"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." "Like I always say, there's no 'I' in "team". There is a 'me', though, if you jumble it up." We would worry less about what others think of us if we realized how seldom they do. Wisdom - that part of knowledge that isn't only true, but also happens to be helpful. Wisdom speaks softly... Thereafter the volume increases proportionate to the level of ignorance A punctured bicycle
On a hillside desolate
Will nature make a man of me yet? All designed objects are propaganda for a certain way of life. Sometimes we need to stop analysing the past, stop planning the future, stop figuring out precisely how we feel, stop deciding exactly what we want, and just see what happens. We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person. "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence." --Napoleon Bonaparte The best designed clothes: invite being removed but reward being kept on. It's that you just can't take the effect and make it the cause | Our political system protects and enriches a fantastically wealthy elite, much of whose money is, as a result of their interesting tax and transfer arrangements, in effect stolen from poorer countries, and poorer citizens of their own countries. Ours is a semi-criminal money-laundering economy, legitimised by the pomp of the lord mayor’s show and multiple layers of defence in government. Politically irrelevant, economically invisible, the rest of us inhabit the margins of the system. Governments ensure that we are thrown enough scraps to keep us quiet, while the ultra-rich get on with the serious business of looting the global [ continue reading To us, it’s an obscure shift of tax law. To the City, it’s the heist of the century ] DK Matai has a great little outline on how the open source revolt spread in Tunisia. It was very open much open source warfare (OSW, the dominant form of warfare in the 21st Century), but with a rapidly evolving protest/revolt twist (OSW + flashmobs). Thing is, the conditions within which the revolt spread are becoming pretty common. Here they are: Extreme price shocks in basic commodities. Food and energy. Extreme corruption. A globally connected elite appropriating everything. Extreme connectivity. Cell phones and other social media. Given that the global system is highly unstable (extreme leverage, concentration, tight coupling, [ continue reading TUNISIA and OPEN SOURCE REVOLT ] 100,000 starlings fill the skies in Poole from Mark Rigler on Vimeo. So if you go down to the woods today, you’ll find the best metaphor for Cameronism. Change your party’s logo to a lovely green tree – then sell off all the real trees to corporations. Oh, and then say you are “empowering volunteers” by doing it. The Prime Minister has said the forest sell-off “empowers local communities” to take over the forests for themselves as part of a “Big Society.” Yet sources within the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs say that – unsurprisingly – only about [ continue reading For sale: Britain’s forests and seas, and David Cameron’s claims to be green ] As writers say, the difference between fiction and fact is that fiction has to be believable. So all those Bourne films are so believable and everything on ‘The News’ is so ridiculous. Osama Bin Laden: still at-large, Ratko Mladic: still at large, Sylvio Berlusconi: in charge of a bankrupt country – and its media, Tony Blair & George Bush doing lecture tours, the €uro bankrupt while the workers of Germany subsidise a continent, and so on. The world changed years ago. Just ask the Book, Music and Film Industries, newspaper publishers, television companies, High-Street shopkeepers and expense-fiddling MPs, who can [ continue reading #WikiLeaks #cablegate – Mirrors of the website & #Visa, #Mastercard transferring funds to racists ] Aaron Huey’s effort to photograph poverty in America led him to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where the struggle of the native Lakota people — appalling, and largely ignored — compelled him to refocus. Five years of work later, his haunting photos intertwine with a shocking history lesson in this bold, courageous talk from TEDxDU. THE BLACK HILLS ARE NOT FOR SALE. “The best things in life aren’t things” [ continue reading The Lakota Sioux; still prisoners of war. Pine Ridge, Wounded Knee and ‘what happens next?’ ] Offered a choice between the products of the grape and the hop, Peter Swann admits that he would go for wine every time. But in his capacity as professor of industrial economics at Nottingham University, he has become fascinated by the workings of the brewing industry, and the phenomenal spread of microbreweries in particular, helped in no small measure by tax breaks from Gordon Brown when he was chancellor. The result is a new paper called The Fall and Rise of the Local Brew – a heartening tale, he believes, with implications for other sectors of the economy. “The [ continue reading Big beer producers caught on the hop ] We tend to think of submarines as being a particularly 20th century object when we imagine the nuclear powered, nuclear missile carrying versions. Obviously however, they feature in the Jules Verne