6 B Panorama

The End ?

2008-10-19T05:52:00.001-07:00

Je n'ai jamais su si ce blog était consulté par qui que ce soit en dehors de moi et de deux autre personnes. Qu'à cela ne tienne, au cas où ce blog était consulté par d'autre personnes, il est grand temps d'annoncer la mort de ce support. Je quitte cet espace pour un autre que j'alimente quotidiennement depuis plusieurs mois. Celui ci rencontre semble t'il beaucoup plus de succès et je m'y plait plus car je peux plus facilement poster tout ce que je veux et tout ce que je trouve, d'autant plus que cette somme augmente chaque jours grâce à la magie des fils RSS. Voici donc l'adresse de ce nouveau lieu :
http://axisofperdition.tumblr.com/
Mettez à jour vos favoris ou vos fils RSS si cela vous chante.

Résultat de recherche

2008-05-21T07:57:00.000-07:00

Grind / Noise / More grind ...

2008-05-18T04:34:00.000-07:00

Reeeelapse
Des tas de splits introuvables, des groupes obscures et moins obscures du prog jusqu'au noise en passant par le grind. Et un peu de Neurosis aussi.

Biomimicry et Bionics

2008-05-18T03:34:00.001-07:00

Biomimicry - Définition Wikipedia
Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a relatively new science that studies nature, its models, systems, processes and elements and then imitates or takes creative inspiration from them to solve human problems sustainably.

Bionics - Définition Wikipedia
Bionics (also known as biomimetics, biognosis, biomimicry, or bionical creativity engineering) is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology.

[...]

The transfer of technology between lifeforms and synthetic constructs is, according to proponents of bionic technology, desirable because evolutionary pressure typically forces living organisms, including fauna and flora, to become highly optimized and efficient. A classical example is the development of dirt- and water-repellent paint (coating) from the observation that the surface of the lotus flower plant is practically unsticky for anything (the lotus effect).

Documentaire sur les snuffs

2008-05-18T01:53:00.000-07:00

Channel 4 : Does snuff exists ?
L'intégralité d'un reportage sur la question sur google video.

Témoignage au sein du camp de Shatila

2008-05-17T03:22:00.000-07:00

Inside a Palestinian refugee camp

Ahmed Halimeh is a science teacher in a UN-run school for Palestinian refugees. Out of school he does social work for a non-governmental organisation he co-founded.

I have taught generations of children in Shatila camp. We have hardly enough time and resources to give them the education they need. The schools work double shifts, with two schools of about 300 pupils sharing one building - they take it in turns to have lessons in early morning or the evening. If children drop out of school, I see it as my duty to go and visit the family and try to persuade them to return. Education is the best weapon the Palestinian refugees have, their only weapon.

I have lived through the worst times in this camp. When we were under siege in the War of the Camps, I went from house to house to make sure people had food and water. Conditions were absolutely inhuman. Now times are better and the Shia militiamen who used to shoot at us are now our neighbours. I still see the sniper who used to fire at me in the market. We say hello to each other - I will never point him out to my son, in case he wants to take revenge!

Emo - Mode ou culte ?

2008-05-17T02:56:00.000-07:00

Why no child is safe from the sinister cult of emo

Hannah was a happy 13-year-old until she became an 'emo' - part of a sinister teenage craze that romanticises death. Three months later she hanged herself.

[...]

In the unending bleakness of the weeks that have followed, the couple have fought to make sense of what happened.

Why on earth did their daughter — a popular, intelligent and attractive girl — do such a thing?
They could find only one clue: Hannah was what is known as an "emo".
Some describe it as a cult or a sect, but in reality the term — derived from the word "emotional" — encapsulates a trend that is becoming hugely popular among Britain's schoolchildren.

[...]

There is, though, growing concern that there is a deeply unhealthy undertone to the emo movement.
Some time before her death, Hannah's parents, who live in Kent, noticed scarring on the inside of her wrists.
When they questioned her about it, honest and open as ever, she told them she'd inflicted the wounds herself and that it was part of an emo "initiation ceremony".
Only after her death would they discover how she had secretly chatted online to emo followers all over the world, talking about death and of the "black parade" — a place where emos believe they go after they die.

[...]

(témoignage d'une fille de 11 ans qui se classifie en tant qu'émo)
"I think many of the concerns around emos aren't true," she says.
"To me, emos skateboard a lot, dress in darker colours and listen to alternative rock music.
"It's also true they probably think about feelings more than other people.
"I do get teased for being an emo because some people at school think it's just about suicide and self-harm.
"But I think you would have to be depressed already to self-harm — and I'm not depressed.
"I like going out dressed in emo clothes because it causes a stir. There aren't many emos where I live, so people look at you.
"It makes you feel individual."

[...]

In recent years, the growing reach of the internet and social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo has meant that the influences to which teenagers are exposed are not controlled by mere geography.

While this can have positive effects, Professor Stephen Briggs, a clinician in the adolescent department of the Tavistock Clinic, says it can also adversely affect the way teenagers develop.

"With mobile phones, the internet and Facebook you can create a virtual world that means you need never be alone," he says. "It means that you don't ever have to be out of sight — and that doesn't allow an adolescent to experience that sense of being a bit separate, of finding one's self.
"It means you don't have a chance to mature on your own; to know who you are."

Fecal face rencontre D*face

2008-05-15T14:12:00.000-07:00

D*face interview
D*Face: Originally it started out as a creative release because I was really bored with what I was doing. I had spent all this time and worked really hard to be able to work within the (graphic arts) industry and thought it was all going to be creatively great. As it turned out it wasn't the case at all, at least not the situation I was in back then. On my off time or between jobs I would draw little characters. It really started out as something I was just doing to fulfill a creative release. Anywhere I would go I would put up these stickers and just try to cover as much of London as I could. It kind of became a subversive intermission to all the shit that was around us. But I was never really aware of it. I was just putting my shit up wherever I went!! Then a couple years later the whole sticker scene really took off in London. I went to this art book opening and there was a bunch of people milling around. Up to this point I was just doing my own thing, taking my stickers and printing out bigger versions on paper and putting them up. Then I show up at this book launch and these guys were like "fuckin-eh, you did that shit", I was like "um yeah, you have seen it?" And these guys were like "fuck yeah, it is everywhere!" The only person I had been out with at that time was Shepard. We kept in touch and when he would come over we would put some stuff up. Until that point it did not even occur to me to put my work up to get people to notice it. It was more escaping the everyday and to get people to question their environment and culture. Question the advertising that is around them. It is a little different now, the more aware the public becomes of street art the less applicable it seems to be. Because it was like "oh thats D*Face" or "Shepard" or whoever, instead of what is the meaning behind that.

Un documentaire sur le breakcore

2008-05-13T23:57:00.001-07:00

Notes on Breakcore

Cult of Luna - Eternal kingdom

2008-05-13T12:18:00.000-07:00

Cult of Luna discusses concept behind Eternal Kingdom
Une explication du concert derrière le dernier album de Cult of Luna.

Cat soup - Weird anime ?

2008-04-25T06:56:00.000-07:00

Cat soup

Cat Soup is an extremely difficult film to describe, due to its awesome surrealism and almost nonexistant dialogue. It is more a work of art than an anime. There are many underlying themes, such as the transcience of man's existence, but it can be enjoyed without understanding any of them. The plot, though simple, isn't necessarily understandable without being explained. The main character, a cat named Nyatto, embarks upon a journey to save his sister's soul, which was ripped in two when Nyatto tried to save her from Death. She trails after him, brain-dead. They encounter many brilliant, mind-bending situations, beginning with a disturbing magic show.

Reportage sur un tueur légendaire de la mafia

2008-04-24T05:37:00.000-07:00

Richard Kulinski sur Wikipedia

The Iceman : confession of a mafia serial killer

Part 1
Part 2

Une nouvelle politique vis à vis du cannabis pour la police de Londre

2008-04-23T14:06:00.000-07:00

Met to try a softer line on cannabis

Commander Paddick said yesterday the proposal did not mean cannabis was being legalised. The idea was to free his officers from spending hours mopping up minor drugs offences when they needed time to tackle the "cancer" of crack cocaine-related crime.

"I've never met anyone who had to commit crime to fund a cannabis habit, but crack cocaine users commit robbery, burglary and car crime."

