Cognitive Dissidents

My major problem with playing music in MP3 format is the "disconnection from the physical to the ephemeral".

If I play vinyl - god forbid I actually dare to use something obsolete - then I have piece of vinyl in my hands.

It has a cover, a sleeve and a tracklisting that I can follow .. and if I like it - i have made notes on the label to tell me what I think.

When I DJ I remember what tunes I want to play more by the physical attributes of the record/cd that I am playing.

MP3 strips this all away - I no longer have any physical reference for the music I like - in effect I have to use other cues to remember the music I like

I can't say "like maaaan - this album is soooo cooool cos it has a great cover" - and then remember it because I can find it in a stack of vinyl.

I just have the music - and the titles and artists and that is it ..

It forces me to pay more attention to the music - because I can't rely on other cues to determine what I want to play ..

Is this a bad thing or a good thing? I don't know yet - but I will persist ..

After all - there is more at stake here than the idea that music has to be "DJ Friendly" and easily marketed ...

Tags: music, mp3, creative copyright, attention, cchits

Posted by Dr. K at 10:31 AM | Permalink

Our wonderful modern culture has turned up another odd tale: Display of Controversial 'Chocolate Jesus' Sculpture Cancelled

A planned Holy Week exhibition of a nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ was canceled Friday amid a choir of complaining Catholics that included Cardinal Edward Egan.

But word of the confectionary Christ infuriated Catholics, including Egan, who described it as "a sickening display."

Tags: chocolate christ, modern art, christianity

Posted by Dr. K at 8:46 PM | Permalink

Not a bad idea you might think - after all isn't that just what parents have been doing for years ...

But no - from NuLabour Britain we have yet another example of mind-boggling stupidity that you could not make up - Children should be taught to walk and talk - like as they say - "no sh*t Sherlock" ...

Children should be taught "life skills" instead of facts and figures because they can look up all they need to know on the Internet, teachers' leaders claim today.

It almost sounds reasonable - until we get to this

Martin Johnson said:

"There's a lot to learn about how to walk. If you were going out for a Sunday afternoon stroll you might walk in one way.

"If you're trying to catch the train you might walk in another way and if you are doing a day's cliff walk you might walk in another way.

"If you are carrying a pack, there's a technique in that.

"We need a nation of people who understand their bodies and can use their bodies effectively.

For the state to suggest that some knowledge should be privileged over other knowledge is a bit totalitarian in a 21st century environment.

We are arguing that knowledge which traditionally has got high status should not be privileged over other kinds of knowledge.

Tags: education, nulabour, stupidity, you couldn't make it up, literacy, daily mail

Posted by Dr. K at 7:35 PM | Permalink

Whoever said the Germans had no sense of humour? This piece entitled: Evil Americans, Poor Mullahs deconstructs the dark heart of German Anti-Americanism ...

Anti-Americanism is hypocrisy at its finest. You can spend your evening catching the latest episode of "24" and then complain about Guantanamo the next morning. You can claim that the Americans have themselves to blame for terrorism, while at the same time calling for tougher restrictions on Muslim immigration to Germany. You can call the American president a mass murderer and book a flight to New York the next day. You can lament the average American's supposed lack of culture and savvy and meanwhile send off for the documents for the Green Card lottery.

Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, the American historian who in his 1996 book "Hitler's Willing Executioners" deprived the Germans of the belief that they didn't know what was going on back in the day, is currently studying the history of genocides in the 20th century. One of the things he has noticed is that the politicians or military leaders who planned genocides and had them carried out rarely concealed their intentions in advance. Whether the victims were Hereros, Armenians, kulaks, Jews or later Bosnians, the perpetrators generally believed that they were justified and had no reason to hide their murderous intentions.

Today, when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad talks about a world without Israel while dreaming of an atom bomb, it seems obvious that we -- as Germans of all people -- should be putting two and two together. Why shouldn't Ahmadinejad mean what he says? But we Germans only know what we believe.

Perhaps we should take the approach of Harold Nicolson who was heard to opine ...

All we can do is lie on our backs with our paws in the air and hope that no one will stamp on our tummies.

Tags: anti-americanism, appeasement, islam, iran, chamberlain, hitler, peace in our time

Posted by Dr. K at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If it was the same elephant I encoutered in Madurai temple - it would explain a lot.

Temple elephants are normally very chilled out - they get treated really well and pampered - but this one had anger in its eyes that made me not want to go near it ...

From The Hindu - All-out effort to save temple elephant

MADURAI: Veterinarians are battling to save `Angayarkanni,' a 41-year-old female elephant of the Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple, which took ill on Tuesday.

The elephant, which has served the temple for over three decades, is lying on its side for the last two days and not eating properly.