classic, ‘20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea’ and are, as such a definitive Victorian piece of technology, or to use the term currently in vogue, ’steampunk’. Although the idea of a submarine began as early as the 16th century, it was in the Victorian era that the modern cigar with periscope form was developed with France’s Gymnote in 1889. Included here is a picture of the [ continue reading victorian submarines ] What a waste of tax money. This kind of… via 2.bp.blogspot.com What a waste of tax money. This kind of thing is clearly a result of poor urban planning. (CLICK HERE FOR MORE »» The Rubbish Bin via 2.bp.blogspot.com What a waste of tax money. This kind of…: .) I am opposed to the building of the “mosque” two blocks from Ground Zero. I want it built on Ground Zero. Why? Because I believe in an America that protects those who are the victims of hate and prejudice. I believe in an America that says you have the right to worship whatever God you have, wherever you want to worship. And I believe in an America that says to the world that we are a loving and generous people and if a bunch of murderers steal your religion from you and use it as their excuse to [ continue reading If the ‘Mosque’ Isn’t Built, This Is No Longer America | MichaelMoore.com ] To make our influence felt we must live our faith, we must practice what we believe. A magnet does not attract iron, as iron. It must first convert the iron into another magnet before it can attract it. It is useless for a parent to try to teach gentleness to her children when she herself is cross and irritable. The child who is told to be truthful and who hears a parent lie cleverly to escape some little social unpleasantness is not going to cling very zealously to truth. The parent’s words say “don’t lie,” the influence of the [ continue reading The Power of Personal Influence ] Shortly before Ronnie Lee Gardner was shot through the heart by a five-man firing squad at Utah State Prison, Mark Shurtleff tweeted: “I just gave the go ahead to Corrections Director to proceed with Gardner’s execution.” “A solemn day,” Mr Shurtleff typed, “Barring a stay Utah will use most extreme power and execute a killer. Mourn his victims. Justice.” Gardner, 49–who spent 25 years on death row for gunning down a lawyer during a failed court-room escape–chose to die by firing squad, an option open to him because he was convicted before Utah adopted lethal injection in 2004. He [ continue reading How To Die By Firing Squad ] My Thought: yes. Re-bury please. SHOULD we consider the privacy or reputation of the individual when analysing an Egyptian mummy? The assumption that ancient corpses are fair game for science is beginning to be challenged. Though strict ethical guidelines apply to research on modern tissue samples, up until now there has been little discussion about work on ancient human remains. In a recent paper in the Journal of Medical Ethics (DOI: 10.1136/jme.2010.036608), anatomist Frank Rühli and ethicist Ina Kaufmann of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, argue that this is disturbing because research on mummies is invasive and reveals intimate information [ continue reading Do Egyptian mummies have a right to privacy? ] You might not have noticed because most of the British press seems curiously reluctant to cover it, but earlier in the week, the New York Times produced some new evidence that the Conservative party’s chief spin doctor Andy Coulson knew much more about the phone hacking scandal of 2006 than he was letting on. Maybe they were too busy covering allegations regarding William Hague’s sexuality, and his emotional revelations about not being gay that came out at the same time, handily and totally coincidentally for the Conservatives’ spin doctor. Ahem. (CLICK HERE FOR MORE »» Five Chinese Crackers: [ continue reading What would the Met get in return for not looking hard at News of the World phone hacking? ] Members of the community will have to pay to be part of the Big Society Network and receive support for their neighbourhood projects. The network, launched by prime minister David Cameron at Downing Street earlier this month, aims to become the ‘largest mutual in the UK’ and will be a support [ continue reading Communities must pay to join Big Society Network ] At the Big Society in the North event some brave people started to venture into no-man’s-land to try to make something of it. We had Alistair Sinclair, who wants to set up community-led support groups for people recovering from substance misuse. There was Kate Welch, who wanted to explore how to build personal and emotional resilience in order to enable people to bounce back from setbacks such as unemployment or homelessness. Another group considered Simon Cooke’s suggestion of building street networks and a ‘supermarket street’ of small shops as a way of building mutual support. A fourth considered how [ continue reading Living with rats: Explorations in no-man’s-land ] “Hello fringsters, As you may have noticed, Skype has blocked fring. We are very sorry for any convenience this Skype policy has unfairly caused you. As loyal fring users, you deserve an explanation: Last week, following the surge in fring