What’s the harm in believing in superstition, religion and other things that aren’t true? Here is the harm. Read up, true believers.
Archive > September 2003
From the Christian Science Monitor: The music and film industries continue to battle over the need to expand copyright protection, and to limit sharing and reuse of prior work. The fashion industry, driven by similar market interests, employs a modus operandi that accepts rather than rejects derivation and appropriation as creative tools. [...] While many people dismiss fashion as trivial and ephemeral, its economic importance and cultural influence are enormous. US apparel sales alone were $180 billion a few years ago, supporting an estimated 80,000 garment factories, and fashion is a major force in music, entertainment, and other creative sectors. [...] The Hollywood studios and major record labels consider it self-evident and axiomatic that creativity must be strictly controlled through copyright law, lest it be “stolen” and creators forced out of business. It is a significant point that creators, especially individual artists, need effective, reliable ways to be paid for their work – and copyright offers one important vehicle. But the fashion industry has a deeper faith in the power of creativity. Despite scant legal protection, fashion businesses invest enormous sums in each new season’s creative cycle – and reap substantial profits year after year. For virtually all players in fashion, some form of derivation, recombination, imitation, revival of old styles, and outright knockoff is the norm. Few denounce, let alone sue, the appropriator for “creative theft.” They’re too busy trying to stay ahead of the competition through the sheer power of their design and marketing prowess.
Nigerian Amina Lawal was sentenced to being burried up to her neck and stoned to death last year for having a child two years after her divorce. This was to be done in accordance to Islamic law. Latest news is that her sentence may be lessened to 100 lashes, also in accordance to Islamic law. In Jordan, women who are accused of extra-marital sex are regularly murdered by father-son teams in what are known as ‘honor killings’ under Islamic law. Jordan tried to increase the penalties against such murderers but it was “overwhelmingly rejected.” A law allowing women to divorce men was sent back for further discussion. “Jordanian MPs argue that more lenient punishments will violate religious traditions and damage the fabric of Jordan’s conservative society, where men have the final say.”
In his review of The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad, Matthew Leeming writes “It is a sobering thought that whole cultures and educated elites can commit intellectual suicide. ” In the ‘East’ they are doing it with Islam, and in the ‘West’ they are doing it with Christianity. It is time to make a stand against religion.
Do you like old engravings of pirates riding on the sholders of monks, driving them forward with cat-o-nine-tails? I sure do.
Welcome to Zombo Dot Com.
Every now and then I find a site so full of good links that I just say “go there” rather than mine the links (and cop the cool) out of it. Reality Carnival is one such site. Go there.
The Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act (re-introduced to Congress by Rep. Walter Jones, R-NC) seeks to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 by inserting the following text…
“An organization described in section 508(c)(1)(A) (relating to churches) shall not fail to be treated as organized and operated exclusively for a religious purpose, or to have participated in, or intervened in any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office, for purposes of subsection (c)(3), or section 170(c)(2) (relating to charitable contributions), because of the content, preparation, or presentation of any homily, sermon, teaching, dialectic, or other presentation made during religious services or gatherings.”
In plain English, should this amendment pass a religious organization would be able to devote any amount of its resources to political campaigns and retain tax-free status. Seems like a clear case of you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.
More on ‘keeping it real’ – a fine article on why the symbolic Presidential candidate of the National Organization of Women is maybe not the most helpful thing.
What do you do when the photograph you want to put on Hot or Not has somebody else in it? You do one of these things.
Bad Toon Rising is a collection of drawings of well-known cartoon characters produced by amateur artists entirely from memory and without any reference materials whatsoever. We can all picture what Mickey Mouse or the Pink Panther look like in our minds, but getting that image down on paper is another matter!
Dave Eggers (formerly of Might, now of McSweeneys) said to the Harvard Advocate: “And now, as far as McSweeney’s is concerned, The Advocate interviewer wants to know if we’re losing also our edge, if the magazine is selling out, hitting the mainstream, if we’re still committed to publishing unknowns, and pieces killed by other magazines. And the fact is, I don’t give a fuck. When we did the last issue, this was my thought process: I saw a box. So I decided we’d do a box. We were given stories by some of our favorite writers – George Saunders, Rick Moody (who is uncool, uncool!), Haruki Murakami, Lydia Davis, others – and so we published them. Did I wonder if people would think we were selling out, that we were not fulfilling the mission they had assumed we had committed ourselves to? No. I did not. Nor will I ever. We just don’t care. We care about doing what we want to do creatively. We want to be interested in it. We want it to challenge us. We want it to be difficult. We want to reinvent the stupid thing every time. Would I ever think, before I did something, of how those with sellout monitors would respond to this or that move? I would not. The second I sense a thought like that trickling into my brain, I will put my head under the tires of a bus.” [...] “The thing is, I really like saying yes. I like new things, projects, plans, getting people together and doing something, trying something, even when it’s corny or stupid. I am not good at saying no. And I do not get along with people who say no. When you die, and it really could be this afternoon, under the same bus wheels I’ll stick my head if need be, you will not be happy about having said no. You will be kicking your ass about all the no’s you’ve said. No to that opportunity, or no to that trip to Nova Scotia or no to that night out, or no to that project or no to that person who wants to be naked with you but you worry about what your friends will say. No is for wimps. No is for pussies. No is to live small and embittered, cherishing the opportunities you missed because they might have sent the wrong message. There is a point in one’s life when one cares about selling out and not selling out. One worries whether or not wearing a certain shirt means that they are behind the curve or ahead of it, or that having certain music in one’s collection means that they are impressive, or unimpressive.” [...] “Thankfully, for some, this all passes. I am here to tell you that I have, a few years ago, found my way out of that thicket of comparison and relentless suspicion and judgment. And it is a nice feeling. Because, in the end, no one will ever give a shit who has kept shit ‘real’ except the two or three people, sitting in their apartments, bitter and self-devouring, who take it upon themselves to wonder about such things. The keeping real of shit matters to some people, but it does not matter to me.”
