls, change critical information they rely on to operate properly or even "persuade" them to do things contrary to the goals.
To use a Hollywood example, if Goose told Maverick in "Top Gun" to "recode all American F-14s fighters as Mig-29s," Tom Cruise would have just laughed his maniacal cackle and ignored him. A robotic Cruise would simply follow the instruction to recode the software and now view IceMan as a legitimate target to shoot down.
The U.S. military has responded to the reports with a mix of public calm and private consternation. Officials have said they are fixing the problem, such as by working to encrypt the video downlinks, and that this is a tempest in a teapot.
The first problem, though, is the scale. There are literally thousands of unmanned systems in the air (as well as the current ROVER models that only receive the unencrypted video feed) that will need to be retooled for encryption. This will be expensive and arduous, and all while the war goes on. There are also worries that layering the encryption on top of the system software will slow down the communications and make them hard for multiple users to access at once.
More important, though, is the ad-hoc, back-end nature of the response. It is far different from having your entire system design of both hardware and software take into account how to protect information efficiently but effectively, throughout the communications and operations chain.
The result could be that our patched systems may end up still less protected than the movies or video games you download at home on your DVR or X-Box.
The best explanation of this comes from arstechnica:
"Operating system vendors have built entire 'protected path' setups to guard audio and video all the way through the device chain. TVs and monitors now routinely use HDCP copy protection to secure their links over HDMI cables.
"Game consoles are packed with encryption schemes to prevent copied games from playing. Microsoft even goes out of its way to add encryption when Windows Media Center records unencrypted over-the-air TV content. Even the humble DVD, with its long-since-breached CSS encryption, offers more in the way of encryption."
In sum, unfortunately for would-be scriptwriters, the overall danger of this incident is certainly not up to the level of a Hollywood blockbuster. But, moving forward, it is also a bit worrisome for the rest of us that Hollywood had put more efforts into protecting the "Terminator" movies from illegal download than our military had in protecting its robotic systems at war today.
Art by Robert Gordon McHarg III
To celebrate the anniversary of Joe Strummer's death yesterday these signs were put up at Edgeware Road tube station in London the scene of many of his busking efforts.
GoTo Podcast 003: DubMyDub (December 2009)
Tracklist:
1. Revolutionary Dub Warriors – Irie Stepper (Adrian Sherwood Remix)
2. Jah Free – Casting Out
3. Full Frontal Dublotomy – Vulture Dub
4. Small Axe (aka The Ruts) – Target (Moat Mix; Unreleased Version)
5. Alpha & Omega – Big Up Dub
6. Iration Steppers – High Rise
7. Disciples – Prowling Lion
8. Alpha & Omega – Dub In The Ghetto
9. Iration Steppers – Scud Missile
10. Iration Steppas – International Footstep (Universal Mix)
11. Power Steppers – A Taste Of Bass
12. Michael Rose – No Burial (Manasseh Remix)
Tuesday 22 December 2009
This is out there
If ever there was a record designed to test if yr stereo is working...
But this is good, one thing that FL are never is pompous!
But this is good, one thing that FL are never is pompous!
Sympathy for the devil worshipers
It's taken more than a full decade for the most widely demonized and vilified music scene in rock history -- the Norwegian black metal scene of the early to mid-'90s -- to get anything close to a fair treatment in a documentary film. In truth, the job isn't finished yet. As crafty and compelling as Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell's "Until the Light Takes Us" is, it may go too far in its understandable desire to correct the bias and prejudice of mainstream journalism.
Black metal burst onto the international scene like an explosion of media catnip 16 or 17 years ago with a wave of church burnings in Norway and other Scandinavian countries that destroyed numerous historical landmarks, including the legendary Fantoft stave church, originally built in 1150. A few weeks after the fires started an articulate young musician named Varg Vikernes (aka Count Grishnackh, of the one-man band Burzum) discussed them with a reporter, suggesting that he knew who was responsible and elaborating a complicated litany of motives, from neo-paganism and anti-Christianity to Nordic nationalism and anti-Americanism.
Vikernes was immediately arrested and almost as quickly released; indeed, while he was later convicted of many other crimes, it remains unclear whether he started the Fantoft fire. Nonetheless, all his erudite self-taught ideology, much of it crazy but a lot of it surprisingly insightful, got almost instantly boiled down to one concept: Vikernes was a Satanist, and he and his fellow devil-worshipers were running amok in northern Europe.