He said he was not soft on cannabis use. "That completely misrepresents what we want to do. We believe this policy will continue to deter people buying cannabis on the streets, as they will still lose even small amounts of cannabis in their possession. The person has to accept the warning, [or] be arrested."

It takes two officers up to five hours to process a cannabis possession arrest. "With the new policy, we can deal with a similar matter in 10 minutes," said Cdr Paddick.

Berlusconi et l'immigration

2008-04-23T14:03:00.000-07:00

Silvio Berlusconi says illegal immigrants are "army of evil"

Mr Berlusconi, 71, who was elected on Monday to serve a third term as prime minister, said that he would "step up neighbourhood police, who can be an army of good, placing themselves between the Italian people and the army of evil".

He vowed to deport non-European Union citizens who "do not have work or home and are forced into crime in order to live".

His comments will have pleased his "post-fascist" allies and the Northern League, which declared four years ago that immigrants should be shot in their boats.

Rich Johnson parle de la campagne pour la mairie de Londre

2008-04-23T13:41:00.000-07:00

Indecision internationale - London mayoral election

American spin doctors have become masters at sanding down any politician's hard spiky edges we normally refer to as "personality" so not even a timid-but-closed-minded field mouse with a heart murmur is offended. The only way Presidential candidates now differentiate themselves in the mind of the voter is by being black, female or Yoda.

[...]

Even so, the candidates for Mayor of London -- the most powerful directly-elected position in the country -- are as mad as a sackful of badgers. The incumbent candidate is maverick Labour Party politician Ken Livingstone (left, above), a never-married newt-loving hardline socialist with five children from three women, a penchant for comparing Jewish reporters to concentration camp guards and saying random things like "I just long for the day I wake up and find that the Saudi royal family are swinging from lampposts."

Dépendance à Internet

2008-04-22T03:53:00.000-07:00

Web 2.0 exposition : Torture by information overload

Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Plaxo may have helped foster community and communication, but they've also added immensely to the flow of often-interruptive messages that their users receive, leading to information overload and possibly a nasty internet addiction.

"We have people calling on a weekly if not daily basis," says Libby Smith, a corporate clinician for the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery, which helps treat internet addicts. "If somebody engages in the use of an application compulsively, we get calls about it. There isn't one application that's good or bad, but if people are unable or unwilling to stop using it, that's what we look at as a red flag for an intervention."

L'histoire d'un homme coincé dans un ascenceur pendant 40 heures

2008-04-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

Up and then down

Loading up an empty elevator car with discarded Christmas trees, pressing the button for the top floor, then throwing in a match, so that by the time the car reaches the top it is ablaze with heat so intense that the alloy (called “babbitt”) connecting the cables to the car melts, and the car, a fireball now, plunges into the pit: this practice, apparently popular in New York City housing projects, is inadvisable.

[...]

In most elevators, at least in any built or installed since the early nineties, the door-close button doesn’t work. It is there mainly to make you think it works. (It does work if, say, a fireman needs to take control. But you need a key, and a fire, to do that.) Once you know this, it can be illuminating to watch people compulsively press the door-close button. That the door eventually closes reinforces their belief in the button’s power. It’s a little like prayer

Comment changer le gout du sperme

2008-04-19T04:09:00.000-07:00

Jizz taste test
Une "journaliste" fait manger différents ingrédients à son mari pour voir en quoi cela change le gout de son sperme.

Alicia Keys - Conspirationniste

2008-04-15T10:46:00.001-07:00

During an interview with Blender Magazine, Alicia lets off a few conspiracy theories including the statement "`Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. `Gangsta rap' didn't exist."

Another of her theories: That the bicoastal feud between slain rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. was fueled "by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing."

Alicia Keys from an interview in Blender (April 2008)

Articles du 14/04/08

2008-04-14T04:38:00.000-07:00

Des articles du New York Times à lire :
Dalai Lama says his aides are talking to China
Rowling to testify in trial over Potter lexicon
He wrote 200 000 books (but computers did some of the work)
Fanciful visions on the Mahatma's road to truth and simplicity

Warren Ellis - Une petite collection d'histoire courte

2008-04-09T14:41:00.000-07:00

Falconer
The Return of Falconer
Springtime for Falconer
Falconer in love
The Joy of Falconer
Falconer Forever

Ellis - Whitechapel

2008-04-08T13:13:00.000-07:00

Ed Brubaker interviewé par les lecteurs de Whitechapel

Street Art - Blek le Rat

2008-04-06T02:31:00.000-07:00

Blek le Rat interview

Un des pionniers du street art en France et une des grandes influences de Bansky.

Terrence McKenna - Audio

2008-04-05T15:07:00.001-07:00

Conférence de Terrence McKenna

Quote of the day

2008-04-05T10:22:00.000-07:00

Teufel's Tomb - Brain Drill review

Seriously, throw a stone at random in their direction and you're guaranteed to hit someone who works at McDonald's and knocked up his own sister.
Necro-ton

Murakami - Une courte biographie

2008-03-31T14:40:00.000-07:00

Brookyn Museum exhibition

Born in Tokyo in 1962, Murakami is one of the most influential and acclaimed artists to have emerged from Asia in the late twentieth century, creating a wide-ranging body of work that consciously bridges fine art, design, animation, fashion, and popular culture. He received a Ph.D. from the prestigious Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he was trained in the school of traditional Japanese painting known as Nihonga, a nineteenth-century mixture of Western and Eastern styles. However, the prevailing popularity of anime (animation) and manga (comic books) directed his interest toward the art of animation because, as he has said, “it was more representative of modern day Japanese life.” American popular culture in the form of animation, comics, and fashion are among the influences on his work, which includes painting, sculpture, installation, and animation, as well as a wide range of collectibles, multiples, and commercial products.

Liens pour le mémoire

2008-03-31T12:49:00.000-07:00

Estimation des ventes pour le mois de février 2008
Dark Horse inks deal with Universal : Un lien de plus entre Hollywood et le monde du comics indépendant, preuve du besoin des compagnies de vendre leur license à un autre média pour trouver des fonds.

American Pimp - La prostitution aux Etats Unis

2008-03-31T03:44:00.000-07:00

American Pimp : Un reportage sur les macros, leur histoire, leurs pratiques et qui ils sont.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9

DKNY & Paul Pope

2008-03-31T03:09:00.000-07:00

Strip search - Paul Pope
Paul Pope se lance dans le design de fringue (tee shirt et sweet shirt).

Interview Aesop Rock

2008-03-29T16:58:00.000-07:00

Fecal face - Interview with Aesop Rock

It's no secret that Fecal Face is good friends with Mr. Jeremy Fish. We love him and the work he does. It's a good time for Mr. Fish. He's about to drop a nice healthy solo show at Fifty24SF. He's just completed a series of boards with Element. He just completed a short film directed by our buddy Mr. Irving and Eric Noren. AND he just completed a collaboration with acclamied MC Aesop Rock from Def Jux (images from the book down below). Below is an interview with him. We'd like to know more about this talented fellow. We know enough about those other dudes. Let's see what makes Aesop Rock... rock.

Decision juridique sur les droits de Superman

2008-03-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

The Siegel Superman decision

After seventy years, Jerome Siegel’s heirs regain what he granted so long ago – the copyright in the Superman material that was published in Action Comics Vol. 1. What remains is an apportionment of profits, guided in some measure by the rulings contained in this Order, and a trial on whether to include the profits generated by DC Comics’ corporate sibling’s exploitation of the Superman copyright.

The dramatic sounding nature of the final paragraph of the opinion has to be put in context though. The opinion doesn’t cover Schuster’s interests, which are not subject to Section 304(c) termination, but rather a future 304(d) termination. Nor does the opinion reach the work for hire question for anything after the (justly famous and important) Action Comics Vol. 1 published on April 18, 1938 – the collateral estoppel applied on work for hire only covers Action Comics Vol. 1. Finally, there are very thorny issues of apportionment. All of these issues are likely to be the subject of subsequent motions and possibly trial.

Une faille de sécurité majeur sur la plupart des systèmes informatiques

2008-03-29T04:35:00.000-07:00

Bruce Sterling - SANS says your computer back door is wide open

Hundreds of millions of devices are being placed on networks with built-in back doors. Printers, routers, computers, control systems, storage systems, medical devices, nearly every automated device has them.

