Friday 31 October 2003

liberty

since the uk Terrorism Act 2000, and the post sept 11 Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act, nine people remain in detention. These people have not been charged with any offence, nor it seems are they likely to be. They do not know when their detention will cease.
Campaigners lose anti-terrorism law challenge

Civil rights campaigners have lost their bid for a High Court ruling that anti-terrorism laws were used unlawfully by police to stop and search ordinairy demonstrators at an arms fair.

predictably Lord Justice Brooke and Mr Justice Kay said in a joint judgment that the use of the random stop-and-search powers and any resulting violation of human rights was justified in the light of the threat of terrorism.

Thursday 30 October 2003

pathetic insecure male contestants in transsexual show to sue Sky

Six sad men are suing Sky TV after they took part in a reality TV show in which they competed to win the affections of a beautiful woman - who later turned out to be a man waiting for a sex-change operation.

The men claim they were tricked into kissing, cuddling and holding hands with the "woman", Miriam, and say it was only after three weeks of filming that they were told she was male. While viewers know from the start that Miriam is a male-to-female transsexual.

One contestant was so furious he is said to have punched the show's producer when he found out.
on this day 1981

Euthanasia chief jailed over suicides

The secretary of the UK's pro-euthanasia group Exit was jailed for two and a half years for aiding and abetting suicide.

Nicholas Reed was found guilty on three counts of aiding and abetting suicide and one of conspiracy to aid and abet.

Mark Lyons, 70, Mr Reed's co-accused and the man who helped people commit suicide by providing pills and alcohol was given a two-year suspended sentence.

In 2002, Holland became the first country to legalise euthanasia.

Wednesday 29 October 2003

modified meat
short film: lounge

animation: The Day Of The Subgenius
Robot Hall of Fame

Carnegie Mellon University will induct four robots into its newly established Robot Hall of Fame in a ceremony at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Science Center at 8 p.m. Monday, November 10.

The Robot Hall of Fame was established earlier this year to honor noteworthy robots, both real and fictional, along with their creators in recognition of the increasing benefits robots are bringing to society.

Viet Nam's Robot contest 2004 was launched on Monday at Viet Nam Television (VTV).
earworm
ohrworm

Tuesday 28 October 2003

The Alan Ende Ventriloquist Collection!
NOV 28 is BUY NOTHING DAY

plus buy-nothing-christmas.org

consumer psychologist.com

THE  RESPONSIBLE  PARENT'S  GUIDE TO  HEALTHY  MOOD-BOOSTERS FOR  ALL  THE  FAMILY

archive: the family as an ideological REALITY ENFORCER
merry christmas
Cynthia McKinney

the former Democratic Congresswoman from Georgia,

when she rose to speak, the crowd lifted to their feet and cheered. And they were not to be disappointed. Covering a spectrum of controversial issues - from Dyncorp's involvement in military smallpox vaccines to a Halliburton subsidary's (no-bid) contract to supply food and other support to the troops in Iraq - McKinney drops more knowledge in her ten-minute speech than Fox News Channel does in an entire news cycle. Her passionate appeal on behalf of U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrates the nature of true patriotism and respect for those who have pledged to defend the United States.
Guerrilla News Network video hi or lo

plus 'the moral maze' The Ethics of Intervention
american led occupation of iraq:
YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS, OR ELSE

U.S. troops are destroying houses and crops of pro-Saddam villages in a Sisyphisian attempt to crush resistance.

shopkeeper Mohammed was out of luck. The U.S. troops had decided to give him a break after he told them he wasn't responsible for the spray-painted pro-Saddam slogan on his shop's facade.

But the Kurdish translator working with the Americans entered his shop and found a notebook in which Mohammed had apparently been practicing writing the very slogan on the wall outside: "Saddam is the heroic leader of a cowardly people. Saddam is the heroic leader of a cowardly people. Saddam..."

Mohammed was given five minutes to clear out his produce before the APC went in.

Mohammed's shop was one of five houses in Albu Hishma that were partially destroyed on this day by the soldiers of the 1st Battalion 8th Infantry, stationed near the town of Balad. Several other villagers escaped the same fate by hurriedly covering up the anti-American graffiti with mud.