This turned Oslo's tiny black metal scene -- three or four bands, a storefront and a basement record company -- into Pop Culture Public Enemy No. 1 and, of course, made millions of teenagers around the world yearn to sign up, without the slightest idea what they were signing up for. Copycat church attacks followed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, often accompanied with spray-painted pentacles and 666's and so forth, and whatever had once been distinctive about the Norwegian scene just became, in Vikernes' words, "a bunch of brain-dead heavy-metal guys."
But as Aites and Ewell's film reveals -- the two American filmmakers moved to Norway for several years to gain the trust of their subjects -- both the music and the ideology of black metal were always more interesting than that summary suggests. With its emphasis on coldness, darkness and hardness and its Nordic, often symphonic sense of space, the music of Vikernes' Burzum and such bands as Mayhem, Gorgoroth, Darkthrone and Satyricon is surprisingly varied and weird, and often doesn't sound much like rock at all.
Interweaving grainy home videos of early Oslo live shows and interviews with survivors of the scene (at least two of whom appear anonymously), Aites and Ewell depict a vibrant, adventurous and often ghoulishly self-destructive world, where conversations about the negative effects of Christianity, American-style democracy, NATO and commercial globalization sometimes blended into outright nihilism. Even before the church burnings began, Mayhem vocalist Pelle Ohlin (aka "Dead") lived up to his nickname by literally blowing his brains out with a shotgun. Before calling the police, one bandmate snapped a notorious photo of Ohlin's mutilated corpse, which later appeared on the cover of the Mayhem live album "Dawn of the Black Hearts." (Seriously, don't click that link unless you're sure you want to see it.)
If you believe the testimony of Vikernes, Darkthrone drummer Gylve Nagell (aka Fenriz) and Satyricon drummer Kjetil Haraldstad (aka Frost), no one in black metal ever wanted to get famous or reach a mass audience, let alone spark an international trend of kids in corpse paint and black overcoats. Against the changed landscape of multicultural 21st-century Europe, musicians like Fenriz and Frost -- who were never directly involved with Vikernes' quasi-terrorist campaign -- seem semi-reconciled to their fate as professional entertainers, scraping out a living deep into middle age from the stylized remnants of adolescent pain and anger.
Neither of those guys, likable and wounded characters that they are, has the star power or philosophical depth of Vikernes, whom the filmmakers interviewed extensively in the relatively posh surroundings of his Norwegian prison cell. (Vikernes was released last May, after "Until the Light Takes Us" was completed.) With a tidy little goatee and a short jailhouse haircut, he looks like an unusually gym-toned specimen of late-30s academic. Loquacious and funny, he discourses at length, and in excellent idiomatic English, on the many crimes of Christianity and American-style commercial capitalism, which he blames for uprooting indigenous religious cultures not just in the Nordic countries but all over the world. He makes the church fires sound almost innocuous, a slightly overzealous effort to make the public "wake up" to the evils of mainstream religion.
That's all fascinating as far as it goes, but to some degree Vikernes is playing his liberal American guests, coming off as a Robin Hood combination of anti-globalization activist, Situationist intellectual and neo-Norse acolyte of Odin and Thor. In fairness, Aites and Ewell pull back the curtain on Vikernes little by little, revealing first why he spent so long in prison (for a gruesome crime whose details he recounts without emotion) and then the precise nature of his objections to Christianity. Its repression of women and gay people? Um, not exactly. Its crushing of open dissent and heresy? Its toadying to despots of all stripes? No and no. But the fact that Christianity is a historical offshoot of Judaism -- now that's a problem.
Do Aites and Ewell owe the viewership a clearer explication of Vikernes' ties to white nationalist groups, his long record of troubling racial, sexual and religious rhetoric and his public flirtation with Nazi ideology? You won't learn this in the film, for instance, but Vikernes is viewed as the philosophical father of the musical-political subgenre called "National Socialist black metal," or NSBM. Or is it fairer to this disturbing and complicated figure to present him on his own terms, without recourse to prejudicial buzzwords? (For the record, Vikernes has not called himself a Nazi since the late '90s, preferring the invented term "Odalism," said to signify "paganism, traditional nationalism, racialism and environmentalism," along with an opposition to modern civilization in all its forms.)
I can see both sides of the argument, and I've long been interested in the "Ezra Pound problem," meaning the tendency of underground aesthetic rebels to become enmeshed in noxious political ideologies. Maybe it doesn't invalidate Vikernes' music in particular (his forthcoming post-prison album was originally to be called "The White God") or the entire anti-modernist, atavistic spirit of black metal to observe that it comes with some heavy and evil-smelling baggage. But I suspect it's worth, you know, actually noticing and talking about.