The manufacturers of these systems never told you how vulnerable you are. One victim said "It's as if the people who are supposed to help me put a big sign on my door saying 'the key is under the mat by the back door,' and anyone can come in and violate me and my family." These vulnerable back doors were installed to allow remote management; they are fully functioning processors with network connections, operating systems, and memory. In addition to being able to disable the device, in many cases they provide remote back-door access to the main CPU and storage of the computer or other device. They may not be logged or monitored and therefore can be attacked repeatedly without fear of being caught.

[...]

Similar functions are provided on UNIX systems, and on printers and medical devices and other appliances but are often not called BMCs. This research project is designed to develop detailed technical procurement language that organizations can use to ensure these back doors are "closed and locked" when the devices are delivered. These back doors have already been implicated as attackers in successful denial of service tools and can be used to access and change the data being processed by the devices.

Les suicides dans le métro londonien

2008-03-29T04:07:00.000-07:00

London - One unders

I once saw a woman throw herself under a train. I noticed her sitting on a bench at the platform. As a train approached and the wind picked up, she jumped down to the rails and ran towards the tunnel. People screamed and the train braked hard, but nothing could prevent two hundred tons of metal from mashing her into track pizza. Over 100 people die this way every year. Tube drivers refer to them as "one Unders.

"I don’t know if it’s bravado or what, but some tube drivers are like, 'Oh, I can’t wait until I get a one under,' because you can get sick leave for six months on full pay. These people aren’t fussed: There’s blood all over the front of the train, the person underneath is screaming, the police and ambulance are there, and the driver will just be sitting there reading the paper and eating their sandwiches. It doesn’t seem to have any affect.

[...]

"The worst one under story I’ve ever heard is not embellished, because I know the bloke who was on the train. He was an instructor—my instructor when I started actually—and was in the train, but he wasn’t driving it. He was just riding in the front. A lot of the time, if the trains are packed, you’ll ride in front with the driver. He said they were on the Northern Line, going quite fast, and he’s chatting to the driver. As they come into the platform there’s a woman, stark naked, standing in front of them in a crucifix pose. Obviously, they hit her and killed her. At the inquest it turned out she was a schizophrenic. She’d gone to the station, stripped off, folded up all her clothes really neatly, wandered into the tunnel, and just stood there, waiting.

"Another instructor I know said he was up in Northfields really early on a Saturday morning with no one on the platform. Suddenly there was this woman there. He looked at her because she was quite good-looking. As he got up close to her, she held her nose (like you do when you jump in the water) and jumped in front of him. He went right over her. Turns out she had mental health issues too.

[...]

"One of the things with one unders is, when people get hit, one would assume they'd die instantly, but about half the time they don’t. People sometimes mis-time their jumps and end up in that gap under the rails. Some folks call them suicide pits because the body falls in there, but other people say that’s complete rubbish and the gap is for waste paper and litter.

A couple of nights ago an instructor told me about a one under at Heathrow. It was packed with tourists and some bloke got down and lay across the rails. He wasn’t electrocuted because his clothing probably insulated him. As you can imagine, there was absolute pandemonium. Then the train came into the station, not particularly fast, and hit the bloke. The driver is really shook up. All of a sudden, he starts hearing noises coming from underneath and the bloke comes walking out. What had happened was the train had hit him and knocked him into the suicide pit. There’s not a mark on him. There’s always lots of police about at Heathrow and they asked him, “What are you doing?” He almost seemed embarrassed. “Oh, I’m really sorry. I’ll go home now.” They couldn’t believe it.

the Dillinger Escape Plan - On singing

2008-03-28T11:27:00.000-07:00

Greg Pucciato at Metalsucks
Yeah. And it’s cool, ‘cause for me as a singer, screaming’s fun, but I don’t walk around the house screaming.
Greg Pucciato - the Dillinger Escape Plan

Kenji Miyazawa (poète japonais) 1896 - 1933

2008-03-01T13:44:00.000-08:00

Les artistes professionnels doivent disparaître tout à fait. Tout un chacun doit donner libre cours à sa sensibilité artistique.

Kenji Miyazawa

2008-03-01T12:41:00.000-08:00

Dasai fashion

Next, part of a 2-page spread on "what is wrong with your body and how much it will cost to fix it."

Le futur des sites de social networking

2008-02-29T03:53:00.000-08:00

Appleseed : Social networking future

While building Appleseed, I realized just how simple it was to get two "nodes" to communicate. It became a matter of a simple behind-the-scenes request which returned a small XML file. It became apparent to me that the reason that we don't have communication between social networking sites had nothing to do with technological constrants, and was a purely economic decision on the part of existing sites. Almost all major social networking sites business models are centered on having the largest userbase possible, and user lock-in is a major part of that. By restricting your ability to interact with outside sites, they also restrict your ability to choose another site and still maintain your relationships and ability to contact your friends.

The whole situation we're in makes no sense in the context of the way the internet was meant to operate. Concentrating user bases into centralized locations and locking them in seems more like the early 90's and the way Compuserve, AOL, and the like attempted to use walled gardens to monopolize the internet. The natural evolution is an open, distributed standard. A sort of SMTP for social networking, which allows any node to fully connect to any other node. Would people put up with an email address at gmail.com which could only email other gmail.com users? Of course not, and the same standard should be applied to social networking.

Japon - Repression des night clubs pour éliminer la prostitution

2008-02-29T02:44:00.001-08:00

Footloose revisited

Just as you can’t stamp out prostitution without eradicating poverty, you will never rid the world of drugs until you rid it first of boredom. The government should see drug use in nightclubs as the theoretical equivalent of its own fuzoku eigyoho— unstoppable, victimless crimes taking place in a contained area. Arresting someone with a tab of ecstasy at Womb isn’t going to halt the bushels of it coming in from North Korea, nor is closing down the club after the fact. Crack down at the harbors, crack down at the airports, crack down on the myriad dealers at work outside of Tokyo’s nightclubs, which, although bursting with drugs, are the safest of any city in the world.

These raids are not about morals, they’re about expulsion. If clubbers are scared away, clubs will shut down and be replaced with “respectable” establishments and their “respectable” clients, making Tokyo a more “respectable” city. If that is indeed the real goal, then expect these illogical laws and their arbitrary enforcement to continue. Add to this a governor who likely views the end of dancing as a surefire way to get rid of blacks, and you’re left with a ticking clock.

Système éducatif au Japon

2008-02-29T02:36:00.000-08:00

The 30 percent solution

It’s simple. Higher standards will generate higher achievement. Currently, the standards at Japanese high schools are sickeningly low.

[...]

In order to get into most universities in Japan, students need a letter of recommendation, a pass on an entrance exam, or a successful interview. That’s it. While some universities have more stringent guidelines and need to see impressive grades from prospective students, most attach greater significance to one-time exams and letters of recommendation, which are granted not only too easily, but too early as well. Our recommendation letters were sent out in September, which means students have already gotten all they need from their schools with three months of classes left.

[...]

Japanese kids aren’t lazy. The work and dedication they put into their extracurricular activities—participating in “clubs,” running booths at open-campus events, learning moves for school-wide dance competitions—are incredible. Children of any age will put gallons of sweat into something if they are going to gain from it, so the connection between effort and benefit needs to be made tangible because at that age most kids will not see it on their own. Such lack of perspective will always be a cornerstone of youth. It should not be the hallmark of this country’s Education Ministry.

Vargr - Interview pour projet black metal

2008-02-27T15:25:00.000-08:00

Pitchfork - Interview de Vargr (de Nordvargr et MZ412 entre autre)

Vargr is the Swedish musician Henrik Nordvargr Bjorkk, maybe known best for his work in the blackened industrial band MZ.412, but also through Folkstorm, Toroidh, and various collaborations under his given name. Northern Black Supremacy is an iced, atmospheric, Charles Manson-sampling collection of creepy, noisy black metal: Think WOLD and Blut Aus Nord but via early snarling Darkthrone and Ildjarn. The album's slogan: "Worship. Kill. Die."

