Against drilling for oil in the Arctic seas off Greenland - Greenpeace Live

from www.gobeyondoil.org

Our campaigners have evaded a huge security operation and have scaled Cairn Energy's controversial oil rig in the Arctic seas off Greenland, shutting it down - live updates below. Arctic drilling has got to stop. Tell Cairn's boss, Bill Gammell to stop drilling now. Take Action >

For background on Cairn's Arctic drilling, watch this video. Action updates appear automatically below. To send a message to the ship, reply to @gp_espy on Twitter. Read more at www.gobeyondoil.org

"for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history"

from nobelprize.org

Imre Kertész

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2002

Imre Kertész

Prize motivation: "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history" Read more at nobelprize.org

The long, slow, and painful death of photojournalism

Somebody has to bring home the content - who will that be when the people who did it have packed their bags and gone home?

from www.epuk.org

For the last thirty-odd years, I’ve been listening to people talk about, or predict the death of photojournalism. John Szarkowski, the legendary curator of photography at MOMA New York even said that photojournalism stopped being interesting after 1958; I was just out of nappies then. Yet, somehow I’ve devoted just about all my working life to social documentary photography and nearly 25 years to photojournalism.

Okay, I’m that friend and I’m stepping forward and calling it. “Photojournalism: time of death 11.12. GMT 1st August 2010.” Amen. Read more at www.epuk.org

Model Release - Photographers - Editorial - Newspapers - Myths - Facts

Here is a clearly-written description of when a model release is needed and when it is not in the USA - other countries' mileage varies.

from rising.blackstar.com

Don’t Buy In to the Model Release Myth

The myth I’m writing about today has undoubtedly caused thousands of excellent, award-winning photos never to be taken. It’s the myth of the model release for editorial use.

Photography columnists, unaware of their First Amendment rights, have been fanning the fires of this issue for years. A wall of mythology has built up around the subject, and I’ll make the first move to break it down for you:

No, editorial stock photographers: you do not need model releases.

A good rule of thumb would be to ask yourself, “Would a newspaper photographer ask for a model release in this situation?”

You might now be asking, “So why was I under the impression that model releases are always required?” Read more at rising.blackstar.com

Cut Copy Paste

from reflectionof.me

See more at reflectionof.me

The Golden Light Sutra

At death, when phlegm, wind and bile have been exhausted
the body is filled with urine and foul matter
Not pleasant, it becomes a heap of worms
Discarded like wood at the charnel ground

from www.fpmt.org

Education Centers Teachings Projects FPMT Media Store

Download the Golden Light Sutra Read more at www.fpmt.org

Speed Limits On British Roads

... because I am always forgetting the maximum speed on unmarked single carriageways and have to deduce it backwards from remembering that sometimes there are 50mph signs on them, so that 'no sign' must mean a higher speed than that, and it cannot be 70mph because that is for motorways - ergo is must be 60mph

from www.direct.gov.uk

Speed limits  Built-up areas * Single carriage-ways Dual carriage-ways  Motorways   Type of vehicle mph (km/h) mph (km/h) mph (km/h) mph (km/h)  Cars & motorcycles (including car-derived vans up to 2 tonnes maximum laden weight) 30 (48) 60 (96) 70 (112) 70 (112)  Cars towing caravans or trailers (including car-derived vans and motorcycles) 30 (48) 50 (80) 60 (96) 60 (96)   Buses, coaches and minibuses(not exceeding 12 metres in overall length) 30 (48) 50 (80)  60 (96) 70 (112)  Goods vehicles(not exceeding 7.5 tonnes maximum laden weight) 30 (48) 50 (80) 60 (96) 70 (112) **  Goods vehicles (exceeding 7.5 tonnes maximum laden weight) 30 (48) 40 (64) 50 (80) 60 (96) * The 30 mph limit usually applies to all traffic on all roads with street lighting unless signs show otherwise. ** 60 mph (96 km/h) if articulated or towing a trailer. Read more at www.direct.gov.uk

Neonicotinoid insecticides implicated in honeybee colony collapse disorder {CCD}

from environmentalresearchweb.org

Now new studies indicate that insecticides are playing a significant role.

The most recent studies have exposed a variety of insects to varying doses of neonicotinoid insecticides over long time periods – 12 months or more. Neonicotinoid insecticides are widely used worldwide; they work by acting on the central nervous system of the insect. The chemicals have little affinity for vertebrate nervous systems, so they are much less toxic to mammals and birds.

The researchers found that the total dose of insecticide required to kill the insect was smaller if administered over a longer time period (Ecotoxicology (2009) 18:343–354). In the case of honeybees, up to 6000 times less insecticide was required to kill them if it was administered in multiple tiny doses over a long time period.

