Friday 24 January 2003

Minneapolis Star Tribune
'Mark Walker Jr.,16, in Blue Earth Minneapolis, had to sit through three city council meetings to get a permit to demonstrate his opposition to a war with Iraq.

He plans to spend 24 hours this weekend speaking, handing out leaflets and sleeping in a box at a downtown intersection.

A CURFEW LAW SAYS PEOPLE UNDER 18 HAVE TO BE OFF THE STREETS BY MIDNIGHT, but Walker read the law carefully and found that it doesn't apply in cases where young people are out late to exercise rights protected by the U.S. Constitution."

"This is something you don't normally see in a small town," Mayor Rob Hammond said, sounding both nervous and amused. "This is the first demonstration we've ever had."
LIVE PERFORMANCE

the uk Government is proposing a bill containing provisions that will have a serious impact on all branches of the performing arts, both amateur and professional.

All premises in which performing arts activities take place will require a licence from the local authority. No costs have been revealed, but licences will be granted only after inspection by the police, fire authority, health and safety inspectors and consultation with local residents and interest groups, so the cost will be far from nominal. At present a license for a pub can be anywhere between £100 and £3,000 depending on where in the country.

Churches, schools, village halls, pubs, restaurants, even private houses (hello to all you 'living room theatre' projects) will have to be licensed if used for performance events, whether they take place frequently or only occasionally. Performances for members of clubs or for charitable purposes are also subject to this legislation, as are recording studios and premises used for rehearsals.

Any performance in unlicensed premises will be a criminal offence, punishable by a large fine and costs, or a prison sentence.
(via uk indymedia)
BOLLOCKS

the phone went dead last night, very shortly after the previous post.

so the water was on, but the phone was off.

this morning the dial tone is back. i haven't been able to phone out since wednesday, i guess they want some money from me, but i can go online at least. meanwhile my £80 a fortnight (after any automatic debt reductions) state living allowance hasn't arrived today.

so web access back, but no money. coming soon ... no electric, theres just 13 pence left in the meter.

Thursday 23 January 2003

WATER

the water is back on in the toilet and bathroom. no more filling a bucket to flush with. no more lugging the dirty stinking dishes out of the kitchen sink in order to wash my face.
THE ART OF INTERRUPTION
the 20th century marriage between political-social commitment and artistic experiment.

"Kafka's stories begin with the banal of everyday. These events and experiences are excessively ordinary and the writing is blank....It is not simply the events that are banal, but the writing of them is banal....It is a writing which strives for nothing. These stories, literally, go nowhere.... Unable to identify even the most common things, can cause a loss of self-identity. It is not knowing where you are, a displacement without a system to guide you, or boundaries to confine you. The writing does not approach meaning nor does it accept it."

The art of stalking.
"A socially committed art, which can be "read", tends to be realistic and strives to state a meaning and render a significance. An art committed to itself is less easily "read", tends not to be realistic, confounds meaning and disturbs significance. This art has tended to be associated with the modern and the avant-garde. Realism, on the other hand, has been confined to an antique, no longer relevant and Positivist tradition."

The Myth of Liberation, Illusion of Control
"Cyberspace is very often presented as a place of freedom. Freedom is considered as a natural quality of the Net and cyberspace. The only thing to be done is to defend freedom, to protect this natural state of cyberspace. Such an opinion is contradicted with another concept saying that wherever and whenever we have to do with plurality of groups, interests and policies, we also face the struggle for power and all consequences of it. According to this opinion there is no freedom on the Net but only wars."

Leni, Walt and Walter: Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaften
(by Esther Leslie)
mid 20th century american animation :  "The avant-garde temporality, a time of interruption / confounded linearity / moments, is abolished in favour of narrative / logic / development and closure".

interruption: "a 20th century avant-garde strategy of fragmentation designed to defeat a given continuity's ideological effect." (robert b ray)
TRANSHUMAN

In 1999, with help from such contributors as Nick Bostrom, David Pearce, Max More, Anders Sandberg, and Kathryn Aegis, the WTA compiled the Transhumanist Declaration. It declares the following:

Humanity will be radically changed by technology in the future. We foresee the feasibility of redesigning the human condition, including such parameters as the inevitability of aging, limitations on human and artificial intellects, unchosen psychology, suffering, and our confinement to the planet earth.

Systematic research should be put into understanding these coming developments and their long-term consequences.

Transhumanists think that by being generally open and embracing of new technology we have a better chance of turning it to our advantage than if we try to ban or prohibit it.

Transhumanists advocate the moral right for those who so wish to use technology to extend their mental and physical capacities and to improve their control over their own lives. We seek personal growth beyond our current biological limitations.