Pitchfork: I saw a discussion at Encyclopedia Metallum in which people were arguing whether or not what you do in Vargr is metal. Some saw it as noise. You've done recordings with Merzbow, and of course MZ.412 and other non-metal projects. Where do you see Vargr fitting into things genre-wise?

Nordvargr: I'd call it metal. Maybe a bit on the noisy side of things, but still some form of metal. It's not that important really; I find it amusing that people even debate it.

Pitchfork: Please explain the phrase "True Black Nekronoise Metal," which you use to describe your sound.

Nordvargr: Me and Lasse Marhaug coined that when we recorded our Marvargr album... I think it is a perfect description.

Pitchfork: Drakh [note: his MZ.412 collaborator] plays guest guitar on the record. Do you think you two will always collaborate?

Nordvargr: Probably. We are as close as you can get when it comes to creating music.

Pitchfork: Can you tell me a bit about the album title, Northern Black Supremacy? How do the intro and outro work? Is this a concept album? There's obviously an anti-Christian sentiment running through it. I'm interested in the stories behind "Three Days For The King Of Jews" and "Chris Deflowered". What's the concept behind these tracks? No mercy?

Nordvargr: Northern Black Supremacy is not really a concept album, but I have tried to tie the tracks together so when listening to the whole album, there are some calmer parts to allow you to catch your breath. The overall theme is anti-religious-- not exclusively anti-Christian (as someone else said "three weeds from the same root"). "Three days..." and "Christ deflowered" both deals with humiliation and disgust for christian morals.

Pitchfork: I'm also interested in "Bring Forth The Ways Of Old"-- How does the title connect to the damp swampy sounds? "Nature Defines Order Through War" has a march to it, which is more obvious.

Nordvargr: The title "Bring Forth The Ways Of Old" just came to me when recording it. To me it represents the urge of the blood, or blood memory, that is in all of us, the urge that evokes grand feelings that you just can't explain. If you have experienced it you know what I mean.

Pitchfork: Are you familiar with other noise-centered black metal bands like WOLD and Blut Aus Nord? Are you a fan? What do you listen to?

Nordvargr: I have heard both of the above, and WOLD is OK, but I really dont get B.A.N. Right now I am absorbed by the Blaze Birth Hall bands; Branikald, Nitberg and Forest. Other bands on frequent rotation right now are Tenebrous, Wolfnacht, V.A.C.K., Korgonthurus, and Akitsa.

Pitchfork: This new album seems to me to be more about textures and landscapes than grooves. How do you go about writing these songs? How carefully are they composed? How much improvisation is there?

Nordvargr: I really am not a good guitarist nor a great composer. I always improvise around some riffs/sounds and just record what comes out. That has always been my modus operandi. If it turns out bad I just delete it.

Pitchfork: You're in the tradition of the one-man black metal band. Why did you decide to record as a solo musician?

Nordvargr: In Sweden we say "Själv är bäste dräng", I guess I am my best friend and company. (With a few exceptions of course-- Drakh, Ulvtharm, Marhaug, etc etc etc...)

Pitchfork: Thoughts on Nifelheim? The Swedish scene in general?

Nordvargr: Nifelheim rocks. That's all I can say. Actually forgot to write them in the question above-- Envoy Of Lucifer is brilliant. I don't have much contact with any people from the scene nowadays, so I really can't comment. The most interesting scene for me right now is the Russian.

Pitchfork: So far you've had a really varied musical path. What are your next plans?

Nordvargr: Just finished the Nordvargr Helvete album (on Eternal Pride spring 2008), which features vocal appearances by Wrest/Leviathan among others. The follow-up to Northern Black Supremacy [note: Storm Of Northern Evil] is out on Total Holocaust Records. A split CD with Silva Nigra/Vargr will also be released by Ravenheart Productions. Also, [I] finished a collab with Drakh and Cordell Klier due for release on OEC mid 2008. Other plans for this year is to finish the Partikel trilogy with Merzbow, record another Goatvargr album, and wrap up the doom-ambient monster thing I am recording right now. That's about it. Not much really.

///

Northern Black Supremecy is out on 20 Buck Spin. For more info on Bjorkk, check out his MySpace, though he plans to discontinue it soon it seems, so also check here.

Starkweather et la France

2008-02-26T08:29:00.001-08:00

France
Remi Resmini (Starkweather) fait le tour de ce qu'il aime dans le paysage musical français (et même un peu de porno à la fin).

Modification corporelle : comment je me suis coupé la main

2008-02-21T02:11:00.000-08:00

One hand Jason

Let me be blunt — I staged an accident. Nobody’s doubting it, and my friends and family, so many folks, came together for me back then, raised a lotta money, prayed, and said such sweet, loving things. There’s no way I want enough details to get out there that they could connect up me with my ‘accident’, with the person you’re interviewing, who’s voluntary.

I don’t want to be hugely specific, but I used a very sharp power tool, after having tried out different methods of crushing and cutting. I know first aid so I was able to stop the bleeding with pressure, but I was worried that I could pass out and not call for help and lose too much blood. No worries, though, I guess I’m in good enough shape that I didn’t even feel dizzy.

My goal was to get the job done with no hope of reconstruction or re-attachment, and I wanted some method that I could actually bring myself to do. I did experiments with animal legs I got from a butcher. It’s lucky I thought of that, because some of my early attempts were total fuck ups and would have ended up with a damaged hand which might have had to undergo years of painful reconstruction, and worse yet, no amputation.

[...]

One real weird sensation was to run my fingertip from the top to the bottom of my stump, across the scar. It felt like I was running my fingertip right through my arm!

[...]

Yeah, it’s a biggie. For sure it’s not rational to want to cut off your arm or leg. There’s no argument you can make that life will be easier, or that you’ll be more capable doing anything. Even though a hook can do some things that a bare hand can’t, a hand holding a tool can always do everything a hook can, and so much more. Even though you can run in prosthetic legs that give you a mechanical advantage, you can’t compete with those.

Des voleurs en pont en République Tchèque et en Russie

2008-02-21T01:33:00.000-08:00

Czech police wonder where bridge has gone ?

Police in the Czech republic are trying to find out who stole a 4 tonne railway bridge from the border town of Cheb.

[...]

Of course, it's not the first time some light-fingered bridge enthusiast has made off with a bridge. At least two bridges have been nicked in Russia in the past six months, and a pair of bridge thieves appropriated two Macedonian bridges last February.

Preuve de l'existence de pouvoir psychique ?

2008-02-19T23:44:00.000-08:00

Has the military found proof that we are all psychic ?

Startling as it may seem, the results of Dr Roe’s experiments suggest that it is indeed possible to project your “mind’s eye” to a distant location and observe what is going on - even if that place is hundreds of miles away.

In fact, Dr Roe’s results suggest that up to 85 percent of people possess the psychic power of clairvoyance – or the ability to remote view in technical parlance. They provide the strongest evidence yet for such psychic powers and may help explain the skills shown by mediums and account for such phenomena as ESP and déjà vu. And it would appear that we can all sharpen our psychic skills with only a modicum of training.

Such results follow on from the release of formerly top secret military papers revealing that the armies of several countries have used clairvoyants – or remote viewers - to gather intelligence.

[...]

The remote viewers used a deceptively simple method based on what is known as the Ganzfeld technique. They induced an altered state of consciousness by seating themselves in a sound proof room and wearing earphones playing white noise. Ping pong balls sliced in half were placed over their eyes to obscure vision. The whole room was then bathed in soft red light.

The map coordinates of the ‘target’ would be written on a piece of paper, placed in an envelope and handed to the viewer. He would be allowed to touch the envelope but forbidden to open it. Alternatively, pictures of the target location would be sealed in the envelope. The remote viewers would then slip into a light meditative trance and their “minds eye” would be drawn to the target location. Pictures, feelings and impressions would then drift into their minds from the target, which might be located thousands of miles away.

To an outsider, this approach might appear to produce only hopelessly vague results that were no better than guesswork. But the scientists investigating remote viewing found them to be surprisingly accurate and the military found them useful too.

[...]

Word of America’s experiments with the paranormal spread to the UK and the Metropolitan Police were one of the first to informally use remote viewers to tackle crime. One of their most useful informants was Nella Jones, who first came to their attention when she located the stolen Vermeer painting The Guitar Player in 1974.

