Linkfest: June 3rd – June 6th

Shaun CG — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 19:55:27 +0000

Del.icio.us links for June 3rd through June 6th:

WOUNDS – Cool aggro hardcore band from Dublin, a bit Gallows/Blackhole by way of early Refused and Modern Life Is War.
Tags: band music
PACER on MySpace Music – Melodic hardcore punk, ex-The Steal & others, doing some dates with OWTH later in 2010.
Tags: band music
FAT BICTH – A solitary badly-recorded tune from the fabulous weirdo-rockers Fat Bicth.
Tags: band music
Jonathan Cook, “Israel: Persecuting Ameer Makhoul” – A leading human rights activist from Israel’s Palestinian Arab minority was charged yesterday with the most serious security offences on Israel’s statute book, including espionage. Prosecutors indicted Ameer Makhoul, the head of Ittijah, an umbrella organization for Arab human rights groups in Israel, with spying on security facilities on behalf of Hizbollah after an alleged meeting with one of its agents in Denmark in 2008. Mr. Makhoul, who had been held incommunicado by Israel’s secret police, the Shin Bet, for much of the time since his arrest three weeks ago, appeared in court and pleaded not guilty. In his first public statement, he told the court: “The Shin Bet controls the Israeli justice system.” As a gag order was lifted on the case, his lawyers said Mr. Makhoul had been tortured during his detention, including being told by interrogators that they would leave him “disabled.”
Tags: israel palestine secretpolice humanrights activism
Mark Weisbrot, “No Justice, No Euro!” – The EU authorities and financiers believe that real wages must fall quite sharply in these countries in order to make them internationally competitive — but the protestors are responding with a fiscal version of ”No justice, no peace.”
They might add: “No justice, no euro.” From the beginning there have been serious economic questions about the viability and the desirability of the common currency — most importantly whether such a currency union was feasible among countries with greatly different productivity levels, no common fiscal policy, and a Central Bank committed only to maintaining very low inflation (without regard to employment). The populations now suffering under EU-imposed austerity must have a real and credible threat to get out — or they will end up with indefinite sacrifice for the reward of lower living standards.
Tags: europe euro economics recession EU resistance classwar
TeleSur, “Thousands of Israelis Protest against Israeli Blockade on Gaza Strip” – thousands of Israelis took to the main streets of Tel Aviv to repudiate the military aggression against the humanitarian flotilla to Gaza. “Jews and Arabs Refuse to Be Enemies” was the main theme of the demonstration. Signs and placards demonstrated the solidarity of the Israeli people with the Palestinian community.
Tags: israel palestine protest solidarity
English Defence League: Inside the violent world of Britain’s new far right – MPs expressed concern tonight after it emerged that far-right activists are planning to step up their provocative street campaign by targeting some of the UK’s highest-profile Muslim communities, raising fears of widespread unrest this summer. Undercover footage shot by the Guardian reveals the English Defence League, which has staged a number of violent protests in towns and cities across the country this year, is planning to “hit” Bradford and the London borough of Tower Hamlets as it intensifies its street protests.
Tags: racism neonazis edl britain islamophobia
Chutzpah and hasbara – The blockade is a premeditated act of savagery and sadism, and Israel does not intend to allow international aid to disrupt its calculated cruelty. Israel insists on its ‘right’ to hijack vessels in international waters that might actually disrupt this barbarism-by-design. Now it insists that if activists resist such hijack efforts, even with the most elementary, non-lethal weapons, as is their right, it can murder them with impunity. The Israeli state has thus proven, not only in its actions, but in the audacious, brazen propaganda campaign it has since initiated, that it is not susceptible to reasoning or moral pleading. [...] So, relying on persuasion and heartfelt humanitarian appeals with a population that has been complicit in the colonial project from the start, and is displaying signs of rapid moral and political degeneration, is a complete waste of time. There is no alternative but to forcibly break the blockade.
Tags: israel palestine gaza blockade aid barbarism
Talking Balls about immigration – Balls twice asserts that Eastern European workers undercut the wages, terms and conditions of British workers. There has been a great deal of research into this issue, and no one can find a trace of it. Two recent studies have looked specifically into the issue of Eastern European immigration and its impact. [...] If anything, there tends to be a slightly positive impact on wages, but this is so negligible as to not be worth bothering about. Nigel Harris has pointed out that econometric studies have consistently looked for this effect where there is large amounts of immigration, for example across the Mexican-US border. They can’t find a trace of any downward pressure on wages or conditions. The idea that it would negatively affect the wages and conditions of ‘native’ workers is based on simplistic economic reasoning, wherein more and less expensive workers means a weaker bargaining position for labour, but that’s not the way the migrant labour economy works.
Tags: immigration wages labour racism britain newlabour
OK Pilot – Free stream of OK Pilot’s new EP, ‘Nerves’.
Tags: music band
BULL SPEC – BULL SPEC is a professionally- and royalty-paying speculative fiction market and quarterly print magazine with DRM-free, commons-friendly e-books and audiobooks available for “donate what you like” in English, Spanish, French, and Chinese, based in Durham, NC, US.
Tags: magazine speculativefiction
The decline and fall of the British boozer – Britain’s pubs are having a hard time. Just how many pubs are closing depends on who you ask. The Times (London) has suggested it’s 52 per week, the Telegraph says six per day, and the Lost Pub Project lists a grand total of 10,284 departed boozers. Whatever the exact numbers, the pub is a Great British institution under severe pressure, and it’s as likely to be the apparently successful bar as the street-corner dive that is shutting up shop. Why?
Tags: pubs society britain history pubcos drinking
Alt Text: The Nice Guy’s Guide to Realizing You’re Not That Nice – There are any number of geek guys running around out there without the love and companionship that many people and all golden retrievers deserve. Sometimes these guys sit down and try to figure out why they’re living a life devoid of love, romance, sex and discussions about whose hair it is in the shower drain.
They undertake a deep self-assessment, questioning all their long-cherished beliefs about themselves, and this is what they conclude: They’re too nice. And that’s hilarious!