According to Henk Tennekes, a researcher at Experimental Toxicology Services (ETS) in the Netherlands, these findings make perfect sense. “Start by considering a high exposure level,” he said. “It may cause an early effect, such as cancer or mortality. At a much lower exposure level you may get a late effect. However, as it turns out, in the latter case you need much less of the stuff (in total) to produce the effect.” Tennekes describes the findings in a forthcoming paper in Toxicology.

So how do these insecticides achieve such a powerful long-term effect? The answer lies in the way that they work. Neonicotinoids bind irreversibly to receptors in the central nervous system of insects. “An insect has a limited amount of such receptors,” explained Jeroen van der Sluijs, a scientist at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, who has also worked on the problem. “The damage is cumulative: with every exposure more receptors are blocked until the damage is so big that the insect cannot function anymore and dies.”

Right now it still isn’t possible to say if neonicotinoids are the sole cause of CCD in honeybees, but it seems likely that they play a significant role. “It explains the rapid increase in CCD since 2004, which coincides with the rapid growth in worldwide use of neonicotinoids – the most widely used class of insecticides,” said van der Sluijs. Read more at environmentalresearchweb.org

Michelle Obama: Beekeeper

from www.globalshift.org

First Lady Michelle Obama. In March, seeking to promote a healthier lifestyle for the First Family, she and First Carpenter Charlie Brandts (now known as First Beekeeper) installed the first of several bee hives on the south side of the White House lawn.Read more at www.globalshift.org

Irregular, bite-size rewards make Twitter addictive

chomp, chomp from www.keenerliving.com

Why Twitter, Facebook, etc Seem So Addictive

Many theories have been offered for why Twitter and Facebook and [fill in the blank] seem so addictive. One of the theories that makes a lot of sense to me was recently offered by Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational. Dr. Ariely states that

Skinner distinguished between fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement and variable-ratio schedules of reinforcement. Under a fixed schedule, a rat received a reward of food after it pressed the lever a fixed number of times—say 100 times. Under the variable schedule, the rat earned the food pellet after it pressed the lever a random number of times. Sometimes it would receive the food after pressing 10 times, and sometimes after pressing 200 times.

… Skinner found that the variable schedules were actually more motivating. The most telling result was that when the rewards ceased, the rats that were under the fixed schedules stopped working almost immediately, but those under the variable schedules kept working for a very long time [emphasis mine].

This seems to me to be pretty much what we see with Twitter and Facebook and RSS feeds: the vast majority of the entries are completely useless, even utter crap, but every once in a while, you’ll find something you consider of great value. Because it happens irregularly, and because the size of the “reward” is variable, our minds actually consider the reward more valuable than if we received an equivalent amount on a predictable basis. So we get hooked.

You can read more about this at Dr. Ariely’s full post. Read more at www.keenerliving.com

Fooling the public's ears with Auto-Tune

I love singing in the privacy of my home. I can hold a tune. I hate the idea that singers who perform are having their voices 'perfected'

from new.uk.music.yahoo.com

The history of Auto-Tune

This time last week, most people had never heard of Auto-Tune. Now everyone is talking about it. Despite playing a key role in selling millions of songs over the last decade, it's taken a hugely controversial appearance on the ‘X Factor' to raise the profile of this recording studio tool. But what exactly is Auto-Tune?

It's pitch-correcting computer software devised by US scientist Andy Hildebrand, after he was challenegd by a dinner party guest to invent a machine to help people sing in tune. His firm Antares Audio Technologies launched it in 1997, armed with the adage "I can't believe that's possible" and innovative products to match for musicians, producers and engineers.Read more at new.uk.music.yahoo.com

Daily Mail gets it wrong on causes of colony collapse disorder #CCD #bees

The consensus across the world is that colony collapse disorder (CCD) is not caused by the varroa mite, which this article strongly suggests.

from www.dailymail.co.uk

A British beekeeper is breeding a strain of bee which can protect itself from a deadly parasitic mite that is wiping out colonies across the world.

Beekeeper Ron Hoskins from Swindon who has bred a strain of bees which can protect themselves from the deadly parasitic varroa mite

Now Mr Hoskins, who has carried out research on his colonies for 18 years, has isolated and is breeding a strain of bees which groom each other to remove the mites.

He is now taking sperm from these bees and artificially inseminating queens from other hives to allow the new breed to spread through Britain.

The British Beekeepers' Association, which represents 18,000 beekeepers, yesterday described his work as 'exciting'.

The varroa mite entered Britain in 1992 and spread across the country - killing millions of bees.