Nella was ironing some clothes and idly watching the television when her mind suddenly focused on the whereabouts of the painting. She hurriedly sketched it out and took it to the police who were understandably sceptical. Having nothing else to go on they decided to follow her leads. The painting was eventually recovered as a result of the information she gave them.

It would be easy to dismiss Nella’s guidance to the police as just blind luck. Easy, that is, if she hadn’t spent the following 20 years helping them ensnare murderers and other serious offenders.

Information trouvé sur Newsmonster, un site spécialisé dans le paranormal

William Faulkner à propos de l'écriture

2008-02-18T11:58:00.001-08:00

On writing, Faulkner remarked, "Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him"

Park Chan Wook - Citations

2008-02-15T14:49:00.001-08:00

Imdb trivia

"I don't feel enjoyment watching films that evoke passivity. If you need that kind of comfort, I don't understand why you wouldn't go to a spa."

"Living without hate for people is almost impossible. There is nothing wrong with fantasizing about revenge. You can have that feeling. You just shouldn't act on it."

"I can see why my films remind people of computer games, but I've never played one. Actually, I was approached by a Japanese designer of a PlayStation game called Metal Gear Solid. When I met him, I found that there was nothing really to talk about. But I was told that I was idolized in the world of computer games."

"...there is one thing that can never be said in Korea. You could never say that the Japanese occupation of Korea had been beneficial. That would create even more hostility than a movie praising North Korea. It would be like telling Jews that the Holocaust didn't exist."

I've always tried not to fall for the lies that say things like 'you can do anything if you have the will' or that 'you're the only one who can carve out your own life.' According to the audience member's beliefs, you could call it the will of God or social systems, or fate; but in the end, what I'm trying to say is the same. And that is, 'Life doesn't go your own way."

Park Chan Wook (réalisateur de Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Oldboy, Lady Vengeance ...)

Brendan McCarthy - How the fuck ...

2008-02-15T10:52:00.000-08:00

... this guy isn't more well known ? Moi pas comprendre.

WGA - Les effets de la grève

2008-02-15T08:46:00.000-08:00

Writers reach tentative deal with producers

A resolution would be good news for the producers. The strike, Hollywood’s longest since 1988 and one that has thrown tens of thousands of people out of work, has shut down production on dozens of television shows (including viewer favorites like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “CSI”), forcing the networks to patch together prime-time schedules with reruns and increased doses of reality shows. Movie studios have been forced to delay some of their feature film plans, including prospective blockbusters like “Angels and Demons,” the sequel to “The Da Vinci Code.”

Mike Huckabee, candidat à l'élection présidentielle

2008-02-15T08:35:00.001-08:00

“I didn’t major in math. I majored in miracles, and I still believe in them, too.”
Mike Huckabee

Election Américaine : Un nombre de votant en augmentation

2008-02-15T08:31:00.000-08:00

Obama gets convincing wins in three states

In Nebraska, The Omaha World-Herald reported that organizers at two caucus sites had been so overrun by crowds that they abandoned traditional caucusing and asked voters to drop makeshift scrap-paper ballots into a box instead. In Sarpy County, in suburban Omaha, traffic backed up on Highway 370 when thousands of voters showed up at a precinct where organizers had planned for hundreds.

In Washington, the Democratic party reported record-breaking numbers of caucusgoers, with early totals suggesting turnout would be nearly be nearly double what it was in 2004 — itself a record year — when 100,000 Democrats caucused.

Mindflesh - Trailer

2008-02-13T22:33:00.001-08:00

Mindflesh
Trailer for Cronenberg-style horror thriller, MindFlesh staring Christopher Fairbank (Aliens, Batman, Fifth Element), Lucy Liemann (Bourne Ultimatum), Peter Bramhill (Human Traffic) and introducing sexy French actress Carole Derrien.

Deux bases de donnes de documentaires

2008-02-11T12:52:00.000-08:00

Best Online Documentary
(va bientôt changer son adresse pour devenir www.bodocus.com)
Alluc.org

J.G. Ballard

2008-02-11T12:50:00.000-08:00

Interview de JG Ballard

Interview avec l'auteur de Crash, entre autre.
James Graham Ballard (born 15 November 1930 in Shanghai) is a British writer. He was a prominent member of the New Wave in science fiction. His best known books are the controversial Crash, and the autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun, both of which have been adapted to film.

Documentaire sur le lien entre la science et la science fiction

2008-02-11T12:33:00.001-08:00

Monsters of the atomic age
26 minute documentary by Geoff Tarulli (pisscubes sur Relapse) exploring nuclear fears of the 50s and how they manifested themselves in the sci-fi movies of the time.

Publicité - Chaise roulante futuriste

2008-02-11T12:24:00.000-08:00

Chaise roulante à double roue motrice

Def Jux documentary

2008-02-09T02:24:00.000-08:00

Un extrait d'un reportage sur le label Def Jux (el-P, Aesop Rock, Mr Lif ...) produit par la télévision allemande.

Aesop Rock - On creation

2008-02-09T01:03:00.001-08:00

The fact that I was making music in this indie way was very much based on the fact that I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I like to create shit -- I like to stay up at night and create things and make something out of nothing so that when I wake up I have something to show for yesterday.

Aesop Rock

Chris Scarborough

2008-02-08T14:00:00.000-08:00

Chris Scarborough

Un mamifère immunisé contre l'acide

2008-02-02T15:04:00.000-08:00

Strange creature immune to pain

Curiously, the researchers found that mole rats remained completely insensitive to acids, even with the Substance P genes. This suggests there is a fundamental difference in how their nerves respond to such pain.

"Acid acts on the capsaicin receptor and on another family of receptors called acid-sensitive ion channels," Park said. "Acid is not as specific as capsaicin. The mole rat is the only animal that shows completely no response to acid."

Scientists theorize naked mole rats evolved this insensitivity to acid due to underground living. The rodents exhale high levels of carbon dioxide, and in such tight, poorly ventilated spaces it builds up in tissues, making them more acidic. In response, the mole rats became desensitized to acid.

[...]

"We're learning which nerve fibers are important for which kinds of pain, so we'll be able to develop new strategies and targets."

Lewin added, "We really do not understand the molecular mechanism of acid sensing in humans, although it is thought to be pretty important in inflammatory pain. An animal that naturally lacks such a mechanism may help us identify what the mechanism actually is."

L'appetit sexuel : Pourquoi et comment ?

2008-01-31T13:01:00.000-08:00

No cruise for sex drive

Biologically, researchers have determined a few areas of the brain which influence your sex drive. Structurally, our hypothalamus in the brain assists in the physical response to arousal. If you need an exact location, contact Pillasco, he will provide the brain map and Green Monkey kidney cells! Also, the amygdala, nestled toward the back of your brain, has found to have a correlation of its size to sex drive. Basically, the larger your….um….amygdala, the larger your sexual appetite! Hormones play a large part in your libido. Hormones are heavily influenced by your physical being. When you decide to skip breakfast and starve yourself, besides getting cranky, your libido decreases. Weight gain or weight loss also disrupts your hormone levels.

[...]

Such cultural pressures also affect men. The notion that any man who isn't consistently ready to fuck is lacking in the masculine department can make a man question his self-worth if he is not feeling the need for sex or would like to do more stereotypically feminine activities like cuddle, play with flowers or douche. Granted these pressures do not have as much detrimental effects on men as they do on women, however it is still important to examine how gender stereotypes can play in to sexuality and sex drive. There are a few theories that exist examining why men are obsessed with sex. They explain that because men are often socialized to only exhibit a limited amount of emotions publicly, like happiness, anger or lust, their only medium for expressing the many other emotions they experience is through sex. While this seems a little too simplistic to me, it is quite fascinating to think that one of the main reasons for the male sex drive is not because of high levels of testosterone but due to the need to express their emotions in a socially acceptable way.

Le prix de la célébrité

2008-01-19T07:28:00.000-08:00

Your own personal paparazzi

The trend is driven by the twin obsessions with chronicling one's life and experiencing fame. "We live in a culture where if it's not documented, it doesn't exist," says Josh Gamson, a University of San Francisco professor of sociology who studies culture and mass media. "And if you don't have people asking who you are, you're nobody." University of Pennsylvania sociologist David Grazian, who wrote On the Make: The Hustle of Urban Nightlife, calls personal paparazzi reality marketers, who make the act of being photographed more meaningful than the actual photos. "The goal isn't to produce a product," he says. "It's to heighten the experience of the event. In that sense, there doesn't even need to be any film in the camera."