It has been suffering from arthritis for the last 10 years and is suspected to have been afflicted with anchylosis of the forelimbs and foot rot.

A mechanised crane has been deployed to help the elephant to her feet, as lying continuously will hinder blood flow.

Elephants are very intelligent creatures - which is why I only approach one that I feel comfortable with - but I never felt comfortable with.the Madurai elephant.

Tags: madurai, temple elephant, hindusim, ganesh

Posted by Dr. K at 11:12 AM | Permalink

Still on the subject of the illegaly kidnapped Iranian capture of UK sailors - we find Blair showing a little back bone ...

In a sign of increasing British impatience, Tony Blair today warned of a "different phase" if diplomatic efforts fail to secure the release of the 15 British service personnel held by Iran.

With the impasse entering its fifth day, the prime minister described the group's capture as "unjustified and wrong".

Speaking on GMTV, Mr Blair said: "I hope we manage to get them to realise they have to release them. If not, then this will move into a different phase."

Mr Blair said: "Well, we will just have to see, but what they should understand is that we cannot have a situation where our servicemen and women are seized when actually they are in Iraqi waters under a UN mandate, patrolling perfectly rightly and in accordance with that mandate, and then effectively captured and taken to Iran."

Will Blair show some backbone over this issue - or will he backpedal and do a backdoor deal with the Iranians in order to free the illegaly kidnapped hostages captured sailors?

Arms for hostages anyone?

Tags: tony blair, hostage crisis, iran, covert deal

Posted by Dr. K at 2:55 PM | Permalink

In the world of the New Cold War - Iran has recently upped the stakes by kidnapping capturing British sailors

Meanwhile - back on the propaganda front - where if you couldn't make it up, you do anyway, Rosie O'Donnell has this to say about the illegal kidnappping capture

TV host Rosie O'Donnell implied today the Iranian seizure of British sailors was a hoax to provide President Bush with an excuse to go to war with Tehran.

In a discussion about the 15 British personnel seized Friday for allegedly entering Iranian waters, the controversial co-host of ABC's "The View" correlated the event to the Gulf of Tonkin incident that propelled the U.S. into the Vietnam War. President Johnson's administration was accused of provoking one incident in 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin and making up another as a pretext for war.

Now this would be all well and good - yet another Conspiracy Theory to keep the masses amused - but nobody is asking a very important question - and if you read the Guardian piece it soon becomes apparent what that question is.

"They are in completely good health. Rest assured that they have been treated with humanitarian and moral behaviour," Muhammad Ali Hosseini, a spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, told the Associated Press.

Mr Hosseini said the only woman sailor among the group enjoyed complete privacy. "Definitely all ethics have been observed" he said.

So does complete privacy in a country under Sharia law where all ethics have been observed mean that a woman is being held in solitary confinement for the only reason that she is female.

Surely not??

Surely such treatment would be a "cruel and unusual punishment" for a kidnap victim prisoner of war?

Is the female prisoner being held in solitary confinement? Or is it just that she is being held in complete privacy?

I reckon Rosie O'Donnell should be the one kept in complete privacy - so her malignant conspiracy theories do not affect the outcome of this prisoner exchange hostage crisis

Of course - after this - everyone is going to agree that Ahmendinjad is the leader of a country that can be trusted with using nuclear power for peacful purposes ...

Tags: islam, iran, sharia, womens rights, kidnapped sailors, solitary confinement, war crimes

Posted by Dr. K at 2:24 PM | Permalink

Of course it must be my fault - because I insist on downloading legal MP3s

In a dramatic acceleration of the seven-year sales decline that has battered the music industry, compact-disc sales for the first three months of this year plunged 20% from a year earlier, the latest sign of the seismic shift in the way consumers acquire music.

The sharp slide in sales of CDs, which still account for more than 85% of music sold, has far eclipsed the growth in sales of digital downloads, which were supposed to have been the industry's salvation.

Retailers and others say record labels have failed to deliver big sellers. And even the hits aren't what they used to be. Norah Jones's "Not Too Late" has sold just shy of 1.1 million copies since it was released six weeks ago. Her previous album, "Feels Like Home," sold more than 2.2. million copies in the same period after its 2004 release.

"Even when you have a good release like Norah Jones, maybe the environment is so bad you can't turn it around," says Richard Greenfield, an analyst at Pali Research.

Sorry BigMedia - but some of us want a little more than the watered down pap you feed us ...

Not only that - but if you want me to use my bandwidth to pirate promote your material and do your "digital distribution" for you - think again ...

Tags: p2p, music, wsj, creative commons, cchits

Posted by Dr. K at 7:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

You couldn't make it up - but it happened Husband rips wife's eyes out after she refuses sex

A MAN who ripped out his wife's eyes in a fit of rage was sentenced by a French court to 30 years behind bars today.