One of my memories of the days following September 11th, 2001, is that there were no airplanes in the sky. Only once did I see an airplane, perhaps three days later; it was a military plane traveling at speed over Portland, Oregon. The reason is this; quite soon after the attacks on the World Trade Center began, all air traffic was halted in the United States. You had to get special permission to fly, and that special permission had to come from rather high-up federal authorities.
Imagine my surprise in reading (in the New York Times? Time Magazine? USA Today? No, the Scottish Edinburgh Evening News Online, of course) that “The United States allowed members of Osama bin Laden’s family to jet out of the US in the immediate aftermath of September 11, even as American airspace was closed.” Here’s the rest of the article…
Former White House counter-terrorism tsar Richard Clarke said the Bush administration sanctioned the repatriation of about 140 high-ranking Saudi Arabians, including relatives of the al-Qaida chief.
“Somebody brought to us for approval the decision to let an aeroplane filled with Saudis, including members of the Bin Laden family, leave the country,” he said.
Mr Clarke said he checked with FBI officials, who gave the go ahead. “So I said: ‘Fine, let it happen.’”
He first asked the bureau to check that no-one “inappropriate” was leaving.
“I have no idea if they did a good job,” he added.
Dale Watson, the FBI’s former head of counter-terrorism, said that, while the bureau identified the Saudis who were on the plane, “they were not subject to serious interrogations”.
The plane is believed to have landed in ten US cities picking up passengers, including Los Angeles, Washington DC, Boston and Houston. At the time, access to US airspace was restricted and required special government approval.
Tom Kinton, director of aviation at Boston’s Logan Airport, said: “We were in the midst of the worst terrorist act in history and here we were seeing an evacuation of the Bin Ladens.”
But he said it was clear the flight had been sanctioned by federal authorities.
Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the US who is said to have organised the exodus, met President George Bush on September 13, 2001, two days after the terror attacks. It is not known if they discussed the repatriation plan.
The White House has declined to comment on the claims, but sources said the Bush administration was confident no secret flights took place.
Mr Clarke said he did not recall who requested approval for the flights, but believes it was either the FBI or the State Department.
But FBI spokesman John Iannarelli said: “I can say unequivocally that the FBI had no role in facilitating these flights.”
Ugly.
The 1976 version of the theme music to All Things Considered was the best one. I wish I had a copy in mp3 format.
If you are very, very patient, have a dedicated and speedy connection to the Internet, and like Kraftwerk, and want to make a CD for me, here’s a bunch of videos to download. Thanks.
Next time you need to send a fax, consider sending it most anywhere in the world for free over the Web via tcp.int.
365gay.com reports: “A Eugene, Oregon school is refusing to register a 4 year old girl because her parents are lesbians. The couple is taking the issue to the Eugene Human Rights Commission and the Oregon Child Care Division. One of the mothers, Lee Inkmann, said that the principal of O’Hara Catholic School informed her that to accept the child would be a violation of Catholic teaching on homosexuality. Inkmann said that in a mid August meeting with O’Hara Principal Dianne Bert she was told that having a family with two mothers at the school would confuse other children, and that gay unions are in conflict with Vatican teachings.”
(I’d just like to add that the home page for O’Hara Catholic School is titled “SWiSH MOVIE.”)
AI.Planet is a virtual world for artificial intelligence. The environment has water, land, suns, moons, and atmosphere. Plants, animals, fish, and insects can be added to create a dynamic ecosystem. Clouds, rain, wind, lightning, rivers, and icebergs naturally arise from the sun and other influences. You can explore your planet from outer space, by walking around, by tracking creatures, or by controlling a robot that interacts with objects. Artificial Planet is an OpenSource project built with Delphi and GLScene.
“We cannot rule out the possibility that it is a new species of ape, or a new subspecies or some form of hybrid.”
I can’t get it working here at pleasant, but check out this counter for the cost of war.