Varg Vikernes going around in circles trying to explain the name change of his upcoming album from 'The White God' to 'Belus'
West should allow Iran to solve its own problems, says opposition leader
President Ahmadinejad has betrayed the Iranian Revolution, violated the country’s Constitution and may be unable to serve his full term, his most vocal opposition rival has told The Times.
In a surprising twist, however, Mehdi Karroubi warned the West against exploiting the regime’s weakness to strike a deal to halt a nuclear programme that was, he insisted, for peaceful purposes.
“Nuclear science and achieving peaceful nuclear technology is a right reserved for all NPT [Nuclear Proliferation Treaty] members,” he said. “We ask Western governments not to use this internal situation as a bargaining chip with the present Iranian Government to reach agreements which would undermine the rights of the Iranian people.”
He also urged the West against trying to help the opposition in its battle against the regime, saying that such efforts would “pave the way for suppression and accusations of dependency on foreigners”. He added: “The challenges in this country should be solved by its own peopl
Like Ayatollah Montazeri he is a man of stature. A dissident cleric who was imprisoned repeatedly by the Shah, Mr Karroubi went on to become an important figure in the revolution, a close confidant of Ayatollah Kho- meini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, and Speaker of the Iranian parliament.
He has rebuffed the regime’s best efforts to silence and intimidate him. It has raided his offices, closed his newspaper and arrested his aides. He has been denounced by the statecontrolled media, threatened with prosecution and attacked by government agents during street protests.
When The Times asked if he feared for his safety, however, he replied: “No. Is a fish afraid of water?” He said that he was doing his “national, legal and religious duty” and added: “I am ready to pay all the costs for that.”
Responding to written questions, Mr Karroubi mocked the regime’s charge that the opposition was guilty of sedition. He said that it was the regime that was hijacking the revolution. Mr Karroubi declared: “In today’s Iran, republicanism and Islamism are severely damaged and a lot of the revolution’s principles and the Imam’s \ have been undermined.”
The people had lost the right to make their own decisions. The military now controlled politics, the economy and even cultural affairs. The rape and torture of detainees were shameful spots on Iranian and Islamic culture. “If the Imam were alive, without doubt this would not have happened,” he said. “As one of the Imam’s students and close friends I frankly say that those who claim to act on his thoughts had the least personal, emotional and intellectual closeness to him.”
The opposition will stage further demonstrations this week to mark the religious festival of Muharram, and Mr Karroubi insisted that the movement remained strong, with support in towns as well as cities and which spanned the social classes. Taunting the regime, Mr Karroubi suggested that both camps should be allowed to bring their supporters on to the streets to see which really had the people’s support. “Where are their 25 million backers?” he asked. “We cannot see them.”
Asked whether Mr Ahmadinejad could serve his full second term, Mr Karroubi said that even the present conservative-controlled parliament would have impeached the President had he not controlled the security forces. He had insulted Iran’s culture and religious beliefs, brought its relations with the world to their lowest ebb, damaged the economy, closed critical newspapers without due process and presided over deepening corruption and illegal military encroachment on economic affairs.
“Under such circumstances the Government cannot represent the people and last for a long time,” he said.
Ahmadinejad denies Iran nuclear bomb trigger tests
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said a document apparently showing that Tehran plans to test a trigger for a nuclear bomb is a US forgery.In an interview filmed on Friday with ABC News, Mr Ahmadinejad said the report in the Times newspaper was "fundamentally not true".
Mr Ahmadinejad said criticism of Iran's nuclear programme had become "a repetitive and tasteless joke".
Iran says its nuclear enrichment programme is for peaceful purposes.
The BBC's Jane O'Brien in Washington says the interview offered a rare opportunity to see Iranian leader being questioned by the US media.
But Mr Ahmadinejad's answers gave little indication that his administration is moving towards more conciliatory position, says our correspondent.
'Fabricated papers'
The Times reported last week that it had obtained a document, dating from 2007, describing a four-year plan by Iran to test a nuclear trigger using uranium deuteride.
The product can be used as a neutron initiator: the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion.
In his first public response to the report, Mr Ahmadinejad said the accusations were "fundamentally not true".
He dismissed the documents, saying: "They are all a fabricated bunch of papers continuously being forged and disseminated by the American government."
When asked if there would "be no nuclear weapon in Iran, ever", Mr Ahmadinejad said his view was already known.