Mohamed Hadfi, 31, tore out his 23-year-old wife Samira Bari's eyes following a heated argument in their apartment in the southern French city of Nimes in July 2003 after she refused to have sex with him.

Ms Bari, who had demanded a divorce before the attack, was permanently blinded.

Hadfi, a Moroccan, initially fled to Germany. He was finally arrested and sent back to France, where he was indicted for "acts of torture and barbarity leading to a permanent disability".

Prosecutor Dominique Tourette demanded that Hadfi be sentenced to 30 years in prison, two thirds of which must be served in full, calling the defendant a "diabolic torturer".

Once his sentence is served, Hadfi will be deported and barred from ever returning to France.

His lawyer Jean-Pierre Cabanes meanwhile insisted there were extenuating circumstances.

"This is the result of a marriage that was arranged, not chosen," he said, pointing to the gulf separating his client, who came from southern Morocco, and his young wife, who had grown up in France.

Mr Cabanes begged the jury for leniency, claiming his client's action "appeared to stem from a mental illness."

Tags: fundamentalism, misogyny, france, islam

Posted by Dr. K at 6:58 PM | Permalink

Many of us historical/archaeological fans don't believe in the historical narrative we are fed from and early age - now we have an intresting piece of evidence that suggests that the Portugese discovered Australia

A 16th century maritime map in a Los Angeles library vault proves that Portuguese adventurers, not British or Dutch, were the first Europeans to discover Australia, says a new book which details the secret discovery of Australia.

The book "Beyond Capricorn" says the map, which accurately marks geographical sites along Australia's east coast in Portuguese, proves that Portuguese seafarer Christopher de Mendonca lead a fleet of four ships into Botany Bay in 1522 -- almost 250 years before Britain's Captain James Cook.

Australian author Peter Trickett said that when he enlarged the small map he could recognize all the headlands and bays in Botany Bay in Sydney -- the site where Cook claimed Australia for Britain in 1770.

As far as the people living there were concerned there was nothing "undiscovered" about Australia to start with - and there was nothing "unclaimed" either - after all it was their country - until it was "discovered" that is ..

Tags: australia, history, navigation, christopher de mendonca, captain cook, peter trickett

Posted by Dr. K at 11:30 AM | Permalink

At last - an entry in the music category - its been a long time ...

I've been listening to EchoVolt for a while now.

EchoVolt are a local band that have a have a lot of raw energy and play a blend of rock/industrial with spanish influences.

They play live best in a nice sweaty space with lots of noise and people dancing - but their studio stuff is also great.

Their "Infected" CD has the production edge you would expect from a studio offering while still capturing their raw energy - and now they are making a new one ...

I was lucky enough to blag a copy of an unmixed version of their (untitled) new album - but with no track listings.

A review will have to wait until I get more info - but at a first glance it is looking good.

No - at a first glance it is looking more than good - if you like this kind of thing of course - and I do ...

Tags: echovolt, music, rock, infected

Posted by Dr. K at 5:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Interesting article this week in the Diario de Cadiz - about how the origins of the city of Cadiz have been pushed back closer to the historical records.

Cadiz is believed to have been founded by the Phoenicians in c.1100 BC - there are historical records which date it to this point - but up to now nothing has been found by the archaeologists to support the historical claims.

Now - under the foundations for the proposed new theatre - the archaelogists have found Phoenician remains from the early part of c.600 BC - for the first time.

These findings place the founding of "Gades" - modern Cadiz - much closer to the oral and written traditions - a nice archaelogical finding which supports the idea that the Phoenicians were here "doing what the Romans did for us" a long time before the Romans arrived ...

Tags: gades, cadiz, phoenicians, romans, history, spain, andalucia

Posted by Dr. K at 2:02 PM | Permalink

A long, long time ago - I noted that I was reviewing Creative Commons Copyright music with the express intention of mixing a Creative Commons Copyright CD mix.

I still am ... its just that the amount and quality of CC MP3 music is overwhelming

My original game plan was this:

(i) listen to the CC MP3 music

(ii) choose tracks I wanted to mix

(iii) convert to CD - because I mix with CD or vinyl

(iv) cut the mix live to a master

(v) remaster the cd and ensure it was good

(vi) print up the worst covers possible in the universe - so they looked like "illegal DJ mixes" - and then cut a dozen copies and give them away free to people who promised to give them away free

But - the big stumbling block is ...

... I am still trying to work out which tracks to mix - becuase there is so much stuff available

I started by going to Legal Torrents - but later spread my search to CCHits a ning type thing that allows linking and voting on tracks in the Digg style ..

All of this is a bad mistake if you have things to do - but great if you want to listen to CC MP3's ..

