Del.icio.us links for October 5th through October 18th:
- Postal strike is an act of desperation – “As usual they emphasise the effects of strike action, not its causes. In the case of the postal workers the causes are simple, and they are experienced daily by the ordinary, hard-working people who deliver our mail.” A good piece, although as usual I want to punch the snide, smug, arrogant contrarian shits in the comments.
Tags: royalmail strike UK privatisation jobs employment - Another Wall Street bubble, thanks to the bailout – I suppose it shouldn¹t come as a surprise that the biggest of the big banks in America that sucked up tens of billions in government aid are now rolling in profits. That¹s how this game works. Thus, JPMorgan has just reported a 580% profit increase over last year to a whopping $3.6 billion third-quarter profit. The reason is, purely and simply, that the money that the US government pumped into the banking and financial sector has created a new Wall St. bubble with stock prices rising by nearly 50% to top the psychological benchmark of 10,000.
Tags: economics economiccrisis capitalism boomandbust politics banking USA - The pitfalls of tolerance – The Tories are lauded for adopting a new attitude of ‘tolerance’ toward homosexuals, and one feels an immediate pressure to partake of this cosiness, this idea that something uncomplicatedly benign is happening. Increasingly, moreover, one is apt to hear ‘tolerance’ name-dropped in respect of racial problems in the UK, in which the absence of ‘tolerance’ is either a euphemism for racism, or an attitude ascribed to supposedly self-segregating minorities. And in its function as part of a martial ideology, ‘tolerance’ is what NATO troops defend against ‘native fanaticism’. The word and its various significations do a lot of ideological work, obscuring and inverting crucial social relations, and smuggling in a patronising attitude to the subjects of said ‘tolerance’.
Tags: tolerance politics society racism imperialism cultural UK colonialism history - Spec-tac-ul-ar. Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love adversity – The news media spectacle of the Credit crisis, portrays our socially produced institutions of Banking Conglomerates and Federal Banks appearing as ‘god like personalities controlling our lives without reason or accountability’. Richard Seymour traces a corresponding spectacularising and alienating representation of Capitalisms inherent cyclical logic of wealth obliteration.
Tags: capitalism culture film art representation alienation consumerism materialism richardseymour - Better off on the dole – The focus on [recruiting] young people makes strategic sense. In 2006, 14,000 people left the British armed forces, but only 12,000 signed up – and most of the new recruits were teenagers. Last night at a Stop the War Coalition meeting, I learned a bit more about what this effort to draft the kids now entails. For it seems that the British Army is now placing stalls at further education colleges on enrolment day. And what they do when there is offer students a £5,000 bursary to sign up for the army there and then. They do not immediately join, for they are only sixteen, but rather complete their two years of study at college, and are then committed to four years of military service. This makes Britain the only country in Europe that targets sixteen year olds for military recruitment. And they don’t even necessarily stick to their own rules in this process, as it was revealed back in 2007 that the British government had sent soldiers under the age of eighteen into southern Iraq.
Tags: waronterror armedforces recruitment UK britain afghanistan iraq youth teenagers propaganda - Court considers stripping Silvio Berlusconi of immunity – Italy’s prime minister, already on the defensive because of a lurid sex-and-drugs scandal, could go back on trial in two cases if an act passed last year to shield him from the law is thrown out. In his address to the court, Berlusconi’s lawyer, Gaetano Pecorella, said that as a result of changes to Italy’s electoral law the nation’s prime minister could no longer be regarded in the same way as other politicians. Pecorella told the judges the prime minister was “no longer ‘first among equals’, but must be considered ‘first above equals’.”
Tags: italy silvioberlusconi corruption capitalism - Marek Edelman – This is what Marek Edelman did. In April 1943 he, along with some confederates of his – notably Mordecai Anielewicz, Chaim Frimmer and Adam Halperin – embarked on a violent uprising, using a combination of home-made and obsolete weapons, against the Nazis. Their aim was to stop the Nazis from transporting them to Treblinka, one of the Operation Reinhard camps, and murdering them. Two thirds of the ghetto’s population had already been taken away by the time the Jewish Fighting Organisation was formed.
Tags: history ww2 genocide judaism resistancemovements - The new rules of news – “Here’s a list of 22 things, not in any particular order, that I’d insist upon if I ran a news organization.” Bugger me, if only even half of these were applied.
Tags: journalism web2.0 socialnetworks socialchange communication dialogue newspapers media - Punknews.org | Defiance, Ohio – Distance and preoccupation tend to be the Achilles’ heel for most bands, but folk punk act Defiance, Ohio manages to make it work. Perhaps circumstance prohibit them from the more traditional band experience. Though, given everything the members are involved in, the core requirements are there: they do play shows (sometimes), they do put out records (sporadically), and they do communicate with each other (a lot). In an effort to make up for their lack of touring this year, they are making the trek down to play Fest 8. Upright bassist Ryan recently talked to Matthew Bentel about the challenges popularity incurs, the insatiable desire to stay involved, and the increasing interest in “licensing” their music.