"You should say something only once. We have said once that we don't want a nuclear bomb. We don't accept it."
'Bullying'
Iran is already subject to three sets of UN sanctions for its refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment programme.
It is at risk of further sanctions after it rejected a deal to send low-enriched uranium abroad to be refined into fuel for a research reactor.
Mr Ahmadinejad said Iran would welcome talks "under fair conditions".
"We don't welcome confrontation, but we don't surrender to bullying either," he said.
"If you are saying you are going to impose sanctions, then go and do it."
Mr Ahmadinejad also rejected criticism of Iran's human rights situation and allegations of mass arrests following the elections which returned him to office in June.
"These things have to do with the judiciary. We have good laws. There is the judge. These people have got lawyers. These are not political questions."
He said people in Iran had more freedom than in the US.
The ABC interview took place before the latest protests held at the funeral of the influential dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Montazeri.
Iran says its uranium enrichment programme is for purely peaceful purposes, aimed at generating electricity so that it can export more gas and oil.
But the US and its allies say it could be used to develop weapons.
Mr Ahmadinejad said criticism of Iran's nuclear programme had become "a repetitive and tasteless joke".
Iran says its nuclear enrichment programme is for peaceful purposes.
The BBC's Jane O'Brien in Washington says the interview offered a rare opportunity to see Iranian leader being questioned by the US media.
But Mr Ahmadinejad's answers gave little indication that his administration is moving towards more conciliatory position, says our correspondent.
'Fabricated papers'
The Times reported last week that it had obtained a document, dating from 2007, describing a four-year plan by Iran to test a nuclear trigger using uranium deuteride.
The product can be used as a neutron initiator: the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion.
In his first public response to the report, Mr Ahmadinejad said the accusations were "fundamentally not true".
He dismissed the documents, saying: "They are all a fabricated bunch of papers continuously being forged and disseminated by the American government."
When asked if there would "be no nuclear weapon in Iran, ever", Mr Ahmadinejad said his view was already known.
"You should say something only once. We have said once that we don't want a nuclear bomb. We don't accept it."
'Bullying'
Iran is already subject to three sets of UN sanctions for its refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment programme.
 Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment plant (image: DigitalGlobe) |
Mr Ahmadinejad said Iran would welcome talks "under fair conditions".
"We don't welcome confrontation, but we don't surrender to bullying either," he said.
"If you are saying you are going to impose sanctions, then go and do it."
Mr Ahmadinejad also rejected criticism of Iran's human rights situation and allegations of mass arrests following the elections which returned him to office in June.
"These things have to do with the judiciary. We have good laws. There is the judge. These people have got lawyers. These are not political questions."
He said people in Iran had more freedom than in the US.
The ABC interview took place before the latest protests held at the funeral of the influential dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Montazeri.
Iran says its uranium enrichment programme is for purely peaceful purposes, aimed at generating electricity so that it can export more gas and oil.
But the US and its allies say it could be used to develop weapons.
Briton's death sentence upheld by China's supreme court
Akmal Shaikh, 53, from Kentish Town, north London, will be put to death on 29 December after a Chinese court convicted him of heroin smuggling.
In a last-ditch bid to halt the execution ‑ which will either be by firing squad or lethal injection ‑ Gordon Brown is expected to plead directly with the Chinese government for leniency this week, the Guardian understands.
Shaikh's supporters had hoped the possibility that he suffers from a mental illness would help persuade China's supreme court to show leniency. But yesterday it refused the appeal from the father-of-three, plunging Britain and China into a diplomatic row.
In a statement the Foreign Office said it was "deeply concerned" at the news and behind the scenes UK officials were considering what options they had. Brown has already asked for the death sentence to be commuted, only to have his appeal rebuffed by China's supreme court.
Shaikh was convicted in November 2008 of drug smuggling and sentenced to death. He was originally arrested in September 2007 in Urumqi, north-west China. His legal team say they have unearthed evidence that he was suffering from a mental illness, namely a bipolar disorder, which may have caused his strange behaviour...
This guy is obviously 'delusional', he was flying out to meet people who were going to make him a pop star!
Bugger...
Now 'Extra Music New' has gone private again...they asked for e/mail addresses a while ago but I never heard back...
Basij attack Montazeri's house
Tens of thousands of mourners attended the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the religious leader of Iran's opposition movement, and many turned it into an anti-government protest, marred by sporadic violence, according to reports from the Shiite Muslim holy city of Qom.
