las ramblas, internet style

a little of this, a little of that. some bad news, some good news... get some chairs for the old folks and let's ramble.

first some fun stuff... this was a funny and convincing video on how easy it was to get into a club by pretending to be a d.j... guess i should hold onto my record bag even though i don't use records so much anymore...

hit me later is a great service to forward your mail into the future when you are more likely to reply. i've wanted this feature, and it's free.

in the ongoing scandals of the bush administration, a little more meat on the evidence i spoke of last week provided in this interview on democracy now. if you were not convinced of crimes already, pelosi, this should help... also even fairly mainstream press isn't buying the pinning of the 2001 anthrax attacks to bruce ivins. lots of good video. more info.

this mother jones article describes how the u.s. military fancies itself the successor to history's great empires. to bone up on history, check out the excellent and innovative timelines on the website historycommons.org.

for the web to stay innovative and pump out great collective efforts like wikipedia and history commons (above) we should be careful to provide alternative sources of bandwith, especially considering the upcoming internet patriot act. (AARRGH!!!)

if you are in spain, maybe you could help this anarchist on hunger strike... i still owe you all a post on the anarchist perspective on the 2008 presidential race... some day before election day!

and some good news, it looks like there are a lot more gorillas alive than previously believed, and even the humpack whale is making a comeback.

Read more...

osama bin laden

interesting article on the difficulties the c.i.a. is facing trying to find bin laden. a quote:

"In late 2005, senior CIA officers gathered at “The Farm,” the agency’s training facility near Williamsburg, Va. During the session, the CIA chief in Pakistan was asked why bin Laden remained free. He responded that he had fewer case officers covering the tribal areas than the CIA had in its counterterrorism squad in Rome, according to a former CIA officer who would not allow his name to be used because the session was classified. There were about a dozen agents in Rome at the time."

also see morgan spurlock's "where in the world is osama bin laden"

earlier - may 5th, 2008 post 125 "osama bin laden's son works for peace"

Read more...

"you're on cctv!"

l.v. & dandelion (above) created a beautiful tune. "cctv" is an orwellian roots tune atop a hotsteppin' dub bass cluster. mining deep the tubby playbook with some burial updates the beat is a mover for sure and the harmonic pondering of dandelion is loaded with lovely bytes... "i'm gonna fight you with my heart and soul," "give a smile to the authority!"... surely this distopian vision has been moved by britain's obnoxious surveillance, but it's not a mere message tune... give it a listen. UPDATE:removed after a very kind note from LV... check their myspace pages for the track (links above off their names)

(mp3) l.v. & dandelion - "cctv" from hyperdub011(buy it link)

Read more...

how to carry groceries with a cloth

do it in several awesome japanese styles... two minute video:

original linkvia popurls

Read more...

a little news update...

the youth (and older folks) riot in montreal after the killing of an 18 year old by police.

russia invades georgia. obama calls for international mediation. john mccain plagiarizes wikipedia instead.

while even more evidence comes in that bush has commited crimes, pelosi hasn't read the articles of impeachment!

oh yeah, and the olympics are happening in china. seriously.


to recover from all this information of a largely negative nature, you can read some beautiful poems by recently deceased palestinian poet, mahmoud darwish...

Read more...

awesome piano scale resource

i've always really liked this piano scale resource site. it's super-intuitive, exhaustive and has funny names of chords like "enigmatic", "pelog", and "roumanian minor" (which is a beautiful scale...)

Read more...

states renamed for countries with similar g.d.p.

states renamed for countries with similar g.d.p.
click image for the big version...

via strange maps

Read more...

rome wasn't burned in a day...

keep it up people... (a letter from "annie nimmety", typos and all, a good call to action!)

i still owe people a post on the anarchist perspective on the elections... just busy... soon!

in the meantime, enjoy this: (mp3)flying lotus - "comet course" from "los angeles", sweet!

Read more...

the stunning work of chris jordan

can you tell what this image is? probably not, that's ridiculous. let's zoom a little closer to a detail...

the maybe perfect vision having of us can probably tell what this is. but for sake of clarity, let's zoom a little further...


that's right, it's a 60" x 100" photo print by chris jordan, depicting 426,000 cellphones, equal to the number of cell phones retired in the US every day. EVERY DAY! his work is amazing and makes (more) visually palpable, more obvious, the incredible consumption and waste we perpetrate, we inflict, in america. not just our plastic bottles and catalogs, but our detainees and our prisoners. view our war budget displayed as $100 dollar bills. immense scale, immense impact, read the text, click the link...

Read more...

delia derbyshire, mother of techno

delia derbyshire (1937-2001).

most famous for her uncredited (though not by lack of trying by the credited composer) work on the doctor who theme was an early electronic experimenter and composer.

she worked with brian jones, hendrix and yoko ono, among others.

anyway, this recently discovered recording sounds a whole lot like techno... (early aphex twin, anyone?) but it was made in the 60's!

much more about delia on her site.
more articles here and here.

via absent narrative via metafilter

Read more...

get your war on

this is the premier video of the new animated version of the classic clip-art comic "get your war on" (click here to read the series from the very beginning, 10/9/01) the series focuses on the stupidty and language of the bush administration's war machine.
this first comic pretty much sums up the tone...

Read more...