In planning for the future, it is mandatory to take into account the prospect of dramatic technological progress. It would be tragic if the potential benefits failed to materialize because of ill-motivated technophobia and unnecessary prohibitions. On the other hand, it would also be tragic if intelligent life went extinct because of some disaster or war involving advanced technologies.

We need to create forums where people can rationally debate what needs to be done, and a social order where responsible decisions can be implemented.

Transhumanism advocates the well-being of all sentience (whether in artificial intellects, humans, nonhuman animals, or possible extraterrestrial species) and encompasses many principles of modern secular humanism. Transhumanism does not support any particular party, politician or political platform.

Wednesday 22 January 2003

Ferragus

In the medieval prose romance Valentine and Orson, the giant of Portugal. In his castle he kept the great Brazen Head, that told those who consulted it whatever they required to know.
the 18th-century quest for 'artificial life'
BY ETIENNE BENSON

a-life games

A-Life Avatars
Nobody walking along the pavement

I looked out of the window. There was no-one walking along the pavement. All of the people must have been somewhere else. The next time I looked out of the window the pavement was still deserted.
NO WATER

since friday our flats in this part of the block have had no water from the bathroom taps or the toilet flush. i've been getting buckets from the kitchen tap to flush with.

tonight theres no water at all.

Tuesday 21 January 2003



THE WORD SPY

solar guerrilla
(SOH.lur guh.ril.uh) n. A person who uses an alternative energy source such as solar power to illegally direct electricity back to the public utility grid.

celebreality
(suh.LEB.ree.al.uh.tee) n. The real life of a celebrity; a TV show format in which one or more celebrities participate in real-life situations

supersoap
(SOO.pur.sohp) n. A soap that coats the skin with a thin film designed to ward off bacteria

grandboomer
(GRAND.boo.mur) n. A grandparent who is a part of the baby boom generation.
VIA...

via my analog life:

TV jargon: 'Anticipointment',
"What viewers experience when you fall short of their expectations after over-promoting a story or show."

"The world's first truly artificial organism has been engineered by researchers in California. The bacterium makes an amino acid that no other organism uses to build proteins."

"Iraq has blocked access to e-mail following an electronic campaign by the US urging key military and civilian figures to turn against President Saddam Hussein."

"Within a year you could be able to "touch" someone over your mobile phone."

via anglepoised.com:

sample pages of David Shrigley's new(ish) book, Human Achievement

via link machine go

Excerpt from A Box of Matches by Nicholson Baker
LINK SWARM

spiked
the memory hole
reporters without borders

south america daily
JAPAN TIMES
usAfrica Online

Damn foreigner
Mid east log
Veiled 4 Allah

FRONTPAGES
what really happened
THE PAPERBOY

LINK MACHINE GO
PLASTICBAG
GREEN FAIRY
on this day 1950

George Orwell died
When the judgement's weak,
The prejudice is strong.

(Kane O'Hara)

Monday 20 January 2003

HOMO TECHNICUS

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling

(Yeats's "Sailing to Byzantium,")
THE SECRET HOUSE
"....Gradually (they) realised that the 'rare earths' were poorly named. They were not rare at all. Yttrium, the first of them all to be found, and used now as the red phosphor in your color tv, is more abundant than lead. Nor are they specifically earths: traces of the same yttrium as in your tv have been measured on the moon and in the sun...."
david Bodanis
WALKING CITY,
"If 'Walking City' is the heroic statement of mobilised architecture it represents but the most magnificent audacity of a series of Archigram projects that constantly revolve around flexing, moving, transferring. The origins of this concern are almost certainly related to the overall idea of 'fragmentation'. Making a building like a car, or de-solidifying the 'total element' are allied manoeuvres."
Walking City, Ron Herron 1964
'concerning Archigram' edited by Dennis Crompton, Archigram Archives 1999
THE SECRET HOUSE
"....there is a warehouse of (diversity) floating in the air in our homes, 3000,000 or more in every cubic foot, held up by the patterning air molecules around them.

These include the asbestos spikes, the micro insect limbs, the spherical chemical ash, the tire meltings, shiney cadmium blobs, sea salt, skin flakes, equatorial sand and all the rest of what we nonchalantly lump together as dust.

"the particles take hours or even weeks to descend, but with the constant nudge of gravity fall they eventually must, an eternal internal rain, on our heads, tables, chairs, books, desks, lamps, clothes, shoes, and the largest surface of all in the house, on our floors...."
david Bodanis
"Cyber-architecture is space-time collapsed, beyond recognition, in so far as moving from one place/enclosure to another does not require the physical space-time journey.

The physical manifestation exist only as electrons & the transceivers used in order for the user to exist within it, and the concerns are moved from the practical and economy to expression of intentions, interests and thoughts.