Today's mission was part of a new, two-tiered approach to winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis in this area, notorious for its stiff resistance. one thing the americans have accomplished. There will be no new pro-Saddam slogans painted on the walls of Albu Hishma.

"We're not stupid. They will just destroy more houses if we do," said Ali Mahmoud. "No, we will paint them instead on the walls of the school the Americans have just renovated."

The school, just outside Albu Hishma, is one of the few American reconstruction projects in this area. Every night, local Saddam supporters taunt the Americans by defacing the freshly painted white wall around the school with slogans such as "Yes, yes, Saddam" or "Down USA."

And every day, the Americans have the wall painted white again.

plus on this day 1962: World relief as Cuban missile crisis ends
Russian President Nikita Khrushchev agreed to dismantle all Russian missiles based in Cuba and ship them back to the Soviet Union, ending the immediate threat of nuclear war.

The announcement was made in a public message to President John F Kennedy broadcast on Moscow Radio.

As part of the settlement Cuba's president Fidel Castro, angered that he was not consulted on the agreement, has ordered all Americans off the American base at Guantanamo used by US military for 60 years.
Music, Violence, Truth

plus Cybervent
The Online Ventriloquist Organization featuring 'vent of the month'
What is the real boundary between reality and imagination?

Eight Point Star, the first animated film by Fernando Diniz, won three prizes in Brazil's Gramado's Film Festival In 1996 and was also awarded the first prize for best animated short in the Havana Film Festival.

For the past 50 years, Fernando who is now 79, has been living in a mental hospital in Rio de Janeiro.

"One day, he showed me a scene he insisted on calling "The Bottle." When I took a close look at each drawing, I came to the conclusion that he was mistaken. I couldn't identify any object that looked like a bottle. After he had insisted so much in the title, I decided to shoot the scene. When we projected the print, I was totally surprised when I perceived the silhouette of a bottle vibrating within the scribbles. From that day, it became clear to me that Fernando had an objective in mind and that he was able to control his technique to get the results he wanted."

"I had to reinvent many of the concepts I had as an animator, in order to understand the totally different parameters of time and space experienced by Fernando."
Psyop are a New York-based animation and design studio named for the military jargon for mind control, and they steer consumer urges via TV commercials using a concise credo: persuade, change, influence.

"Clients ask us to influence the public, and we understand that very clearly," says Mueller, "but we are coming up with an extension of the company that plays with ways of discussing sociological issues in a candy-coated way." In an attempt to meld the vernacular of advertising with veiled political irony, Psyop glazes Chomsky-style politics with the sort of kid-luring animation normally reserved for Saturday morning breakfast cereal spots.
video: brainwash
'The Most Dangerous Game'.....project paperclip (the covert american importation of NAZI scientists at the end of WWII), MK-ULTRA and the experiments of psychiatric researcher Dr. Ewen Cameron.
PSYOP quotes
"One need not destroy one's enemy. One need only destroy his willingness to engage." Sun Tzu
shaping public opinion
video of democracy activist John Stauber, founding editor of PR watch
Hearts and Minds

The Internet Archive has unearthed a U.S. military training film from 1968 showing psychological operations (psyops) in a mythical country called "Hostland," where U.S. advisors want to help the host government gain the support of its population.

"Psychologically, the military in every country in the world represents government authority," it explains as it shows images of a gray-haired diplomat meeting with generals. "As promised by the ambassador, a team of military advisors arrives in Hostland," the film continues. The psyops expert "reviews the psychological objectives the United States hopes to achieve," studies the population, identifies target audiences, and plans a combination of media, cultural, and economic development initiatives.

"The psychological program must be constantly updated. As the people are affected by the program, so the program is affected by their changes in attitudes. A successful psyop program will make them perceive things from the desired viewpoint."

plus archive: psyop
How stories affect human action in organisations.pdf
Consumerism as a Social Complicit Fungible Memeplex.
audience riot

Klaus Kinski appears to have achieved considerable success and controversy in Germany through a series of solo poetry readings. An incendiary performance in front of 20,000 at the Berlin Deutschlandhalle which results in a full-blown riot is described with searing brilliance.
clapping and applause

19th century Theater owners sometimes resorted to hiring people to initiate the applause or laughter that, they hoped, would spread to the rest of the crowd.

