Confusability

Can you really "Have Your Say" on the BBC?

From UK Indymedia:

The BBC have your say board has been the subject of testing for bias by 3 volunteers.
40 messages were sent to the BBC have your say board using 3 volunteers logging in to various proxy sites.
20 anti strike comments "why should they retire at 60 " etc
and 20 pro strike "I have paid 6%" etc were sent over 48 hours.
The Results

All 20 anti strike comments were published
1 Pro strike comment was published.
The facts and findings will now be forwarded to the BBC in an official complaint of government driven Bias, Not something we have come to expect from the BBC ????

Thanks to Mick and tracey !!
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/03/337058.html

Have Your Say

Should the BBC make all contributions to their message boards available to interested parties?

This facility would allow us to check on the validity of claims of censorship by the BBC.

Indigo is the magic colour

Will Indigo Children really save the world one day?

Have we lost so much faith in our own abilities to collectively improve the world that we have to lay this kind of madness onto our kids shoulders?

By laying these harebrained expectations on kids, the New Agers are building a whole generation of narcissists. I don't mean stuck-up egotists. We're talking about Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), in which the child never develops a genuine sense of self because he or she is too busy attempting to live out the fantasies of a delusional and psychologically abusive parent. This requirement to embody by proxy the parent's own grandiose "spiritual" dreams of power and glory almost invariably results in lasting damage to the child -- and often to the people that child will come into contact with as an adult.

Christopher Locke - Mystic Bourgeoisie

Peter Drucker 19 Nov 1909 to 11 Nov 2005

Peter Drucker - 19 Nov 1909 to 11 Nov 2005

His most controversial work is on compensation schemes, in which he said that senior management should not be compensated more than twenty times the lowest paid employees. This made him an enemy of some of the same people who had previously praised him.

Information Technology: We have spent the last 50 years thinking about the Technology. We will spend the next 50 years focusing on the I in IT.

The Next Information Revolution

Pakistan earthquake and “Islamic Relief”

A friend of Bruce talks about the relief effort in Pakistan.

The UK government sent a plane load of tents and blankets to Pakistan and handed the whole shipment over to IR - the whole lot has been distributed already. If you want to donate anything, small or big, I’m chuffed to recommend Islamic Relief. I don’t normally do this, but believe me,
the Pakistan projects team is absolutely solid.

Send money here.

Talkin' Bout A Revolution

TALKIN' BOUT A REVOLUTION

Don't you know
They're talkin' bout a revolution
It sounds like a whisper
Don't you know
They're talkin' about a revolution
It sounds like a whisper

While they're standing in the welfare lines
Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation
Wasting time in the unemployment lines
Sitting around waiting for a promotion


Poor people gonna rise up
And get their share
Poor people gonna rise up
And take what's theirs

Don't you know
You better run, run, run...
Oh I said you better Run, run, run...
Finally the tables are starting to turn
Talkin' bout a revolution

Tracy Chapman

Gil Scott-Heron (Born 1st April 1949)

The idea concerns the fact that this country wants nostalgia. They want to go back as far as they can – even if it’s only as far as last week. Not to face now or tomorrow, but to face backwards. And yesterday was the day of our cinema heroes riding to the rescue at the last possible moment. The day of the man in the white hat or the man on the white horse - or the man who always came to save America at the last moment – someone always came to save America at the last moment – especially in “B” movies. And when America found itself having a hard time facing the future, they looked for people like John Wayne. But since John Wayne was no longer available, they settled for Ronald Reagan – and it has placed us in a situation that we can only look at – like a B movie" (Gil Scott-Heron, "B" Movie)

Gil Scott-Heron

Two Years On

Mumbai, India

Lahore, Pakistan

Istanbul, Turkey

Ankara, Turkey

Copenhagen, Denmark

Athens, Greece

London, Britain

New York, USA

BBC - Iraq protests in pictures
North Jersey - Mother of soldier applauds protest
Chicago - Protests mark war's anniversary
Alaska - Peaceful protests staged in Alaska
CNN - Day of anti-war protests in Europe
Islam Online - World Protests Mark Iraq Invasion Anniversary
Peoples Daily Online - Anti-war protests mark Iraq war anniversary
Jamaica - Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks
Australia - Australians rally against U-S led invasion of Iraq
New York - Protesters mark 2nd anniversary of Iraq war
Cuba - Protests Against the US War in Iraq Take Place Around the World
Detroit - Protests mark war anniversary

Time for the real International Rescue?

British charities say they have raised £15m so far in an appeal to ease the suffering of Asian tsunami victims.

The Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella group for leading charities, said £10m had been raised overnight following TV and radio appeals.

With the death toll threatening to rise above 100,000, 26 Britons are confirmed dead and many more are missing.

The UK Government is also sending £15m in aid as experts warn that disease and water shortages could kill thousands.
BBC - UK digs deep for tsunami victims

Money is not enough when you can't drink dollar bills. Forget the arguments about how much should be donated by different governments or how much the Queen is going to donate. The real issue is that the richest countries in the world need to set up some kind of organisation for dealing with disasters like these.