Tom Cruise et la Scientologie

2008-01-15T13:03:00.000-08:00

Tom Cruise explique le sens de la scientologie pour lui (youtube)
Extrait du monologue :
"We are the authorities on the mind, [...] we can rehabilitate criminals, we are hapiness, we can bring peace and unite cultures."

Justice ?

2008-01-15T10:06:00.000-08:00

Dad takes law into his own hands

When the Arlington father caught his teenage stepson sexually assaulting his 8-year-old daughter late Jan. 2, the 32-year-old man did the right thing -- he called police, investigators say.

The 18-year-old was arrested by Arlington police on suspicion of aggravated sexual assault. The girl was taken to the hospital where an examination revealed she'd been raped anally. And the father issued a stern warning to his wife.

"He didn't want anybody to help [the teen]," said Sgt. Cheryl Johnson, supervisor of the Fort Worth sex crimes unit, adding that the man also stated that he would hurt his stepson.

But unbeknownst to the father, police say, the man's wife posted bond for her son's release from the Arlington Jail. When the teen called home for a ride on the early afternoon of Jan. 3, his stepfather answered the phone and arrived at the jail to pick up the teen.

But the pair didn't go home, investigators say. Instead, the Arlington man reportedly drove his stepson to an abandoned house in east Fort Worth where he delivered his own brand of justice. Police say he severely beat the teen with a baseball bat, then anally raped him with a wrenchlike metal tool.

On Friday, the father turned himself in at the Tarrant County Jail on a warrant for aggravated sexual assault. He was released Saturday after posting a $17,500 bond.

Zdzisław Beksiński

2008-01-08T13:11:00.000-08:00

Zdzislaw Beksinski
Une collection de ses oeuvres sur Gnosis.art
Commander un art book sur Amazon

Parce qu'il faut jouer parfois jouer au DDR

2008-01-08T10:45:00.000-08:00

Pub pour un jeu de DDR
Made in Taiwan

La science en marche

2008-01-07T15:18:00.000-08:00

Five unbelievably cool research facilities
some incredible beasts have been constructed in the name of research and below are 5 of the most immediately intriguing. there are plenty more out there which will be highlighted in the near future as i’m making this a series of sorts. let me know if you have any in mind for the next collection.

Conversation entre des "illuminés"

2007-12-31T07:12:00.000-08:00

Rupert Sheldrac, Terrence McKenna & ralp Abraham - The Evolutionary Mind: Conversations on Science, Imagination and Spirit

Stimulating and often startling discussions between three friends, all highly original thinkers: Rupert Sheldrake, controversial biologist, Terence McKenna , psychedelic visionary, and Ralph Abraham , chaos mathematician. Their passion is to break out of paradigms that retard our evolution and to explore new possibilities. Through challenge and synergy they venture where few have gone before, leading their readers on an exciting journey of discovery. Their discussions focus on the evolution of the mind, the role of psychedelics, skepticism, the psychic powers of animals, the structure of time, the life of the heavens, the nature of God, and transformations of consciousness.

Chaos theory (wikipedia) : In mathematics and physics, chaos theory describes the behavior of certain nonlinear dynamical systems that may exhibit dynamics that are highly sensitive to initial conditions (popularly referred to as the butterfly effect). As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of perturbations in the initial conditions, the behavior of chaotic systems appears to be random. This happens even though these systems are deterministic, meaning that their future dynamics are fully defined by their initial conditions, with no random elements involved. This behavior is known as deterministic chaos, or simply chaos.

The Amazing Screw On Head

2007-12-04T14:05:00.001-08:00

The Amazing Screw On Head
Première épisode de la série animé d'un personnage crée par Mike Mignola (Hellboy).

Shynia Tsukamoto - Filmographie

2007-12-04T14:02:00.000-08:00

Twitch - Shynia Tsukamoto
Une collection de bandes annonces de films de Shynia Tsukamoto (Testuo, Bullet Ballet ...).

Must read

2007-11-16T14:57:00.001-08:00

Un article scientifique à lire

Grève des rédacteur au Colbert Report

Is the net good for writers

Social Networking = Social Advertising

2007-11-15T06:29:00.000-08:00

Facebook is marketing your brand preference (with your permission)

Facebook says that many of its 50 million active users already tell friends about particular products or brands they like, and the only change will be that those communications might start to carry ad messages from the companies that sell them. Facebook is letting advertisers set up their own profile pages at no charge and encouraging companies like Blockbuster, Condé Nast and Coca-Cola to share information with Facebook about the actions of Facebook members on their sites.

[...]

Facebook users will not be able to avoid these personally recommended ads if they are friends with participating people. Participation can involve joining a fan club for a brand, recommending a product or sharing information about their purchases from external Web sites.

Sarkozy et les americains

2007-11-15T06:20:00.000-08:00

Congress warms to France's new president

In a speech to a joint meeting of Congress — a rare honor for a head of state — Mr. Sarkozy seemed to strike all the right notes. He spoke of his love of the American dream and cultural icons of the 20th century, from Elvis Presley to Ernest Hemingway. He expressed admiration for American values and for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He thanked the United States for saving France in two world wars, rebuilding Europe with the Marshall Plan and fighting Communism during the cold war.

[...]

“It’s safe to say that you’ve impressed a lot of people here on your journey,” Mr. Bush said, calling Mr. Sarkozy “the kind of fellow I like to deal with.”

[...]

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said of Mr. Sarkozy’s performance: “You just heard a Ronald Reagan speech from a president of France. It was an almost out-of-body experience for all of us.”

Derek Miller - Fin de Stylus Magazine

2007-10-31T15:41:00.000-07:00

2007 Year-end thoughts

Before Stylus, I’d never have believed you could become so close to people you’d never met. In space that lacks physique, you kind of meet as avatars. The board was a way for so many of us to piss away empty time at work or late at night, to gossip and needle and call-foul at music, sports, our jobs, drinks of choice. I think we all came to a persona of our own more than perhaps we were ourselves. A dress-up, extroverted place for what I expect are really a room-full of introverts (spoken like one. . .) It was dreamspace, the most virtual of realities, but it was also a place where those of us who’d been around for a while began to feel we could come, first-coffee in the morning, to put some kind of steady perspective back in place. But it only worked because we came to know at least a bit of something about each other by what we’d read and written. There was a frankness gained by putting so much of ourselves in pieces about music—or pieces about music which often had nothing to do with music. We pressed and confined each other, in turns, with a challenge of putting something in writing, formally or informally

Buddha Machine

2007-10-31T06:23:00.001-07:00

FM3 Buddha Machine
La création la plus populaire de la scène underground electronique chinoise.

New York Times

2007-10-31T06:07:00.001-07:00

The Evangelical crackup
Les mouvements d'opinions au sein des communautés evangelistes après les différentes défaites de George W. Bush et ses promesses non tenues.

These days, Westlink has found less confrontational ways to oppose abortion, mainly by helping to pay for a medical center called Choices. Housed in a cozy-looking white-shingled cottage next to Dr. Tiller’s bunkerlike abortion facility, Choices discourages women from ending pregnancies by offering 3-D ultrasound scans and adoption advice.

[...]

Of these, Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister before he became governor of Arkansas, stands out in the polls and in his rhetoric. [...] On the campaign trail, he criticizes chief executives’ pay and says his faith demands environmental regulation. “We shouldn’t allow a child to live under a bridge or in the back seat of a car,” Huckabee said in a recent debate. “We shouldn’t be satisfied that elderly people are being abused or neglected in nursing homes.”Huckabee told me that he welcomed a broadening of the evangelical political agenda. “You can’t just say ‘respect life’ exclusively in the gestation period,” he said, repeating a campaign theme.

But the leaders of the Christian conservative movement have not rallied to him. Many say he cannot win because he has not raised enough money. Perkins and others have criticized Huckabee for taking too soft an approach to the Middle East. Others worry that his record on taxes will anger allies on the right. And some Christian conservatives take his “gestation period” line as a slight to their movement.