It represents the design of experiences rather than objects, a paradigm shift in architectural consciousness."
(Kambiz Memarzia)
'I'd rather be a cyborg than a goddess'
(-- Donna Haraway)

Sunday 19 January 2003

Clicking on some links

Whilst surfing the internet I happened upon a page which had a number of links on it. I clicked on one and was taken to another page. This had several links on it too, so I clicked on one and continued my surfing.
THE BIGGEST THREAT TO WORLD PEACE

TIME asks you: Which country poses the greatest danger to world peace in 2003?

Total Votes Cast so far: 201520

North Korea 8.5 %
Iraq 9.9 %
The United States 81.6 %

(via plastic bag.org)
Fifinella

A female of the Gremlin family who tickled fighter pilots and bombardiers just as their sights were lined up for a good run.


Naked Peace Protest, Forest Row

last week, jan 12, naked protestors in Ashdown forest, east sussex, uk, formed the word "peace" with their bodies. in opposition to attacks on iraq. bare witness site

meanwhile...

Naked Protest, antarctica

in Antarctica, McMurdo Station, Ross Island January 9, 2003:
"After a Not In Our Name gathering in October we were warned that anyone who organizes a protest demonstration will be fired and anyone who attempts to organize a union will be fired. The McMurdo Station Manager eventually told us that if we do anything of the sort, we must not give any impression that the National Science Foundation supported us in any way: No buildings, vehicles, or infrastructure could be in any of our photos. When asked about ECW, the extreme cold weather gear we are issued, he told us we were not permitted to wear it in any photos we take. So we decided to have this Naked Demonstration, entirely content free but conveying our strong feelings about an undisclosed issue. It was pretty chilly that day, and not just because of the weather."
(via baring witness)

naked protest photo archive:
london 2000-2001
cancun
picadilly circus 2001
glastonbury 2000
j18 99
naked protest

naked protest guardian newspaper archives:
fri 5 jan 01. "letter from prison"
thurs 11 jan o1. "crown trial"
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel

Shackled to their beds

On Saturday, 11 January 2003, two Palestinian children were injured following what Israeli security forces officials are calling an infiltration into a Gaza settlement. The eldest, Muhammad Hamis Ismael al-Hanjara, aged 16, and his brother, Ahmed Hamis Ismael al-Hanjara, aged 13, were then shot at by a settler who carried an M-16 rifle. Both suffered gunshot injuries. The two minors were brought to Saroqa hospital in Be'er Sheva, Israel, and currently remain hospitalized.

A PHR-Israel inquiry found out that both children are shackled to their beds in the hospital. PHR-Israel turned to the hospital director requesting he demands the removal of the shackles from the children. PHR-Israel believes that shackling should only be used to prevent physical harm of a person or medical staff.

In this case there is no known information stating that the children present a risk to anyone.

Additionally, PHR-Israel has learned that the children are being interrogated by a regular investigator and not by a youth investigator. PHR-Israel assumes that the children are most likely under enormous stress following this ordeal and an investigator who is trained to deal with youths should be conducting all interrogations.

PHR-Israel has turned to the IDF spokesmen office demanding that the children will be allowed contact to their parents, that they shall not be shackled to their beds and that they will be investigated by trained youth investigator. PHR-Israel has hired lawyers to help advocate for the children. PHR-Israel will continue its active involvement in the issue.

(via arabic media internet network)
CHINA

Chinese bloggers furious as government blocks access to their weblogs

http://pekingduck.blogspot.com/: "The bad news is that the blogspot ban, now well into its third day, continues, so I can only hope this stuff is actually appearing after I click the Post & Publish button. (A couple of my friends have assured me it's appearing, but you know how possessive and loving we are about our blogs.)"
"the enemy"

the eatonweb portal mistakenly lists 'blogs of war' as being similar to mine.

aside from blogs-of-war's xenophobic, tiny-minded, dribble n grunt posts, it has links ranked under such headings as 'warbloggers', 'allies', 'intelligence' (which includes 'fox news'.... no don't laugh), and the following list which he classifies as 'hostiles':

Indy Media
WarBlogger Watch
ANSWER
Michael Moore
Raise the Fist
PETA
ELF
United for Peace
American Samizdat
The One True Bix
Stand Down
semicircular monitor

"Starkweather has found that using a semicircular monitor three times as wide as the standard one can improve people's productivity, allowing them to take advantage of their peripheral vision and to spend less time opening and closing different windows."

"Improved productivity is a classic red herring. Reconnecting with our peripheral vision abilities just might utilize parts of our minds that have been going underutilized. Give me total sensory immersion!"
(via my analog life)
ON THE TELLY

last week someone on the richard and judy show said, "the internet has opened up a dark door."
THE RESURECTION

BUFFY
the first evil has something to say.

CHRIST
a message from jesus
"The priest rules through the invention of sin." --Nietzsche (The Anti-Christ)