These facilitators of felicity were called ‘claquers,’ from the French word for clapping. The practice generated the English word "claptrap," which fastened on the phoniness of this practice of milking applause.

Something is claptrap if it has no substance, if it's being conjured up out of nothing, if it's like the applause that people have been tricked or "trapped" into offering.

claque n. 1. a set of hired applauders in a theatre. 2. any group of persons ready to applaud from interested motives. [F, from claquer clap]
Tholos

Tholos, named after a type of circular ancient Greek temple, consists of a large round screen nearly 10ft high and 23ft wide.

it is a window between cities that allows people hundreds or even thousands of miles apart to meet and talk, and it could make its debut in Britain next year.

Its designers hope to see one of the first two in the world become a new tourist attraction in the centre of London.

The London Tholos would be linked to an identical one in Vienna. Through them, people in both cities will be able to see and hear each other in real time.

The cylindrical structure contains technology that simultaneously transmits and receives high definition live moving images.

People standing in front of London's Tholos would see a wrap-around picture of the scene in Vienna. At the same time, a similar London image is displayed in the Austrian capital.

Citizens in both countries would be able to face each other and talk via an array of directional microphones and loudspeakers, which keep conversations private.
animation: the ventriloquist at 'the other side'.

Sunday 26 October 2003

artificial blood

doctors in Sweden have successfully used artificial blood to treat patients. The product is a powder made from blood that has been stored for more than six weeks and that can not be used for transfusion.

the substance, called Hemospan, would reduce the critical shortages of blood needed for emergency transfusions. The powder can be mixed into liquid when required, and transfused into patients regardless of their blood type.
(via transhuman institute)
blinkenlights gallery

and the howard hallis picture of everything
(via geisha asobi blog)
ANTI-MASTURBATION DEVICE PROTOTYPES BY CALEB AND ELSIE HAMER

a small collection of anti-masturbation devices invented to help the sincere born again Christian stop the sinful practice of MASTURBATING!

including: Wireless TV Camera With Powerful Transmitter And Monitor

"This wireless TV camera, when activated, transmits a very clear, color image to all Television sets within a half mile range.

Place one in each bathroom and bedroom. Cameras can be set to scan from one camera to another every 12 seconds. A separate monitor can be placed on each TV in the house. While watching TV, the family will know immediately if the subject attempts to masturbate.

In addition, the camera will broadcast an image to all TV sets running within a half mile range. If you decide to masturbate, most of the neighborhood will know immediately.

Experience has shown that once neighbors realize what is going on, they quickly form a phone network to notify those neighbors who would like to watch you masturbate but aren't on the correct TV channel."
(via geisha asobi blog)
uk anti-terrorist laws are used for day-to-day policing

the civil rights group, Liberty, asked the High Court to decide whether the police were using emergency powers as 'another tool in the kit of day-to-day policing'. Liberty's lawyers discovered that it has become routine for the police to declare the whole of London a special zone for anti-terrorist operations.

No one knew what the Met was up to because orders akin to the announcement of martial law were declared and confirmed in secret. From 13 August for 28 days and from 11 September for 28 days, the police had unconstrained power to treat everyone in London as a terrorist, and stop, search and hold them without cause or reasonable suspicion.

The judge will deliver his ruling this week on the legality of using exceptional powers against unexceptional people. What he won't be able to do is comment on what happens to respect for the Government and the police when their promises are broken without an attempt at an explanation and the 'war against terrorism' is turned into a war against citizens.

Saturday 25 October 2003

neil chooses a yoghurt blindfolded
hell

32% says it is "an actual place of torment and suffering where people’s souls go after death.”
skin
Writer Shelley Jackson invites participants in a new work entitled "Skin." Each participant must agree to have one word of the story tattooed upon his or her body.
(via my analog life)
Robot Skin
Incredibly thin gold film embedded in an elastic membrane could provide robots with human-like dexterity and sensations of touch.
Resource Rebels
native challenges to mining and oil corporations
BLOOD, POVERTY AND AIDS IN CHINA

in china, when local health authorities were suddenly told to start making profits in the late 1980s, as part of the country's drive towards capitalism, Henan province officials turned to almost their only untapped resource: the blood of the province's 90 million population.