Guys, you’re not “too nice.” That’s like saying you can’t get seated at an L.A. restaurant because you’re too famous.
Tags: geeks niceguys humour dating funny relationships
Hey, baby – sexual harassment, shoot-em-ups and taking out my misspent youth on other people – That’s not the main reason why it’s probably a good thing that you might be further discouraged from approaching this woman in the street with an unsolicited advance, however. The main reason is that to do so might destroy the world.
Tags: gaming sexualharassment dating socialinadequacy
Fallout 3 Remodulated | Gaming Daily – Fallout 3 recommended mod list. :D
Tags: gaming pcgames mods

Linkfest: March 16th

Shaun CG — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:04:50 +0000

Del.icio.us links for March 16th:

Interview: Alan Moore talks about Watchmen, Hollywood and pornography – Novelist, magician and “guru of the graphic novel” Alan Moore talks to Steve Rose about Watchmen, the dark side of Hollywood and the morality of pornography.
Sexy Videogameland: Tunes For Thought – I continue to believe that games have far more in common with music than with any other media, in terms of how the biz is experienced and discussed — regardless of how useful the film and game connection can sometimes be.
Nostalgia for the Future » Sleep Dealer – Trailer for a Mexican independent film. Looks like a cutting-edge post-cyberpunk SF tale.
Why Is Her Paycheck Smaller? – Interactive Graphic – Nearly every occupation has the gap — the seemingly unbridgeable chasm between the size of the paycheck brought home by a woman and the larger one earned by a man doing the same job.
i wanted to be a junkie but Buffy wouldn’t let me « the m john harrison blog – “Urban fantasy: the domestication of a few images & behavioural tics which were barely unacceptable in the first place.” … “Every generation invents a threat posture which has to be acknowledged & made safe.”

>>Nostalgia For Infinity » wages

Linkfest: June 3rd – June 6th

Linkfest: March 16th