[...]

Democrats, meanwhile, sense an opportunity. Now the campaigns of all three Democratic front-runners are actively courting evangelical voters. At a White House event to mark the National Day of Prayer that I attended in the spring, Senator Clinton even walked over to shake hands with Dobson. Visibly surprised, he told her she was in his prayers.

All three Democratic candidates are speaking very personally, in evangelical language, about their own faith. What does Clinton pray about? “It depends upon the time of day,” she said. Edwards says he cannot name his greatest sin: “I sin every single day.” Obama talks about his introduction to “someone named Jesus Christ” and about being “an instrument of God.”

[...]

In the Wichita churches this summer, Obama was the Democrat who drew the most interest. Several mentioned that he had spoken at Warren’s Saddleback church and said they were intrigued. But just as many people ruled out Obama because they suspected that he was not Christian at all but in fact a crypto-Muslim — a rumor that spread around the Internet earlier this year.

Rudy, the values slayer
Did we do that ? par Thomas Friedman

La revanche du nounours rose

2007-10-24T13:35:00.000-07:00

Charlie White - Adicolor pink
Un clip d'une minute vingt sur un ours en peluche qui transforme sa patronne en poupet. Vous avez dit inquiétant ?

A lire, a résumer et a communiquer

2007-10-22T14:18:00.000-07:00

Warren Ellis - A love letter to alternative culture, written in an era where alt culture no longer exists

Stanislas Lem - The chain of chance

Warren Ellis - Threat status

2007-10-16T09:04:00.000-07:00

somedays, MySpace would be the very ironic image of stark existential loneliness within a sea of people if it wasn't for the users whose profiles have been hacked to send out waves of spam. Somewhere, a lonely boy's eyes are welling up with joy, his heart filled near to bursting with the feeling of someone wanting to communicate with him. Yes, he says. I do need a bigger cock that plays ringtones and ejaculates restaurant vouchers. Just keep talking to me.

Takashi Murakami

2007-10-13T13:06:00.000-07:00

Takashi Murakami sur Wikipedia
Fondateur du mouvement Super flat au Japon. Un de ses élève les plus connu est Yoshitomo Nara. Takashi Murakami - Murakami sur Amazon

Alan Moore - Pornographie, magie et Promethea

2007-10-09T12:07:00.000-07:00

Alan Moore - the Wondeful wizard of Northerhampton

'The basic stance that we were taking in Lost Girls is that the sexual imagination cannot be policed, you cannot shut areas of it off and I think that if you do, it actually becomes dangerous. I think that if you shut off parts of people's sexual imagination then that part becomes a dark space in which they can fester and become something generally appalling.'

What we wanted to say with Lost Girls was there's a big difference between pornography and art. Art makes us feel less alone. It makes us think: somebody else has thought this, somebody else has had these feelings. Pornography does the exact opposite: it's an isolating thing. Everybody thinks, ''I bet it's only me who has had these thoughts. I bet there's never been anybody as low as me in the entire history of the world." We wanted to say, "Look, it's OK. It's OK for you to have these thoughts.

[...]

The first step into magic is the human imagination. The world of the mind and the world of matter are both real, but in different ways. In fact, if one is more important than the other, it's probably the world of the imagination, where the world of human artefacts, well, all of it, actually originates. The basic paradigm of science tends to rule out consciousness, imagination, because they're not repeatable in empirical laboratory conditions. So it struck me that perhaps through magic there might be a different way to interact with the mind. This might in fact have been what magicians were talking about all along.

[...]

The 'tarot stuff' is the issue entitled 'The Magic Theatre', a history of the universe from pre-Big Bang to the present day told through the major arcana (the picture cards) of the tarot. Moore did it in rhyming verse. He gave each page a title and all 21 titles were anagrams of 'Promethea' ('Pa Theorem'; 'Ape Mother'; 'Me Atop Her'; 'Heart Poem'; 'Meet Harpo' etc). Gags and puns abound, and at the bottom of each page a long, rambling joke is told in segments, which will, we are told, if properly understood, explain magic. 'The Magic Theatre' is a virtuoso demonstration of what an Alan Moore comic can do that novels and films can't get near – provide multiple strands of simultaneous narrative and visual information that wind around each other in dizzying fashion, echoing and commenting on each other.

'It was one of the best things we've ever done. I was dead pleased with that. I was smug for months…' (Gebbie is quick to attest to the smugness.) 'We were haemorrhaging readers, but the ones who stayed behind had presumably sustained such neurological damage that they were no longer capable of cancelling their subscription – a hardcore readership who stayed with us right to the end and really appreciated it and really enjoyed it.

Mark Briggs - Guide du journalisme moderne

2007-10-02T14:28:00.001-07:00

Journalism : How to survive and thrive
Un guide à l'attention des journalistes pour manipuler les nouveaux outils du web. 132 pages disponible en pdf. A imprimer pour un meilleur confort de lecture.

Blackwater : Des mercenaires en Irak

2007-10-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hired gun fetish

As far as I can tell, America has never fought a war in which mercenaries made up a large part of the armed force. But in Iraq, they are so central to the effort that, as Peter W. Singer of the Brookings Institution points out in a new report, “the private military industry has suffered more losses in Iraq than the rest of the coalition of allied nations combined.”

And, yes, the so-called private security contractors are mercenaries. They’re heavily armed. They carry out military missions, but they’re private employees who don’t answer to military discipline. On the other hand, they don’t seem to be accountable to Iraqi or U.S. law, either. And they behave accordingly.

We may never know what really happened in a crowded Baghdad square two weeks ago. Employees of Blackwater USA claim that they were attacked by gunmen. Iraqi police and witnesses say that the contractors began firing randomly at a car that didn’t get out of their way.

What we do know is that more than 20 civilians were killed, including the couple and child in the car. And the Iraqi version of events is entirely consistent with many other documented incidents involving security contractors.

[...]

Yet even among the contractors, Blackwater has the worst reputation. On Christmas Eve 2006, a drunken Blackwater employee reportedly shot and killed a guard of the Iraqi vice president. (The employee was flown out of the country, and has not been charged.) In May 2007, Blackwater employees reportedly shot an employee of Iraq’s Interior Ministry, leading to an armed standoff between the firm and Iraqi police.

Iraqis aren’t the only victims of this behavior. Of the nearly 4,000 American service members who have died in Iraq, scores if not hundreds would surely still be alive if it weren’t for the hatred such incidents engender.

Deux mots de vocabulaire : Blackwater et I.E.D.

2007-10-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

Blackwater shooting site was chaotic

“It raises the first question of why didn’t they just stay in place, since they are safe in the compound,” the official said. “Usually the concept would be, if an I.E.D. detonates in the street, you would wait 15 to 30 minutes, until things calmed down,” he said, using the abbreviation for improvised explosive device.

Blackwater : Entreprise de "mercenaires" employé par le gouvernement américain dans le conflit Irakien.
I.E.D. : Improvised explosive device

Moebius

2007-09-30T22:27:00.000-07:00

Moebius redux
Un reportage, co produit par Arte, sur le dessinateur Moebius, aka Jean Giraud. Sous titré en anglais.

Suicide par pénétration de crayon dans l'oeil

2007-09-26T10:46:00.000-07:00

Suicide by ballpoint pen

An unfortunate, but amazing case: a 25-year-old schizophrenic man shoved a 14.5-cm-long ballpoint pen through his eye socket, all the way to his cerebellum (in the rear of the brain).

[...]

Its amazing that, with a 14 cm plastic pen stuck in his brain, the patient was still conscious enough to discuss his injury with hospital staff. What was he thinking as he slowly pushed that pen further and further into his brain?

Warren Ellis' Bad Signal - Nemo

2007-09-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

I first encountered the idea of
Monty Cantsin around '88, though
he was created around '77. Monty
Cantsin is a Neoist construct: an
open pop star. Because in '77 they
didn't have the term "open source."
The idea being that artists could
choose to record under the name
Monty Cantsin, thereby generating
a fake oeuvre for a fake pop star,
confusing the fuck out of the
uninitiated. (See also "Karen Eliot,"
"Luther Blissett")

There's no derogatory side to
Monty Cantsin - he doesn't do the
work of, say, Alan Smithee, or
Harlan Ellison's damning Cordwainer
Bird pseudonym (a name he applies
to work that's been fucked over,
allowing him to retain rights and
royalty payments regardless).