Vans were converted into mini-clinics and driven out into the countryside. Ambitious peasants established themselves as "bloodheads" (brokers) to meet the demand among both buyers and sellers.

For an 800cc donation, villagers were paid 45 Renminbi (RMB, about £3.50), enough to feed a family for a week. Realising that they could get far more for milking their veins than for tending the land, they lined up day-in and day-out for years to make donations. By the peak - around 1995 - Henan had become the nation's blood farm.

"Almost everybody did it. We would sell extra if there was a marriage ceremony coming up or if we wanted to build a house. The most I ever did was four donations in a single day."
the spending habits of kate bingaman since jan 2002.
endism
Global Forum on Indigenous Peoples and the Information Society
and the World Summit on the Information Society
Prepared by the Secretariat for the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues for the Global Forum on Indigenous Peoples and the Information Society>
in Geneva from 10 to 12 December 2003

Friday 24 October 2003

TELLY

the outer casing of my telly is flourescent lime green. it is very beautiful, but it will no longer switch on.

gradually over the months, any desire to switch it on had become a time-consuming ritual, verging on the superstitous in it's quirky intent. the telly's little red light would tease by consistently flashing in synchronised response to my thumb and remote repetitions, but the screen itself would signal no indication of when it might bloom. then once it is on it works perfectly.

what began as an acceptable few minutes of delayed gratification, increased week by week. most recently i notched up a persistant half-hour before it clicked and engaged.

ironically, on the day the telly chose to never ever ever ever turn on, i had bought a small pink plastic cupboard on wheels for it to sit. now they just look colorful together, whilst devoid of function.

a man in a local electrical shop said repairing the box would cost near enough the price of a new one. but it will be sometime before i could afford to invest in a replacement, even if i wanted to, which for now i don't want. uh, i don't think.

i love screens, i think more specifically i love artificial light, and moving artificial light (carrying narratives or not, i'm not fussy). telly is an ever changing window on a train. which is especially welcome when the actual view from the windows of my home are of the rest of this estate (built in the tradition of a plain but sturdy looking prison or barracks). with a special alcatraz mention given to the colourful little birds that have this week begun to use the birdfeeder, hung immediately outside one window.

i've had numerous periods, lasting years at a time, where i've happily (and at times even snobbishly) chosen to live without tv and video. its true i have mixed feelings towards this current involuntary tv-free period. though i'm mostly curious about the time ahead.

Wednesday 22 October 2003

the police

Footage of a police officer admitting he hated an Asian colleague so much he would like to put on a Ku Klux Klan-style hood and then kill him was broadcast last night as part of a television documentary about racism in the police.

Undercover reporter Mark Daly, who joined Greater Manchester police as a trainee and secretly filmed at the Bruche national training centre in Warrington, Cheshire, also caught seven other officers on camera expressing racist views.

also PC Rob Pulling is heard to say of the murdered black student Stephen Lawrence: "He fucking deserved it and his mum and dad are a fucking pair of spongers - and they've fucking seen a good opportunity and sponged it for everything they can get their hands on."

He is then heard to add that those responsible for the murder should be given diplomatic immunity because, he says, they had done for England what others should do.

Asked by Mr Daly if he could kill an Asian person, he is seen to nod and say: "I would go as far as I can get away with. If I could get away with burying the fucker under a train track, he's fucking going under the train track."

Tuesday 21 October 2003

NEW WORLD ORDER
extreme suggestions, once regarded as lunatic, are now enshrined as official U.S. policy in the National Security Strategy of the United States of America, published by the Bush Administration in late 2002.

public interest plays little role in the formulation of policy inside the Bush Administration. Those on the inside who have left have revealed that political considerations are at the heart of all decision-making, with little if any discussion of what might benefit the people.

3 outfits dominate the american computer-voting market, all companies owned or supported by Republicans, and they refuse to permit their software to be examined by outsiders, even though tests have revealed major flaws in their systems: The votes can be manipulated easily without any evidence that the count has been tampered with, and with no verifiable paper trail to check against the final tallies.

the Bush Administration continues to nominate ideologically-minded conservative judges, especially for the all-important appellate courts.

Even though Ashcroft already has thrown U.S. citizens into military prisons, thus removing them from judicial review, he appears to be desirous of even more outrages in Patriot Act II, including the exiling and deporting of American citizens deemed to be "terrorists."