The upshot of it all is that I am still listening to music and trying to figure out which tracks are worth mixing ..

Some time this century I will cut my fave tracks to CD, make a mix and see if it is possible to give it away for free.

Because first - of course - I need to licence the tracks with the parties involved even if I am giving it away for free

"Some rights reserved" means I have to respect the rights of the CC copyright holders - thats why Creative Copyright exists

There will be more on this topic - just as soon as I finish listening to lots of music ...

Tags: creative copyright, mp3, dj mixes, copyright, riaa, legal torrents, cchits

Posted by Dr. K at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Great update on the old "SneakerNet" idea from Wired

How do you get 120 terabytes of data -- the equivalent of 123,000 iPod shuffles (roughly 30 million songs) -- from A to B? For the most part, the old-fashioned way: via a sneakernet. It's not glamorous, but Google engineers hope to at least end the arduous process of transferring massive quantities of data -- which can literally take weeks to upload onto the internet -- with something affectionately called "FedExNet" by the scientists who use it.

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of quarter-inch tapes

... nor a 747 full of CDROMS ...

UPDATE: I found the Wiki on SneakerNet and had nostalgic fits at this - this is how I populated my Amiga with early FOSS software and the like ...

When home broadband access was less common, many people downloaded large files over their workplace networks and took them home by sneakernet.

Tags: sneakernet, fedexnet, google, wired, bandwidth

Posted by Dr. K at 11:50 AM | Permalink

It is raining. Amid the leaf-green patches and high-rise suburbia, the Muslim flock is on the move. As the call to Friday prayers wafts through the doors of the central mosque, an unholy alliance of men walks up the steps and into its entrance. As they remove and shelve their footwear in the foyer, their bland shalwar kameezes, prayer caps, and fistfuls of scraggly hair growth mingle and compete with exaggerated "bomber" jackets, "condom" hats, and goatee beards. But women, all of whom are safely tucked into hijabs and niqabs, move to an unobtrusive side entrance of the mosque.

The car park nearby is, as is usually the case, a scene of confusion. The non-Muslim policeman on duty is feeling the pressure. These Muslims, it appears, do not know how to park their cars, or at least, not around each other. Out of necessity, the ground of the car park itself is not a flat, smooth tarmac: it consists entirely of small, but sizeable, jagged rocks that pre-emptively puncture the ambitions of opportunistic speeders, who would care to exhibit the marvels of their machines. For the more likely that young, fertile, non-Muslim women live and reside in a vicinity, the greater are the efforts invested into displaying male plummage.

But there are males who are aware that sabotaging this holy day in the service of reproductive pursuits is not usually the same as siding with God. As their souped-up, low-slung cars cruise into this arena that is a car park under heavy siege, some of them dutifully decide that it is now appropriate, perhaps, to stop pumping out hip-hop and bhangra. And when the inhabitants of these vehicles finally emerge, together they look like an odd lot. Most conform to the usual urban "rude-boy" stereotype, given how obvious their efforts are in trying to appear "accidentally" attractive; the rest look as if they have just returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca: moustaches are trimmed, beards are not, and the trousers of their long, white jilbabs are jacked above the ankles.

It has long been thus: welcome to this outpost of Islamic civilisation, a colony where the stridency of the faithful collides with vogues that were once confined to the underclass of non-Muslim British society. Muhammad is not just the newest, and the final of, God's prophets; Muhammad is the newest, and the final of, the bling-bling superstars. Since the Rushdie Affair, and more recently the Cartoon jihad, even the most irreligious of the street-savvy Muslim rude-boys have come to know of the new universal limits: nobody disses Mo, the Final Gangster of all time and a Mercy to all the worlds.

Tags: midlands, islam, culture, tom wolfe

Posted by Dr. K at 10:05 PM | Permalink

Of course this sort of thing happens when we play "Monopoly" or "Risk" all the time - so why call it Gunplay in the caption?

From the New York Times ...

Two unarmed auxiliary police officers were fatally shot last night during a chase with a gunman on a busy stretch of bars and restaurants in the heart of Greenwich Village, the authorities said.

The shooting occurred in a busy part of Greenwich Village.

The gunman was shot and killed about 9:30 p.m. by regular police officers who quickly responded to the scene, the authorities said.

Lazy sub-editor with captioning dyslexia - or just an indication of how untrustworthy mainstream media has become in its reporting??

Like if we all play with guns nobody gets hurt - right?

UPDATE:

The NY Times have changed their caption - but still mention the word Gunplay

At least they mention that people died while somebody was playing with their guns, and not just killed in some kind of gameplaying accident caused by guns

If anyone can tell me of someone who died playing Risk - I'd love to hear about it ...

maybe the counters fell on their head ....