The USA the European Union and the United Nations are each talking about setting up co-ordinated relief efforts which may take weeks or months to become effective. There needs to be mechanisms in place that can be activated at a moments notice to help save lives in these situations.

It will take more than a few tens of millions of dollars. It would need a commitment to spend billions to set up an organisation that can go into a country and build a basic infrastructure from scratch in days rather than months.

Louise Ferguson has asked the question : "Is this an appropriate time for governments, relief organisations and international bodies such as the UN to reassess how the Internet can best be used in the future?"

Why not use the expertise of Google, Amazon, E-bay, PayPal and Wikipedia to build a resilient internet based system that would allow people to pay for specific relief supplies. They could also build Wikis that would allow information about individuals to be made available world wide. People could donate their time and use these systems to try and help track down lost friends and relatives.

Our governments should be putting much more effort into dealing with these world-wide issues, but perhaps we should make a start by thinking about how we can use the Internet to build a system that can help co-ordinate the good will and generosity of the worlds citizens to help to save the lives of the people who most need our help.

How To Donate

• The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) is an umbrella group of UK charities including, among others, British Red Cross, Cafod, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund
• Call them on 0870 60 60 900 or donate online at www.dec.org.uk
• By the end of the week people should be able to donate cash or cheques - made payable to the DEC Tsunami Earthquake Appeal - at High Street banks.
• Cash or cheques (made payable to Post Office Ltd) can be donated over the counter at Post Office branches.
• Other bodies raising money include Muslim groups Muslim Aid (020 7377 4200) and Islamic Relief (0121 622 0622)
• Sri Lankan organisations including Asia Quake Relief Appeal UK (asia-quakerelief@europe.com) are also raising money

Asian Quake Disaster

Oxfam UK - Make a donation by debit or credit card

Oxfam America - Make a donation now

British Red Cross - Donate by telephone on 08705 125 125
Send cheques, made payable to:
British Red Cross - Asia earthquake and flood appeal, to:
Asia Earthquake and Flood Appeal - Internet
The British Red Cross
FREEPOST
LOM 18968
Sheffield
S98 12A
Or donate online with debit or credit card

Indian Red Cross - donation page

International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 705 Resolution against the war

WHEREAS, WE value the lives of our sons and daughters, of our brothers and sisters, more than Bush’s control of Middle East oil profits. Whereas, we have no quarrel with the ordinary working class men, women and children of Iraq who will suffer the most in any war. Whereas, the billions of dollars being spent to stage and execute this invasion means billions taken away from our schools, hospitals, housing and social security. Whereas, Bush’s drive for war serves as a cover and a distraction for the sinking economy, corporate corruption, layoffs, Taft-Hartley (used against the locked out ILWU longshoremen). Whereas, Teamsters Local 705 is known far and wide as fighters for justice. Be it resolved that Teamsters Local 705 stands firmly against Bush’s drive for war.

Voices of A People's History of the United States edited by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove from Amazon | .com | .uk | .ca | .fr | .de

Sex, Lies and Videotape

The Lie Girls

Eminems Mosh

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
And to the Republic for which it stands
One nation under God
[People
It feels so good to be back..]

Scrutinize every word, memorize every line
I spit it once, refuel, reenergize, and rewind
I give sight to the blind, mind sight through the mind
I ostracize my right to express when I feel it's time
It's just all in your mind, what you interpret it as
I say to fight you take it as I’m gonna whip someone's ass
If you don't understand don't even bother to ask
A father who has grown up with a fatherless past
Who has blown up now to rap phenomenon that has
Or at least shows no difficulty multi task
And juggling both, perhaps mastered his craft slash
Entrepreneur who has held long too few more rap acts
Who has had a few obstacles thrown his way through the last half
Of his career typical manure moving past that
Mister kiss his ass crack, he's a class act
Rubber band man, yea he just snaps back

Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't stear you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors

To the people up top, on the side and the middle,
Come together, let's all bomb and swamp just a little
Just let it gradually build, from the front to the back
All you can see is a sea of people, some white and some black
Don't matter what color, all that matters is we gathered together
To celebrate for the same cause, no matter the weather
If it rains let it rain, yea the wetter the better
They ain't gonna stop us, they can't, we're stronger now more then ever,
They tell us no we say yea, they tell us stop we say go,
Rebel with a rebel yell, raise hell we gonna let em know
Stomp, push up, mush, fuck Bush, until they bring our troops home come on just . . .

Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't stear you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors, come on

Imagine it pouring, it's raining down on us,
Mosh pits outside the oval office
Someone's trying to tell us something, maybe this is God just saying
we're responsible for this monster, this coward, that we have empowered
This is Bin Laden, look at his head nodding,
How could we allow something like this, Without pumping our fist
Now this is our, final hour
Let me be the voice, and your strength, and your choice
Let me simplify the rhyme, just to amplify the noise
Try to amplify the times it, and multiply it by six
Teen million people are equal of this high pitch
Maybe we can reach Al Quaida through my speech
Let the President answer on high anarchy
Strap him with AK-47, let him go
Fight his own war, let him impress daddy that way
No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our soil
No more psychological warfare to trick us to think that we ain't loyal
If we don't serve our own country we're patronizing a hero
Look in his eyes, it's all lies, the stars and stripes
They've been swiped, washed out and wiped,
And Replaced with his own face, mosh now or die
If I get sniped tonight you'll know why, because I told you to fight

So come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't stear you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors

[Eminem speaking angrily]
And as we proceed, to mosh through this desert storm, in these closing statements,
if they should argue, let us beg to differ, as we set aside our differences,
and assemble our own army, to disarm this weapon of mass destruction
that we call our president, for the present,
and mosh for the future of our next generation,
to speak and be heard, Mr. President, Mr. Senator

From the new album Encore | Amazon .com | .uk| .ca | .fr | .de

The Armchair Protesters

As well as helping to organise off-line protests, broadband and the internet have fuelled a massive increase in the number of online protests taking place. We have South Park style animations from JibJab as well as dozens of interactive flash games.

One of my favourites is Tamatipoco (Your virtual flexworker) from Molleindustria.

Molleindustria is an italian team of artists, designers and programmers that aims at starting a serious discussion about social and political implications of videogames. This will involve media activists, net-artists, habitual players and critics and detractors of videogames. We chose to start with online gaming in order to sidestep mainstream distribution channels and to overcome our lack of means. Using simple but sharp games we hope to give a starting point for a new generation of critical game developers and, above all, to experiment with practices that can be easily emulated and virally diffused.

You can watch an interview with some of the people involved at the BBC site at ClickOnline.

From Video games find their political voice (BBC 30 Aug 2004)

The producers of these games are developing a sort of gaming counter-culture, seeing themselves as the latest in a line of political satirists playfully poking fun at passers-by or at those in power.

One of the main targets of such games is the US because of the internationalisation of its culture and more recently the war against terrorism.

But Americans themselves, indeed none other than the Republican Party, are using video games to score political points.

The Republicans' version of space invaders is Tax Invaders. It depicts Republican President George W Bush as the only hope in the battle against high taxes.

Video games are normally a form of escape, a way to tune out from the troubles of the world.

However, the producers of this new breed of game have shown they can also act as an effective vehicle for political expression.

In the interests of balance the BBC have obviously tried to find a right-wing example of this on-line activisim. And what did they come up with?

Tax Invaders.

Now, this is probably the worst example of a political game I have ever seen. The production values are abysmal and don't Republicans realise that in space invaders the player is taking on the role of a defender who fights valiantly against the evil horde of invaders, but is doomed to failure due to the overwhelming numbers on the other side.

Rupublicans could learn a few lessons from the Anti-Bush Game.

Looking for new talent?

I am as Anti-Bush (and Kerry) as the next lefty, but I think that Republicans should be able to find something better than Tax Invaders. Perhaps Tom Clancy could come up with a free flash game?

MIT Strike

A display of Vietnam-War-era protest posters at the MIT Museum offers a colorful glimpse into a tumultuous time at the Institute. The exhibit, Telling It like It Is: Student Activism at MIT during the Vietnam War, was prompted by an unusual gift from Lawrence Linden, SM ’70, PhD ’76—a bedsheet decorated with the iconic fist symbol and the words “MIT Strike.” The banner hung on campus during the national campus strike in May 1970, a nationwide protest against the Vietnam War. Linden, who was a member of ROTC, was not a protestor. Nevertheless, he cut down the banner after the strike and held onto it until the end of 2002, when he paid for its restoration. Several months later, after conservators touched it up, Linden donated the banner to the museum.

Technology Review

What they say

"It was grim, it was grim for me, grim for TB and there is this huge stuff about trust."
Alastair Campbell confides about the Kelly affair in his diary more...

"Now the Americans know what we are suffering. My only wish is that the temperatures would rise in America, so they could know what it is to live in 60C heat without electricity."
Ali al-Khatib from Baghdad on the US power cuts more...

"We've heard about phones that overheated, melted and, in the worst case, exploded."
Spokerperson fon Nokia after a mobile burst into flames in Amsterdam more...

"The way I see it, there are two elephants in British Airways' rowing boat. One of them is the pension, the other is the debt."
Rod Eddington BA's chief executive more...

"If you are a Tory MP you will be told, repeatedly, by people you will have never clapped eyes on before, that you are a 'Tory tosser'." more...
Boris Johnson Tory MP for Henley

"I feel proud and empowered. I'd rather it was a political reason that brought us down off the top of the charts than a musical one." more...
Natalie Maines member of the US group Dixie Chicks, attacked for being anti-war