The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Monday accused Israel and the United States of unacceptable behaviour towards journalists in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Iraq.

The Israeli army was guilty of injuring and threatening journalists in the West Bank and Gaza, an RSF spokesman said. "The Israeli army’s repeated abuse of journalists in the occupied territories and the US army’s responsibility in the death of several reporters during the war in Iraq constitute unacceptable behaviour," the watchdog said in a statement.

They ranked the United States 31st for its respect for freedom of expression at home, and 135th out of a total of 164 countries for its behaviour beyond its borders. Israel ranked 44th and 146th in the two categories.
The US military says it keeps no record of civilian deaths in iraq.

Monday 20 October 2003

aquarium toilet

weather forecast toaster
the toaster dials a freephone number to get the weather forecast and burns the appropriate symbol on a piece of toast.
futuro
futuro
futuro
futuro flying saucer house
HAIRSTYLES by wolf
toca me
video: tattooman
from scifi.com
(via geisha asobi blog)
trained eye gallery
images from the sides of boxcars, coal cars, miscellaneous freight cars and a caboose. These cars have been scratched, gouged, painted, scraped, rusted, and repainted over the course of their lifetimes. From a distance they appear uniformly colored, neat, and tidy. But, up close, with their context removed, they have become the gallery you see here.
(via my analog life)
Torture now routine for Putin's police

A poll of 32,000 people from across Russia published last week showed a quarter considered their rights had been violated by the police or courts over the past year.

Last month, Amnesty International released a report on 'rough justice' in Russia in which it cited a study by Krasnoyarsk University in central Siberia: 30 per cent of convicts said they had been physically or psychologically tortured into giving a confession.
Families of UK and US peace activists murdered in Israel seek truth

three families have accused the authorities of fabricating evidence, suppressing investigations and covering-up deliberate killings.
US troop units murdered and tortured unarmed Vietnamese

A U.S. Army unit known as Tiger Force committed numerous war crimes during the Vietnam War, including killing scores of unarmed civilians, but an investigation was closed with no charges being brought, The Blade newspaper reported on Sunday.

the Army had investigated the unit for 4 1/2 years, and found 18 soldiers had committed war crimes. But the Army filed no charges, and allowed soldiers who were under suspicion of committing war crimes to resign.

The newspaper said the accusations against the unit included killing women and children, torturing prisoners and severing ears and scalps for souvenirs. The Army's investigation of Tiger Force found 27 soldiers who said the severing of ears from dead Vietnamese was an accepted practice. One soldier told the newspaper that troops would wear necklaces of ears to scare Vietnamese civilians.

two soldiers who tried to stop the atrocities were warned by their commanders to remain quiet before transferring to other units.

Eight Marines Charged in Iraq Death

Eight Marine reservists stationed at Camp Pendleton have been charged in connection with the June death of an Iraqi man who was held at a detention facility in Iraq.

Maj. Paulus and Lance Cpl. Hernandez face negligent homicide charges, said staff Sgt. Bill Lisbon, a Marine spokesman at Camp Pendleton. they also face lesser charges, including cruelty and maltreatment, and assault.

Lance Cpl. Roy and two others, Maj. William Vickers and Sgt. Gary Pittman, face charges ranging from dereliction of duty to cruelty.

The remaining three men, Sgt. Albert Rodriquez-Martinez, Lance Cpl. Andrew Rodney and Lance Cpl. Konstantin Mikholap, are charged with making false official statements and assault.

The cases will be examined by the military equivalent of a grand jury, which will decide whether the men will be court-martialed.

In a separate case, four military police from a Pennsylvania-based Army Reserve unit were charged in July with punching, kicking and breaking bones of prisoners at Camp Bucca, the largest U.S.-run POW camp in Iraq. Those soldiers and their families have denied the accusations.