Tags: gunplay, nyt, new york times, lazy sub-editors, mainstream media

Posted by Dr. K at 10:26 AM | Permalink

It turns out the US National Security is under threat - not from Terrorism, Cyber-Warfare or uncontrolled nuclear proliferation - but from File Sharing - not only that but File Sharing threatens our children too

But strangely enough - the report only mentions P2P File Sharing - there is nothing about the inbuilt security threats that are touted by companies such as Microsoft inlcudes in its products which are designed to enhance productivity which have been present in Windows ever since "Windows for Workgroups".

It makes some assertions which are nothing more than propaganda and rhetoric designed to put people off any form of P2P file sharing - even legal ones

because virtually everyone who uses a popular filesharing program appears to use it almost exclusively to download infringing files, a magazine or website seeking to do a meaningful review of filesharing programs would have to assess their relative efficicay as a means of copyright piracy. Perhaps for this reason, filesharing programs have become one of the most widely used, yet least discussed and reviewed computer programs on the market.

Note the weasel words "virtually everyone", "appears to use", and "almost exclusively" - no mention of any of the uses of P2P - no mention of the use of P2P to distribute FOSS software or legal CC MP3 files

Do popular search-and-download programs contain - or have they contained - features that can cause users to share files unintentionally?

Well - its a long time since there were a large number of NFS and PC-NFS installations attached to the net which had /etc/passwd shared - but it used to happen.

Nobody tried to ban UNIX on the grounds that it was insecure - thank god - and the popularity of programs like SAMBA hasn't diminished because people could "unintentionally" share files.

I could also note that certain implementataions of "private web servers" using HTTPD easily allow "unintentional" file sharing - but that hasn't dented the popularity of "private web servers" in office environments (*shudder*) which, when miscongfigured constitute a major security risk.

This piece of selective misinformation is everything the RIAA and MPAA could hope for - not only is P2P filesharing a threat to society because people copy films and music, it is also a threat to National Security and a threat to our children - who somehow only need protecting when they are not paying for the violent garbage "content" that the MPAA and RIAA make so much money from ...

Tags: p2p, piracy, copyright, riaa, mpaa, violent garbage

Posted by Dr. K at 8:23 AM | Permalink

I couldn't sit through 90% of Hollywood propaganda garbage films either - but this takes the biscuit Iran accuses Hollywood of 'psychological warfare'

What - are Hollywood being their usual Islamaphobic selves and portraying Iranians as terrorists?

How dare they make a picture about events that happened so recently - like in 480BC ??

Hollywood is already firmly established as a source of cultural decadence in Iran's pantheon of hated western symbols.

But now the country's Islamic leadership has accused it of "psychological warfare" over its depiction of the battle between the Greeks and Persians at Thermopylae in 480BC, regarded as a key event in the birth of western democracy by some historians.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government has joined MPs, bloggers and local media in denouncing the newly-released Warner Brothers epic, 300, as a calculated attempt to demonise Iran at a time of intensifying US pressure over the country's nuclear programme.

I don't recall either the Persians or the Greeks using nuclear weapons in 480BC - maybe this is a little silly - I couldn't have made this up.

Maybe Warner Brothers have hired Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to do PR for them? The amount of free publicity this will generate is enormous ...

Mr Ahmadinejad's spokesman branded the film "an insult to Iran" while four MPs have urged the foreign ministry to pressure other Muslim countries to ban it.

The film, directed by Zack Snyder and based on a novel by Frank Miller, grossed nearly £40m in ticket sales in three days after opening in north American cinemas last week. It portrays the heroic endeavours of 300 Spartans, under King Leonidas, who are shown resisting an invading force of 120,000 Persian troops led by Emperor Xerxes.

The plot depicts the tiny Spartan force repeatedly outmanoeuvring the invaders and being defeated after a three-day stand-off only through treachery. Iranians complain that it represents them as savage, murderous and warmongering.

No it represents the Persians as savage, murderous and warmongering - but from any reading of ancient history I can manage - there was a lot of "savage, murderous and warmongering" tribes and nations around then.

In fact "savage, murderous and warmongering" have been around ever since history started really ...

I am sorry to have to say this to the poor offended Iranians - but a long, long, long time ago Greeks and Persians had several wars ...

Isn't it about time they got over it and stopped feeling so touchy?

Tags: hollywood, psychological warfare, iran, persia, greece, ancient history, thermopylae, free publicity

Posted by Dr. K at 2:10 PM | Permalink

Interesting slideshow here about the Zodiac Killings

With a new movie out on the mysterious "Zodiac' murders of the 1960s and 70s, we re-examine the murders with a series of photographs from the most notorious murder spree in Bay Area.