Monty Cantsin is an artistic joke.
Anyone can be Monty Cantsin.

And while having a drink or two last
night, the notion came to me: it'd
be amusing if comics had one of
those. If music has a Monty Cantsin,
maybe comics should have a
Nemo Woodbine. An open source
comics creator. Sometimes she's
a cartoonist. Sometimes he's a
writer.

And the best thing about Nemo
Woodbine might be that she's
granted her copyright and royalties
in perpetuity to the Comic Book
Legal Defense Fund or something.
Anything he earns beyond his page
rate, and the rights to whatever
she did, live with the Fund: her
gift to the medium.

Just throwing the idea out there for
someone to do something with, or
not.

This is youtube material

2007-09-21T13:07:00.000-07:00

The monkey-hanging legend is the most famous story connected with Hartlepool. During the Napoleonic Wars a French ship was wrecked off the Hartlepool coast.

During the Napoleonic Wars there was a fear of a French invasion of Britain and much public concern about the possibility of French infiltrators and spies.

The fishermen of Hartlepool fearing an invasion kept a close watch on the French vessel as it struggled against the storm but when the vessel was severely battered and sunk they turned their attention to the wreckage washed ashore. Among the wreckage lay one wet and sorrowful looking survivor, the ship's pet monkey dressed to amuse in a military style uniform.

The fishermen apparently questioned the monkey and held a beach-based trial. Unfamiliar with what a Frenchman looked like they came to the conclusion that this monkey was a French spy and should be sentenced to death. The unfortunate creature was to die by hanging, with the mast of a fishing boat (a coble) providing a convenient gallows

Cette charmante anecdote concerne la même ville où cet autre fait divers a eu lieu

Man urinates on dying woman declaring it youtube material

Shouting, "This is YouTube material!" a 27-year-old British man urinated on a dying woman who had collapsed on the street, the BBC and local Hartepool Mail and Northern Echo tell us. He also doused her with a bucket of water and covered her with shaving cream.

The woman, 50-year-old Christine Lakinski, died at the scene of pancreatic failure.

Hunter S Thompson - Son influence

2007-09-20T14:03:00.000-07:00

Hunter S Thompson films
Un symposium, résumé en 19 videos, sur l'effet de Hunter S Thompson sur le journalisme et la politique américaine.

Des livres sculptés

2007-09-19T12:41:00.000-07:00

Brian Dettmer - Book autopsies
Cet artiste sculpte des livres pour réveller les illustrations intérieurs. Très très impressionant.

Richard Dawkins on Book Club

2007-09-19T03:30:00.001-07:00

Richard Dawkins - Interview
Parce que je suis un fan boy et que, sérieusement, le type est interessant a écouter.

Jesus camp

2007-09-19T00:34:00.000-07:00

Jesus Camp
Un reportage sur un camp de chrétien qui apprend la religion aux enfants.

Comment finissent les super tankers ?

2007-09-18T00:57:00.001-07:00

End of the line
Un photo reportage au Bangladesh sur le desassemblage de super tankers.

Hilary Clinton milite pour un système de santé plus efficace

2007-09-17T14:49:00.000-07:00

Clinton calls for universal health care

She called for a requirement for businesses to obtain insurance for employees, and said the wealthy should pay higher taxes to help defray the cost for those less able to pay for it. She put the government's cost at $110 billion a year.

[...]

Addressing a crowd at a medical center in the early voting state of Iowa, Clinton laid out her proposal, with the centerpiece a so-called "individual mandate," requiring everyone to have health insurance - just as most states require drivers to purchase auto insurance. Rival John Edwards has also offered a plan that includes an individual mandate, while the proposal outlined by Barack Obama does not.

Clinton's plan builds on the existing employer-based system of coverage. People who receive insurance through the workplace could continue to do so; businesses, in turn, would be required to offer insurance to employees, or contribute to a government-run pool that would help pay for those not covered. Clinton would also offer a tax subsidy to small businesses to help them afford the cost of providing coverage to their workers.

[...]

Her speech came nearly 14 years after her first attempt at a universal healthcare plan that was highly criticized by Republicans as a socialized medical plan that eventually fell apart and left a stain on the former First Lady's record, reports CBS News reporter Fernando Suarez. Despite her failed attempt in 1993 Clinton assured the crowd of about 150 doctors, nurses and patients that she grew from her experience.

Alterati

2007-09-17T14:35:00.000-07:00

Hidden elements - the dark side of alternate reality games

Post modern apocalypse - Another look at how to market the apocalypse

Post modern times

Welcome to Postmodern Times, a series of short animated films presenting new ideas about global consciousness and techniques for social and ecological transformation. Our first episode, "Toward 2012", introduces the project, explaining concepts from the best-selling book, "2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl" (Tarcher/Penguin, 2006) by Daniel Pinchbeck, in the author's own voice. Future segments will focus on shamanism, sustainability, alternative energy systems, the Mayan Calendar, quantum physics and synchronicity, human sexuality, and a host of other subjects. We are currently looking for investors to take this project forward.

Bruce Sterling - Mediadefender 0 - Hackers 1

2007-09-17T14:17:00.001-07:00

Seven hundred megabytes of leaked internal email

Peer-to-peer (P2P) poisoning company MediaDefender suffered an embarrassing leak this weekend, when almost 700MB of internal company e-mail was distributed on the Internet via BitTorrent.

"The e-mails reveal many aspects of MediaDefender's elaborate P2P disruption strategies, illuminate previously undisclosed details about the MiiVi scandal, and bring to light details regarding MediaDefender's collaboration with the New York Attorney General's office on a secret law enforcement project.

Alterati

I wanted to link to http://jrwr.hopto.org/msg01968.html, where Media Defender was instructed to track down and block the Nine Inch Nails Year Zero torrents, and that included ftp data to Interscope servers as a way to illustrate the fantabulous trainwreckery that is this case.

Alterati - Débat entre deux théoriciens branché UFO

2007-09-17T14:05:00.000-07:00

War of the future worlds

The gist of Daniel’s argument is that one can never know for sure what is going to happen in the future, and our thoughts create reality, so that promoting negative future scenarios instead of more healthy and positive ones is irresponsible, especially when one has a platform that reaches as many as Whitley’s.

Plusieurs liens

2007-09-09T03:30:00.000-07:00

Modern day Da vinci
Un homme qui réalise des machines en bois fonctionnant sur le mouvement perpetuel et dont le but est d'en construire qui pourrait avancer eternellement.

Z Machine - Wikipedia
The Z machine is the largest X-ray generator in the world and is designed to test materials in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure. It is operated by Sandia National Laboratories to gather data to aid in computer modeling of nuclear weapons. The Z machine is located at Sandia's main site in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

La situation desastreuse du Zimbabwe continue et risque de continuer

2007-09-08T04:33:00.000-07:00

Zimbabwe's precarious survival

It is a situation that suits the governments on both sides.

Among the refugees, there are doctors, engineers, agricultural experts, just the kind of people who are needed by South Africa's growing economy

Zimbabweans have long since given up hope that the South African leader - Thabo Mbeki - will put pressure on his old friend, Robert Mugabe, to reform.

And as for Robert Mugabe, an opposition politician in Harare says: "This makes him a very, very happy dictator.

"He gets rid of his opponents and they in turn send back money to their families in Zimbabwe and that keeps things ticking over."

Anyone expecting a swift conclusion to Zimbabwe's agony will be disappointed.

The other side of outsourcing - Thomas Friedman

2007-09-04T12:08:00.000-07:00

The other side of outsourcing sur youtube
Un reportage de the Discovery Channel par Thomas Friedman (auteur de the World is flat) que Wikipedia définit comme tel :
In "The Other Side of Outsourcing" (2004), he visited a call center in Bangalore, interviewing the young Indians working there, and then traveled to an impoverished rural part of India, where he debated the pros and cons of globalization with locals (this trip spawned his eventual bestselling book "The World is Flat").

Thomas Friedman - the World is flat

2007-09-03T12:27:00.000-07:00

Thomas Friedman sur Wikipedia
Bretton Woods system
Neoliberalism