Spanish judge calls for charging US troops over reporter's death

A SPANISH judge has agreed to consider filing charges against three United States soldiers whose tank fired on and killed a Spanish journalist at a Baghdad hotel during the war in Iraq. The lawsuit names the three military personnel as Sgt Shawn Gibson, Cpt Philip Wolford and Lt-Col Philip de Camp, all of the US 3rd Infantry.
The Pentagon said troops were responding to sniper fire. But journalists at the scene said there was no fire coming from the hotel and believe the attack was deliberate.
(via news insider)

interview with five US military servicemen who just got back from Iraq

"Can’t sleep for shit and I have horrible nightmares when I do sleep. I might be lucky to catch an hour at a time before the nightmares wake me up."
(via ethel the blog)
game: alien abduction
"80s ending"
short film. the ending of every 1980's movie you've ever seen!
(via iblog)
robots
robot sculptures
Emotional’ Robot Goes on Display
giant tin robot paintings
victorian robots
H U M A N
modification
face
Blind 'see with sound'
beards
meat or accident?
Hemorrhoid Surgery
drawing penises on peoples faces
Cheap Artificial Heart Molded from Silicone
trousers
automatic wanking hand
genitals
tesco value tatoo
nude clothes
naked skating
UNDEFEATED WORLD HEAD BALANCING CHAMPION
castration
long hair
Double Amputee Gets Thought-controlled Arm
placenta extract
generations
carlee fernandez
NobodyHere.com
can you represent yourself in just a 5 line self portrait?
animation:
paper sky
pioneer 10

Sunday 19 October 2003

Trouser semaphore
(via green fairy)
DEMOCRACY?
our 'democracy' is a very modern invention. in the uk the three Reform Acts, of 1832, 1867, and 1884, all extended voting rights to previously disfranchised citizens.

the act of 1832 extended the right to vote to any man owning a household worth £10, adding 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000. Approximately one man in five now had the right to vote.

The 1867 Reform Act extended the right to vote still further down the class ladder, adding just short of a million voters -- including many workingmen -- and doubling the electorate, to almost two million in England and Wales.

The 1884 bill and the 1885 Redistribution Act tripled the electorate again, giving the vote to most agricultural laborers.  By this time, voting was becoming a right rather than the property of the privileged. However, women were not granted voting rights until the Act of 1918, which enfranchised all men over 21 and women over thirty. This last bit of discrimination was eliminated 10 years later (in 1928) by the Equal Franchise Act.

Liberals might talk about the great democratic virtues of openness, freedom and opportunity. But that was so much sanctimonious preaching. What mattered were the skills required to control this new thing - mass democracy - and to keep the politician elected and in a job. And those skills traded under the description of 'high politics', which was a question of retaining personal influence within the governing class that comprised a few hundred Members of Parliament. These were the people to charm. Political ideas really didn't matter. Personality and temperament were what made the wheels of power turn, elevating some politicians and discarding others.

archive: public opinion, master hoodwinkers, manufactured reality.

"control the masses without their knowing it." edward bernays
The systematic attempt to fool most of the people most of the time is the work of some of the most intelligent, best-informed and highly paid men and women in western societies: spin-doctors, PR consultants, hacks and spooks.

Friday 10 October 2003

AMERICAN NEWS
can you believe it? Forty-fucking-five percent of Americans apparently believe the news media in thier country is too liberal, while only 14% say the news media is too conservative.
MORE TELLY
theres a programme on called 'grumpy old men' in which some male celebs who grew up in the 60s (including will self and bob geldoff) are encouraged to moan about all things contemporary, like body piercings, sex advice in teen mags, mobile phones and wether or not to open doors for contemporary women.

surely its just as possible (and of greater interest) to make a programme that includes men who grew up in the 60s who aren't now tiresome whinging fogeys. it could for instance include unrepentant ex-members of the groovy terrorist outfit "the angry brigade".
TELLY NEWS
part way through the bbc's six o'clock news show this evening was an item relating to the bali bombing a year ago. in this item a brother of someone killed in the explosion is filmed returning to bali to (we are told) "find out why his brother died."

so we saw him in bali at the site of the bombing, we saw him meet a man with an amputated arm who survived the explosion, and we saw him walking on a beach. we heard the narrative bbc voice mentioning the bomb in the nightclub, the brother's grief, his dead brother, how lucky the man with the amputated arm was, and more grief. and then the item ended and the newsdesk man said "one man searching for answers about the bali bombing."

yet in the entire segment there wasn't one single question asked nor a single answer offered as to why a bomb went off in a bali nightclub.

plus.... December 12 2002
Bali group, Indonesian army had 'curious link'

An international panel of experts says it has identified a "curious link" between associates of the outlawed regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah and the Indonesian military (TNI).