Groups of vigilantes clashed with several of the mourners, and both groups threw stones and other objects at each other, witnesses and opposition Web sites reported. The reports could not be independently verified. Authorities denied foreign correspondents permission to travel to Qom, which is about 90 miles south of Tehran.
About 100 members of the pro-government Basij militia attacked the house of the late ayatollah and tore up a banner displaying his portrait, his son Saeed Montazeri said in a telephone interview from Qom.
"They attacked, they lost all control," Montazeri said, calling from the house. "They started to throw stones at people and tore down the mourning banner of my father."
Montazeri said that after the attack he saw several wounded people. "The huge crowds in the funeral kept them from taking over," he said...
Monday 21 December 2009
Reports that Basijis tore pictures of Montazeri. Were stopped by other Sec. Forces from attacking mourners #IranElection
Iran continued...
1010 GMT: Andisheh-ye No (New Thought), one of five papers warned this weekend for not paying due attention to “large” pro-Government rallies on Friday has been banned from publishing. 1005 GMT: Iran Mediawatch. It looks like Mehr News has defied the Government command to ignore the crowds for Montazeri. It has photos of the gathering and of prominent figures paying condolences. It may be a sign of demand for confirmation of events or, alternatively, Internet restrictions in Iran that Mehr’s website appears to be overloaded.
0940 GMT: Images of Mourning. Photos have been posted of Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi paying their respects inside the Montazeri house. We have also posted the first videos of mass demonstrations in Qom and Najafabad.
0910 GMT: Press TV just posted a short report on the funeral of “leading clerical figure Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri”. It mentions the Supreme Leader’s condolences, omitting the criticisms of Montazeri.
There is no mention, however, of the crowds in Qom.
0905 GMT: The View from the Other Site — Montazeri & “Terrorists”. One of the few remarks from an Iran-based commentator in non-Iranian media is in Al Jazeera English’s coverage. It comes from Tehran University academic Seyed Mohammad Marandi:
ILNA also emphasises, via the word of Montazeri’s doctor, that the cleric died of natural causes.
0850 GMT: New Entries. We have posted the video and translation of an interview given by Grand Ayatollah Montazeri’s son Saeed yesterday on his father’s last words and views: “I think one of the main reasons [for his death] was his grief for the post-election events which troubled my father a lot.”
And, on another front, we have posted a view from Tehran of the current Iranian position in the nuclear talks with the “West” and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
0940 GMT: Images of Mourning. Photos have been posted of Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi paying their respects inside the Montazeri house. We have also posted the first videos of mass demonstrations in Qom and Najafabad.
0910 GMT: Press TV just posted a short report on the funeral of “leading clerical figure Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri”. It mentions the Supreme Leader’s condolences, omitting the criticisms of Montazeri.
0905 GMT: The View from the Other Site — Montazeri & “Terrorists”. One of the few remarks from an Iran-based commentator in non-Iranian media is in Al Jazeera English’s coverage. It comes from Tehran University academic Seyed Mohammad Marandi:
[Montazeri said] the same thing for around 25 years….After his inner circle was discovered to be linked to Mujahidin terrorists based in Iraq, he was isolated by the reformists….He is not a major player and has always been very critical.0855 GMT: Iranian Mediawatch. Press TV’s website has nothing on the funeral (now see 910 GMT). The Iranian Labor News Agency’s English site has a short item that “thousands of mourners converged” on Qom and that Mir Hossein Mousavi attended. ILNA also uses the title “Ayatollah” for Montazeri, who was “one of the leaders of the 1979 Iranian Revolution along with the founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini”.
0850 GMT: New Entries. We have posted the video and translation of an interview given by Grand Ayatollah Montazeri’s son Saeed yesterday on his father’s last words and views: “I think one of the main reasons [for his death] was his grief for the post-election events which troubled my father a lot.”
And, on another front, we have posted a view from Tehran of the current Iranian position in the nuclear talks with the “West” and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Police in Poland find sign stolen from Auschwitz gate
The "Arbeit macht frei" sign stolen from Auschwitz in southern Poland has been found in the north and five men have been arrested, police say.
They said the metal sign from the main gate, which symbolises for many the atrocities of Nazi Germany, had been cut into three pieces.
A major search was launched after the sign was stolen before dawn on Friday.
Its theft, the motive for which was not being reported, caused outrage in Israel and among Polish politicians.
Five men in their 20s or 30s were detained and were being taken to Krakow for questioning, a police spokeswoman said...