Zodiac included several cryptograms in his letters to various Bay Area newspapers. In the accompanying letters, the killer claimed that if authorities could crack the code it would reveal his identity. However, authorities were never able to decode the messages. Photo: San Francisco Police Department

Unless the "Zodiac Killer" was using a "private language" - and as Wittgenstein said "there is no such thing as a private language" ...

Tags: zodiac killings, encryption, puzzles, translation, mysterious languages, wittgenstein

Posted by Dr. K at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Pamela Bone hits hard and makes points - after all she is a women who thinks that Western sisters (are) failing the fight

LET it be recorded that in the last decade of the 20th century the brave and great movement of Western feminism ended, not with a bang but with a whimper.

How can I not agree - I've long opined that the left betrayed feminism and gender rights as soon as they had no more use for them ..

The Beijing Platform for Action made many important statements about the equality of women, such as: "The human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence."

Sounds like commonsense to me - but then recently I have felt like an "exrtemist" for sticking up for the things I believe in - like women's rights ...

... but Pamela goes on - and nails it to the wall ...

Was it before or after September 11 that thinkers of the Left - for feminism was a movement of the Left - decided that racism was a far more serious crime than sexism? When did cultural sensitivity trump women's rights? Was it about the time that Australian feminist Germaine Greer defended the practice of female genital mutilation because, as she pointed out, Western women put studs through their nipples and labia?

Quite - a an elective practise of self-mutilation for fashionable purposes is not the same as non-elective genital surgery - but Germain Greer played the "cultural and moral equivalency card" here ...

Consider this: a struggling, screaming little girl is held down by several people (usually women) while another woman cuts through her clitoris and inner labia, with the intention of ensuring this girl will never experience sexual pleasure; and the world's most famous feminist, to whom much is owed, I don't deny, can compare this practice to adult women choosing, for whatever silly reason, to decorate their sexual parts with metal. The UN estimates that three million girls are mutilated every year. It has lately been warning against the medicalisation of the practice: as societies develop, it is being carried out by health professionals, which doesn't make it less of an abuse.

I hope you are following this - because the "medicalisation of the pratice" means more young girls are going to have their clitorises cut off - because there are no "health and safety laws" that prevent it.

For that reason it will become more and more popular amongst those communities that support the practice for cultural or religious reasons.

In Pakistan, the Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill, which would ban forced marriages and give women rights over property, is before the national assembly. In Syria, the murder of a 16-year-old girl by her brother, at her family's request, has prompted a national debate about the leniency shown to perpetrators of honour killings.

In Saudi Arabia, Bill Gates, addressing a recent business seminar, told the segregated audience - women, their faces and bodies shrouded in black, behind a large partition - that the country would not achieve its ambition to become an economic power while it failed to use the talents of half the population. "One side of the audience loved it," he quipped later.

Tags: pamela bone, women's rights, feminism, the silence of the left, the silence of the feminists, international women's day

Posted by Dr. K at 2:41 PM | Permalink

Everyone talks about Digg being gamed - but look at this spammed up Tailrank entry ..

UPDATE: I've been informed that tailrank have improved their spam detection abilities and that this entry slipped in while testing. Nice work - tailrank is good already and anything that can stop it becoming the "new digg" has to be welcomed ...

Tags: gaming the herd, digg, tailrank, splogs

Posted by Dr. K at 1:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The inevitable backlash against The Silence of the Left has manifested itself in an unexpected quarter, as Peter Tatchell and Ken Livingstone get into a spat about "Islamaphobia".

The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association spokesman, George Broadhead, commented thusly:

Whilst Mr Livingstone seems only too ready to condemn homophobia from Christian and Jewish sources, he seems highly reluctant to do so when it comes from Islamic sources

Mr Livingstone is clearly determined to treat Islam with kid gloves no matter how stridently homophobic its adherents are.

The slightest criticism of Islam is immediately branded Islamaphobic.

It was clear that Ken Livingstone, who had commented that:

The attempt of Mr Tatchell to focus attention on the role of the grand Mufti in Moscow, in the face of numerous attacks on gay rights in Eastern Europe which overwhelmingly come from right wing Christian and secular currents, is a clear example of an Islamaphobic campaign.

Anyone who has read the OutRage! news release about the Moscow Mayor’s visit to London this week will know that neither I nor OutRage! have mentioned a word about the Grand Mufti.

A year ago, I criticised the Grand Mufti after he urged his followers to violently attack gay people in the streets. Is Ken Livingstone saying that human rights groups should not condemn fanatics who incite violence against LGBTI people?

The main focus of my criticism during last year’s campaign was the homophobia of the Moscow Mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, who had banned Moscow Gay Pride. I also condemned the Chief Rabbi, the Russian Orthodox Church, neo-Nazis and ultra-nationalists. The Grand Mufti was not singled out.