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) said the connection was strong enough to raise the question of how much the TNI knew about Jemaah Islamiah (JI) before the October 12 Bali bombing that killed more than 180 people.
NEWS
all the current news allegations concerning premiere football players gang raping a young woman fail to consider an obvious and important factor.... in what other situation can a regular guy get to see his regular male friends sexually aroused without it all seeming to be a bit too queer?

answer: hetero gang rape, where you're ALL just regular guys together having fun (except for the woman who is a regular dehumanised slab of meat with warm moist orifices).
TELLY
will wonders ever cease etc etc i'm watching "will and grace", you know that top rated american comedy about a gay man (played by a straight actor) and his straight woman flatmate, in which gay men are never ever seen to exchange any physical intimacy with each other, and suddenly (but oh so briefly) before my very eyes Will actually kissed a man goodbye.

Thursday 9 October 2003

THE MODERN WORLD

Britney spears' stalker Masahiko Shizawa claims she signals her feelings to him through her changing hairstyles.

American children get labelled like brands
More and more parents in America are naming their children after luxury brands. In 2001, there were 273 boys and 298 girls called Armani; 269 Chanels (all girls); 24 girls called Porsche and six male Timberlands.

Also popular were Nike, Chivas Regal, Champagne, Nivea, Evian, Fanta, Guinness, Camry, Cobra Pepsi, and Lexus.

the hitler bar, korea

popular science
FLATUS ODOR JUDGE..... DYSENTERY STOOL-SAMPLE ANALYZER..... BARNYARD MASTURBATOR..... CORPSE-FLOWER GROWER
(via pobitch)
strindberg and helium
animation from the sundance festival
(via jaded)

Wednesday 8 October 2003

prisons are still filling up
Prisoners are being ordered to choose between having a shower, exercising or phoning friends and family because of the overcrowding crisis in Britain's jails, says the Prison Reform Trust. The charity believes Prison Service figures show that 11 prisons have exceeded their maximum capacity, including high-security Belmarsh in London - where the chief inspector of prisons, Ann Owers, reported yesterday that staff were struggling to meet prisoners' basic needs.
bush blog
just what it says on the packaging
90 seconds
view the shortlist of short movies in the depict 90 second competition.

Tuesday 7 October 2003

Hawaii
HawaiianKingdom.info
Should the U.S. end its occupation of Hawaii?
The Guardian weblog's Blog Pick of the Day.

On January 16, 1893, United States diplomatic and military personnel conspired with a small group of individuals to overthrow the constitutional government of the Hawaiian Kingdom and prepared to provide for annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States of America.
Syrian president accuses Israel of warmongering
Mr Assad defended his government's giving sanctuary to Palestinian groups such as Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which the EU and the US list as terrorist organisations.

"It is not important to call them terrorist or not terrorist. There are existing forces that you must deal with," Mr Assad said. He added he did not regard such groups as terrorist and their members in Syria had not broken the law.
automorph art
(via box)
Edward Said In His Last Will!
"Just like the Jews are asking the world to acknowledge their tragedy, Rabin and Peres should have been forced to recognize the injustice Israel did to Palestinians, as to achieve justice, and not revenge."

"we have suffered an entire century of loss and failure. Today, we should think of a future based on changing ourselves"
the vatican during the holocaust?

The former head of the World Jewish Congress claimed in his memoirs that public Vatican records concerning the Nazi Holocaust omit key documents that allegedly shows Pope Pius XII knew of the genocide as early as 1942.

Riegner wrote in his book that as head of the WJC in Geneva during the war he had learned of the Nazi plan to exterminate Jews known as the Final Solution, and then told Washington, London, and the Vatican in telegrams.
((catholic world news)

There were many who helped Jews during World War II and they must be remembered and honoured. At the same time there were others who had knowledge of the genocide being perpetrated against the Jewish people and who failed to speak out. Among these were 'sons and daughters of the Church' who must necessarily include members of the clergy and the hierarchy. Some remained silent because of fear that their words could lead to further loss of life and others remained silent for less noble reasons.
(catholic church in england and wales.)