The latest from Iran
0840 GMT: Mir Hossein Mousavi’s Kalemeh, in a long report on the funeral, confirms that both Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi were in the procession. 0810 GMT: Montazeri’s son has asked the crowd to quiet their chants, but the protests continue.
0805 GMT: Mediawatch. The Montazeri ceremonies/protests are now the lead item on the BBC, with Jon Leyne providing an excellent summary both of today’s gathering and of attempted Government restrictions. Leyne says that Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi were in the funeral procession, a claim that we have been unable to confirm.
0735 GMT: With security forces apparently trying to move people from the Shrine, crowds are moving about Qom, with many reportedly headed toward Montazeri’s house.
0730 GMT: The doors of the Masoumeh Shrine have been closed because of the size of the crowd.
0720 GMT: Numerous reports of the crowd’s mourning turning into a protest with chants against the Government and even the Supreme Leader.
0657 GMT: It appears the ceremony proceeded more quickly than we first reported (0615 GMT). Reports now that Montazeri has been buried in the Massoumeh Shrine.
0650 GMT: The article in Time from Robin Wright, one of the best US-based journalists on Iran, is to the point: “Iran’s Opposition Loses a Mentor But Gains a Martyr”.
0643 GMT: Josh Shahryar has posted a tribute, “Good Bye Montazeri, You Will Be Missed”: “The struggle for freedom, human rights and justice will continue. If we’ve learned anything in the past six months it is that the Iranian people’s desire for change will not die with the death of an individual – no matter how important that individual may be.”
0640 GMT: Ayatollah Shobeiri-Zanjani is now leading prayers.
0630 GMT: A LiveBlog from Qom is claiming “hundreds of thousands” are now in the streets. Reported chant: “Montazeri is not dead; the Government is dead.”
0615 GMT (0945 Tehran & Qom): The mourning ceremonies for Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri began about 30 minutes ago in Qom, with his body being taken from his house to the Imam Hassan mosque. In about 45 minutes, the procession will move from the mosque to the Masoumeh Shrine. There are reports, despite Government efforts to limit or prevent attendance, tens of thousands have lined the route.
As well as the reported orders from the regime to Iranian newspapers to prohibit his photograph on front pages, to ignore Montazeri’s political significance and emphasise the 1989 incident that led to his dismissal as Ayatollah Khomeini’s successor, the Government is jamming BBC Persian.
0805 GMT: Mediawatch. The Montazeri ceremonies/protests are now the lead item on the BBC, with Jon Leyne providing an excellent summary both of today’s gathering and of attempted Government restrictions. Leyne says that Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi were in the funeral procession, a claim that we have been unable to confirm.
0735 GMT: With security forces apparently trying to move people from the Shrine, crowds are moving about Qom, with many reportedly headed toward Montazeri’s house.
0730 GMT: The doors of the Masoumeh Shrine have been closed because of the size of the crowd.
0720 GMT: Numerous reports of the crowd’s mourning turning into a protest with chants against the Government and even the Supreme Leader.
0657 GMT: It appears the ceremony proceeded more quickly than we first reported (0615 GMT). Reports now that Montazeri has been buried in the Massoumeh Shrine.
0650 GMT: The article in Time from Robin Wright, one of the best US-based journalists on Iran, is to the point: “Iran’s Opposition Loses a Mentor But Gains a Martyr”.0643 GMT: Josh Shahryar has posted a tribute, “Good Bye Montazeri, You Will Be Missed”: “The struggle for freedom, human rights and justice will continue. If we’ve learned anything in the past six months it is that the Iranian people’s desire for change will not die with the death of an individual – no matter how important that individual may be.”
0640 GMT: Ayatollah Shobeiri-Zanjani is now leading prayers.
0630 GMT: A LiveBlog from Qom is claiming “hundreds of thousands” are now in the streets. Reported chant: “Montazeri is not dead; the Government is dead.”
0615 GMT (0945 Tehran & Qom): The mourning ceremonies for Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri began about 30 minutes ago in Qom, with his body being taken from his house to the Imam Hassan mosque. In about 45 minutes, the procession will move from the mosque to the Masoumeh Shrine. There are reports, despite Government efforts to limit or prevent attendance, tens of thousands have lined the route.
As well as the reported orders from the regime to Iranian newspapers to prohibit his photograph on front pages, to ignore Montazeri’s political significance and emphasise the 1989 incident that led to his dismissal as Ayatollah Khomeini’s successor, the Government is jamming BBC Persian.
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