To suggest that my criticism of the Grand Mufti was an Islamophobic campaign is dishonest, despicable nonsense. It brings the Mayor’s office into disrepute. He has made a very serious libellous statement

Ken Livingstone should produce the evidence to back up his claim that my campaign has focused on the Grand Mufti.

Only the other day I reported on the St. Petersburg Declaration which held to the commonsense view that:

We see no colonialism, racism, or so-called “Islamaphobia” in submitting Islamic practices to criticism or condemnation when they violate human reason or rights.

This has to be a good thing in ending the complicity of the left in ignoring certain regimes that consistently violate human rights because they are focussed solely on "Chimpy Bush" and the "War on Terror".

Tags: gay rights, human rights, peter tatchell, ken livingstone, george broadhead, gay and lesbian humanist association, secular islam summit, st petersburg declaration, islamaphobia

Posted by Dr. K at 1:13 PM | Permalink

I went out and bought a large tin of white digital paint and some smaller tins of grey - I was sick of the default "blue on blue" look and decided to do something about it.

While I was there I decided to remodel and renovate a bit - hence the change to the "two column look".

I like some of it - but I'm not sure of the rest - so I might just remodel and repaint a little more before leaving it another year or so ...

Right now I think the "black and white and grey" approach fits the content nicely - not everything is as "black and white" as it seems - which is why I have been experiencing some cognitive dissonance lately ...

Tags: redecoration, renovation, remodelling, blogging, movable type, default designs, head furniture

Posted by Dr. K at 6:18 PM | Permalink

It comes as no surprise to find that certain factions of the Islamic world are just as concerned with women's rights and freedom as I am - after all they have to live within Islamic society.

The "St. Petersburg Declaration" from Secular Islam Summit - subtitled "The Next Islamic Enlightenment Starts Now" makes some relevant points about the current problems that face us in the New Cold War.

We are secular Muslims, and secular persons of Muslim societies. We are believers, doubters, and unbelievers, brought together by a great struggle, not between the West and Islam, but between the free and the unfree.

We affirm the inviolable freedom of the individual conscience. We believe in the equality of all human persons.

We insist upon the separation of religion from state and the observance of universal human rights.

We find traditions of liberty, rationality, and tolerance in the rich histories of pre-Islamic and Islamic societies. These values do not belong to the West or the East; they are the common moral heritage of humankind.

We see no colonialism, racism, or so-called “Islamaphobia” in submitting Islamic practices to criticism or condemnation when they violate human reason or rights.

I agree with these people.

We should not give Islam a "free pass" on human rights in the name of "cultural equivalance", "moral equivalence" or even "multicultural political correctness".

These (very brave) people put it quite plainly and call for governments of the world to:

Eliminate practices, such as female circumcision, honor killing, forced veiling, and forced marriage, that further the oppression of women; (and to) protect sexual and gender minorities from persecution and violence.

Quite ... I bet my wife and mother would agree as well ...

Tags: secular islam summit, islam, womens rights, human rights, islamic reform movement, st petersburg declaration

Posted by Dr. K at 1:31 PM | Permalink

Seems like I am not the only person on the planet who finds mobile phones annoying - Charlie Brooker expresses his annoyance in the Guardian - My new mobile is lumbered with a bewildering array of unnecessary features aimed at idiots

The menu system is a confusing mangle of branching dead ends. It has touch-sensitive buttons that either refuse to work, or leap into action if you breathe on them. One such button also terminates calls, so it is easy to cut people off merely by holding the phone against your ear to hear them. It has no apparent "silent" mode, and when you set it to vibrate, it buzzes like a hornet in a matchbox.

It is lumbered with a bewildering array of unnecessary "features" aimed at idiots, including a mode that scans each text message and turns some of the words into tiny ani- mations, so if someone texts to say they have just run over your child in their car, the word "car" is replaced by a wacky cartoon vehicle putt-putting onto the screen. There is also a crap built-in game in which you play a rabbit ("Step into the role of Bobby Carrot - the new star of cute, mind-cracking carrot action!").

When you dial a number, you have a choice of seeing said number in a gigantic, ghastly typeface, or watching it moronically scribbled on parchment by an animated quill. I can't find an option to see it in small, uniform numbers. The whole thing is the visual equivalent of a moronic clip-art jumble sale poster designed in the dark by a myopic divorcee experiencing a freak biorhythmic high. Worst of all, it seems to have an unmarked omnipresent shortcut to Orange's internet service, which means that whether you are confused by the menu, or the typeface, or the user- confounding buttons, you are never more than one click away from accidentally plunging into an overpriced galaxy of idiocy, which, rather than politely restricting itself to news headlines and train timetables, thunders "BUFF OR ROUGH? GET VOTING!" and starts hurling cameraphone snaps of "babes and hunks" in their underwear at you, presumably because some pin-brained coven of marketing gonks discovered the average Orange internet user was teenage and incredibly stupid, so they set about mercilessly tailoring all their "content" toward priapic halfwits, thereby assuring no one outside this slim demographic will ever use their gaudy, insulting service ever again.