video calling traffic, fring service to Skype was temporarily reduced . Unfortunately, Skype and their legal team demanded not to restore your connectivity to Skype via fring. Needless to say, we are very disappointed that Skype is now trying to muzzle competition, even at the expense of its own users.” fring- make FREE Mobile calls, video calls [ continue reading fring- make FREE Mobile calls, video calls & live chat . ] Samuel Holberry (1816 – 21 June 1842) was a prominent Chartist activist. Contents [hide] 1 Early years 2 Radical Chartism 3 Death in Prison 4 Commemoration 5 References [edit]Early years Holberry moved to Sheffield in the 1830s, where he married Mary Holberry and began working as a distiller. Together with other activists campaigning to extend the political rights given by the Reform Act 1832, he [ continue reading Samuel Holberry ] This video is part of the Mammoths and Mastadons exhibit at The Field Museum in Chicago, and was the Long Short for our Seminar with Nils Gilman. It’s a reverse time lapse put together by Greg Mercer and Emily Ward (editing), and David Quednau (animation). Unwinding 20,000 years of a modern American city and frontier outposts, Native American settlements and the last ice age, we arrive in their world and resurrect them in film. Perhaps most interesting is that this film is not the only place mammoths can now come alive, but also as Stewart points [ continue reading Mammoth Time Lapse ] We may not have learned much from last summer’s Confederations Cup, but we certainly became well acquainted with the word ‘vuvuzela’ and the mute button on the TV remote. If anything, the horns will be louder still at the World Cup: what effect will they have on the players and coaches? A horny issue Bryan Robson is in no doubt: the vuvuzela is a weapon. The former Middlesbrough boss offered a stark warning after seeing his [ continue reading the effect of the vuzuzela ] If Ron Wayne, now 76, weren’t one of the most luckless men in the history of Silicon Valley, it wouldn’t have turned out like this. He was present at the birth of cool on April Fool’s Day, 1976: Co-founder — along with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak — of the Apple Computer Inc., Wayne designed the company’s original logo, wrote the manual for the Apple I computer, and drafted the fledgling company’s partnership agreement. Apple’s lost founder: Jobs, Woz and Wayne ] I’m sorry, it’s just too difficult any longer to believe any athlete about drugs. Too many of them have lied and lied and lied, until they were proved to be … lying. Oh, I know they’re all innocent until proven guilty. It’s just that by now, I’m afraid that I think sport — all sport — is guilty until proven innocent. Sports Fan’s Dilemma: Trusting An Athlete Today : NPR. Throughout history a lot of dodgy individuals have claimed to speak on behalf of ‘The People’, but Thomas’s might just be the most dubious claim yet. By ‘The People’ he actually means members of his audiences, who were asked, during his recent stand-up tour, to come up with policies for a manifesto. The idea that the kind of people who attend Mark Thomas gigs represent the people really is funny. Simply the fact that they enjoy being bombarded with radical-liberal prejudices camouflaged badly as gags – Coca-Cola is evil! Rupert Murdoch is Satan! – should be evidence enough that [ continue reading sp!ked review of books | Radical snobbery ] Sometimes the best problem-solving technology already exists, as in the case of the tumpline. A new addition to Patagonia‘s line of hiking gear, the simple tumpline has been used for centuries by people needing to transport heavy equipment in undeveloped areas. The sling attaches to heavy backpacks and by suspending it from your head, the tumpline more evenly distributes the weight, alleviating pressure on the hips, shoulders and back. While it takes time to get used to, it eases some pains of carrying a pack and promotes better posture overall. Read more about the tumpline at [ continue reading Patagonia Tumpline ] | Shirdi Sai Baba: "Before you speak, ask yourself: Is it kind, is it true, is it necessary, does it improve upon the silence?" Well known fact that any kiss where one or other party is in control of heavy machinery doesn't count for quality assessment purposes. There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action. The honest heart that's free frae a' intended fraud or guile. However fortune kick the ba', Has ay some cause to smile. Life consists in replacing one worry with another, and one desire with the next, what the Buddhists call ‘grasping’ or upādāna in Sanskrit "Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future." "Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die." A wrong decision isn't forever; it can be reversed. The losses from a delayed decision are forever; they can never be retrieved. heavy words thrown lightly And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Whenever you commend, add your reasons for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of sycophants and admiration of fools “The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.” |
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