Tags: interview band music - Punknews.org | The Gaslight Anthem – “Trusty Chords” (cover) – Video of the Gaslight Anthem covering HWM’s ‘Trusty Chords’.
Tags: band music thegaslightanthem - Hot Water Music – Retrospective Vol. 1 « (((unartig))) – Part 1 of a 4-part series of HWM retrospectives, full of live videos.
Tags: band music hotwatermusic - LONG DISTANCE CALLING on MySpace Music – Another rad epic prog metal/post-rock band.
Tags: band music - BETWEEN THE SCREAMS on MySpace Music – Epic/prog metal band.
Tags: band music - SPIRES on MySpace Music – Mid-pace melodic emo… really, really good.
Tags: band music hotdamn! - THE ARTERIES on MySpace Music – Neat UK punk rock.
Tags: band music - Above Them on MySpace Music – Ace melodic punk rock band from Yorkshire.
Tags: band music hotdamn! - Illness on MySpace Music – Wicked Brighton drum/gtr 2-piece.
Tags: band music - MIHAI EDRISCH on MySpace Music – Awesome French screamo band (tribute page with tunes).
Tags: band music hotdamn! - Punknews.org | About Nothington – Full album streams for the new album, plus preceding album ‘All In’.
Tags: band music - The Emergency Room on MySpace Music – Dan Andriano (Alk3) acoustic side-proj.
Tags: band music - Calvinball (free album download) on MySpace Music – Pretty ace Exeter punk band.
Tags: band music - OK PILOT on MySpace Music – Their new songs are excellent!
Tags: band music hotdamn! - BANGERS on MySpace Music – SxC!
Tags: band music - BROTHERS on MySpace Music – Pnk rck.
Tags: band music - Men on MySpace Music – I LIKE MENlololol
Tags: band music - run,WALK! on MySpace Music – SRS RADNSS
Tags: band music hotdamn! - Torture the Artist on MySpace Music – “Members of Screeching Weasel, Rise Against and Common Rider have joined up with vocalist Jorge Orillac – the nephew of the President of Panama – to release a record as Torture the Artist.”
Tags: band music hotdamn! - Failures’ Union on MySpace Music – Warm fuzz-pop/indie band (slightly a Lemuria side project).
Tags: band music - A TEXTBOOK TRAGEDY on MySpace Music – Good metalcore band with some occasionally cheesy, occasionally excellent melodic bits and vocal harmonies.
Tags: band music - Future of Music Summit: 115,000 albums and only 110 ‘hits’ – “U.S. album sales in 2008: More than 115,000 albums were released, but only 110 sold more than 250,000 copies, a mere 1,500 topped 10,000 sales, and fewer than 6,000 cracked the 1,000 barrier”
Tags: musicindustry music business economics - This film is on: inside the ATP movie – The comments make it sound like the film may not be so great, but this article is a great explication of why ATP is so rad.
Tags: festivals music independentmusic - The Thick of It: top 10 Malcolm Tucker quotes – To celebrate the return of Armando Iannucci’s political comedy on Saturday, 24 October, we recall Tucker’s finest moments.
Tags: funny quotes - My book is mine, not Google’s – Google has the support of the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, but it faces formidable opposition. Some 400 legal objections have been filed, and the US Department of Justice has serious concerns. The dispute was due to be resolved in court next week, but at the last minute Google and its partners asked for the case to be adjourned so they could make revisions. A hearing will still take place, but only to inform the parties concerned how Google intends to proceed.
Tags: books publishing web online google - Everyday Genius: Ellis Sharp – Impressionistic short story by Ellis Sharp.
Tags: fiction ellissharp story - What is a “clip job”? – “In the end, this article is just another “we love us” sort of thing, chockful of imaginary enemies, like “the publishers.” What exactly that’s supposed to mean remains unspoken, but well, what did you expect from a clip job?” THANK YOU. God, I wish fandom would shut up about this imagined snobbery.
Tags: SF fantasy books publishing genre writing snobbery literature literati - Why I Flame – As companies try to build their brands through newsgroups, e-mail feedback, and Web forums, the job title “Professional Flamer” stands ready to be penciled into the office hierarchy, right under “Chief Yahoo” and just over “Minister of Indie Culture.” In service to our employers, we flamers slither across the Internet—a realm where rudeness is a form of currency—and take out the customers, competitors, and wannabes who target businesses out of misplaced rage or the need to feel important.
Tags: nickmamatas internet web flaming argument PR - ‘Spider pill’ offers new way to scan for diseases including colon cancer – “A new way to scan for diseases, including cancer of the stomach or colon, using a remote contol ‘spider pill’ camera with moving legs, has been hailed by scientists in Italy.” Send one into Berlusconi, stat! Better yet, send an army!
Tags: medicine science research technology cancer disease diagnosis robotics - 100 years of Big Content fearing technology—in its own words – For the last hundred years, rightsholders have fretted about everything from the player piano to the VCR to digital TV to Napster. Here are those objections, in Big Content’s own words.
Tags: technology innovation content art creativity music television film business copyright