If any mobile phone manufacturers out there want to challenge my biased "mobile-o-phobia" I would be happy to test anything you send to me - after all if you can convince a mobile phone hater to use your phone you are half way to convincing a whole un-tapped market of mobile phone haters to replace or update their present phones.

Right now I just put up with them - they are an annoyance - but if you listen to annoyed consumers you might discover something to your advantage ...

Tags: mobile phones, guardian, orange, charlie brooker

Posted by Dr. K at 5:22 PM | Permalink

There is a great article in Wired - Herding the Mob.

I've already talked about my problems with the Wisdom of the Herd before - and my recent explorations of propaganda and disinformation do nothing to convince me that following the "bleater" like a flock of sheep is going to produce a "better society" ..

I'm going to list the Wired categories and nothing more - if you are interested you know where to find it ...

Four ways to manipulate the mob

The Buddy System (e.g. digg)

Users organise into groups to vote up one and other's stories.

Geek Baiting (e.g. Digg, Reddit & del.icio.us)

Companies publish geek friendly articles that have nothing to do with their business. The Goal: to drive traffic to an ad-filled Web site

Network for Hire (e.g. digg)

Clients hire scamming firms to promote their articles. These outfits recruit networks of uses willing to sell their votes

Pump-and-chump (e.g. eBay)

Retailers earn a good reputation selling insexpensive products, then defraud customers on more upscale items.

But I have to add:

Search Engine Bombing (e.g Google Bombing)

Many people create pages that link keywords with other keywords i..e "George Bush" and "failure".

SEO Optimisation (e.g. White Hat SEO)

Uses a "black box" techniqiue to explore Search Engine algorithms and optimise pages for high rankings within the scope of the terms of service.

"Blackhat" SEO Optimisation (e.g. Black Hat SEO)

Uses a "black box" techniqiue to explore Search Engine algorithms and optimise pages for high rankings - but soutside scope of the terms of service.

"Spam Blogs" (e.g. Splogs)

Uses the "blog technique" to build links and "Spam the Herd" - uses all of the above techniques to good effect on digg, reddit and del.icio.us ..

Anyway "gaming the herd" has been staple of human societies ever since they first invented politicians and priests

Tags: wisdom of the herd, crowdhacking, wired, digg, reddit, delicious, spam, spamblogs, seo, blackhat seo, propaganda, spamming the herd

Posted by Dr. K at 9:19 AM | Permalink

Interesting - because it puts back the idea of astronomical observations in the "New World" by a number of years
Ancient Solar Observatory Discovered in Peru

The first solar observatory in the Americas may have been uncovered in coastal Peru. The ceremonial site provides evidence of sophisticated 'cults of the Sun' operating in South America as early as 2300 years ago.

Other ancient structures around the world – such as Stonehenge, which is estimated to be 5000 years old – are aligned with the rising and setting of the Sun on certain days called the solstices. These occur twice a year, around 22 June and 22 December, when the Sun appears to reach its highest point above or below the equator.

Previously, archaeologists had uncovered 4000-year-old gourd fragments in Peru showing images of a "staff god" with rays emanating from its head, perhaps like the Sun (see America's oldest religious icon revealed).

Historical records also describe "Sun pillars" suggesting that South America's Incan civilisation was observing the Sun – possibly to help mark when to plant crops – around 1500 AD, though those pillars have since been destroyed. The Incas also held public rituals to observe the Sun rise or set at marked positions on the horizon, and Incan leaders claimed authority to rule through kinship to the Sun.

Tags: astro-archaeology, astronomy, history, science, pre-columbian

Posted by Dr. K at 8:41 PM | Permalink

From the "you couldn't make this up" department of NuLabour comes this following gem - via the BBC

Microchips in Britain's new ePassports only have two-year warranties, a National Audit Office report says.

They are so new, no-one knows how long they will last, or how the scanners reading them will work, the NAO said.

Public Accounts Committee chairman Edward Leigh said the fact they had a two-year warranty, when passports were kept for 10 years, was "most worrying".

More evidence of "jojned up thinking" from the government of choice for the UK - my only problem is that if you elect "the other lot" - they are bound to be just as stupid and corrupt as "this lot".

Like the old saying goes: "Whoever you vote for - the government always gets in".

Tags: no2id, id cards, id chips, passports, government incompentence, nanny state, big brother, you couldnt make it up, i dont believe it

Posted by Dr. K at 11:43 AM | Permalink