Missing in the 11 volumes of Vatican archive material published by the Holy See between 1965 and 1981. are the day-to-day records and internal communications--diaries, memoranda, briefing notes, appointment books and minutes of meetings--that would shed light on how Pope Pius and the Vatican arrived at their policy decisions.
(belief net)

in 1940, Swiss Bishop Mario Besson wrote the pope about concentration camps in France and asked for a public appeal by the pontiff. However, there was no documentation about the pope's response.

"There is evidence that the Holy See was well-informed by mid-1942 of the accelerating mass murder of Jews,'' said a report by a commission of three Catholic and three Jewish scholars. The report asked for additional material to help historians determine how this information was received at the Vatican and what attention was given to it.

a 27,000-word article, by Daniel J Goldhagen in American magazine New Republic (2002), accuses the Roman Catholic Church of providing the intellectual stimulus for Nazism and the Holocaust.

For its part, the Vatican has always argued that its cautious, non-confrontational policy saved more people than if it had condemned Nazi excesses from the pulpit.

Dr Goldhagen says such arguments are bizarre and nonsensical, topped only by those revisionist historians who try to argue that the Holocaust didn't happen.
(bbc)

in 2003 The Vatican opens its secret wartime archive in a bid to prove that Pope Pius XII did not turn a blind eye to the Holocaust.

The archives contain thousands of documents on relations between the Holy See and pre-war Germany, but many files from 1931-1944 were destroyed during World War Two when the ambassador's residence in Berlin was bombed.

That includes 1933 when Pacelli signed a controversial concordat with Germany. Hitler said the treaty showed the Vatican was recognising his Nationalist Socialist state, while Pacelli said it showed Hitler would respect Church laws.
(itv)

Monday 6 October 2003

tomorrow's chip paper

Scientists take on the publishers in an experiment to make research free to all
a new publishing group called the Public Library of Science (PLoS) that will distribute its journals free of charge and is backed by top scientists, including the British Nobel prize winners Paul Nurse and Sir John Sulston.

uk ITV merger rings alarm bells at BBC
The uk government is expected to give the go-ahead to the merger of ITV titans Carlton and Granada. It will create a commercial broadcasting beast which will, for the first time, be big enough to then entice a £4bn-plus takeover bid from one of America's broadcasting giants. The prospect of a US-owned ITV has caused unease among the British broadcasters, (and among some of the public).

Electronic chip to detect Sars
Ren Ee Chee of the government-run Genome Institute of Singapore told the island republic's Sunday Times newspaper that the respiratory pathogens detection chip would undergo testing soon in conjunction with an unnamed US company.

micheal moore has seven questions for you, Mr Bush
Photomontage
apophenia in germany 1919-1933
incipient posthuman
"Not only are selves conditional but they die. Each day we wake slightly altered and the person we were yesterday is dead." John Updike

Sunday 5 October 2003

ENEMY COMBATANTS
At Camp Delta, a sign at the airport for the Guantanamo base reads: "Honour Bound To Defend Freedom."

The entrance to the Dachau camp is an iron gate with the motto, "Arbeit Macht Frei." (Work sets you free).
angel
"stacking each video frame one on top of the next, you've got a Z dimension to place into a volume renderer."
bumper stickers
via betty bowers
Venezuela

Venezuela has the fifth largest oil reserves in the world. These should be capable of providing the entire population with better living standards but currently produce huge profits for US corporations.

Venezuela is rich in natural resources but the country has to import 80 percent of its foodstuffs.
hydrogen FUEL CELLS

When it comes to hydrogen power, cars are far from the only business General Motors and Japanese automaker Honda see in their futures. Both are weighing the potentially huge payback of using their well-known brand names and distribution networks to persuade businesses and eventually homeowners to put GM- and Honda-branded hydrogen fuel cells in their basements and garages to power lights and appliances. They say that could happen long before consumers put hydrogen vehicles in their driveways.

Wednesday 1 October 2003

emerging technologies

Each year, a variety of emerging technologies are unveiled at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM). few highlights will include: Electronic cloth, silicon on plastic, artificial skin for robots, Nanowires, and Spintronics.
A-senee-ki-wakw

A race of stone giants. They were the first race created by Gluskab. However, because they crushed so many animals and injured the earth with their great size and weight, Gluskab destroyed them.