A survey released in May 2010 by the British Beekeepers' Association revealed that beekeepers lost 17 per cent of their colonies in the last year. Read more at www.dailymail.co.uk

Sometimes it's just a cute picture

from www.guardian.co.uk

The dormouse's name comes from the French word "dormir", meaning to sleep. These tiny mammals are endangered due to the loss of their woodland habitat, and have disappeared from 50% of their former range. Conservation projects are now reintroducing them to restored woods.Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

This is the Daily Mail of July 2009 reporting the pathologist's conclusion on David Kelly's death

 from www.dailymail.co.uk

Dr Nicholas Hunt, the pathologist

13 doctors demand inquest into Dr David Kelly's death

By Glen Owen and Miles Goslett Last updated at 1:19 AM on 13th July 2009

After taking evidence from - but not cross-examining - Dr Nicholas Hunt, the pathologist who carried out the post-mortem examination, Lord Hutton concluded that 'the principal cause of death was bleeding from incised wounds to the left wrist' combined with the consumption of painkillers and 'silent coronary artery disease'. Read more at www.dailymail.co.uk

Eavesdrop ain't what it used to be

I wondered about the origin of the word eavesdrop. Surely had to do with ‘eaves’ as in the eaves of a house?

Etymonline says the word means to “lurk near a place to hear what is said inside,” and dates from around 1600, and is probably a back-formation from eavesdropper. The original notion is listening from under the eaves of a house, originally yfesdrype the place around a house where the rainwater drips off the roof. So eaves is a shortening of a word that included ‘drype’ - presumably as in the dripping of water.

Eave or yfes comes from Old English efes meaning the edge of something.

EAVESDROP, v.i. Secretly to overhear a catalogue of the crimes and vices of another or yourself.
—Gopete Sherany

from podictionary.com

Here’s what the Devil’s Dictionary has to say about eavesdropping: A lady with one of her ears applied To an open keyhole heard, inside, Two female gossips in converse free - The subject engaging them was she. “I think,” said one, “and my husband thinks That she’s a prying, inquisitive minx!” As soon as no more of it she could hear The lady, indignant, removed her ear. “I will not stay,” she said, with a pout, “To hear my character lied about!” So of course you know that eavesdropping is listening in on someone else’s conversation. Evesdropping as an English word appeared in the written record more than 500 years ago. At the time it was a crime and in fact appeared in a legal judgement. The court proceedings were recorded in Latin and it is this English word snuggled in there that shows its pure English roots, since there must not have been a Latin equivalent.The crime was related to the word since over the edges of a house would hang the eaves of the roof. When it rained the water would drip from the eaves and the space between the drip line and the house was called the eavesdrop. Secret listeners might stand there outside a window and listen in on private conversations.

The Latin quote I mentioned translates as “jurors say that Henry Rowley is a common eavesdropper” and this actually is quite revealing about how jurors were different in England 500 years ago than the jury you might have seen on TV. At that time a fair trial was fair because you had local people involved who knew what was going on in the neighbourhood. The jury originally were essentially the witnesses. These days the jury is supposed to go into a trial with an open mind and let the lawyers make their arguments. Back then old Henry Rowley was convicted because the jury knew he was an eavesdropper before the trial even began.

Incidentally, the eaves of a house or building are not plural so that on each side, there would be an eave. Both sides are eaves if we respect the Old English history of the word. The Oxford English Dictionary thinks that the root of eaves is the same as for the word over.

Viewers decide what BT's Adam and Jane Did Next

from uk.tv.yahoo.com

Millions decide fate of BT couple

Viewers have decided what happens next to couple Adam and Jane from the popular long-running BT advert series. The phone company received an amazing 1.6 million votes online after asking viewers to choose whether the BT couple should announce that they are expecting a baby in the next instalment of the ad.

Marketing director for BT retail Matthew Dearden told The Guardian: "The strand of ads we are doing at the moment are all about human interaction and human relationships [facilitated by BT products] and we thought about building the connection by getting people involved in the story of the campaign itself." He added: "It is the longest running 'plot' campaign in the UK today, at least as far as we can tell. It is a real asset for us."Read more at uk.tv.yahoo.com

Machsend is a site that lets you transfer files for free, without any limitations.

Machsend is a site that lets you transfer files for free, without any limitations.Machsend is a site that lets you transfer files for free, without any limitations.Machsend is a site that lets you transfer files for free, without any limitations.Machsend is a site that lets you transfer files for free, without any limitations.Machsend is a site that lets you transfer files for free, without any limitations.

from machsend.com

Machsend is a site that lets you transfer files for free, without any limitations.

Machsend uses a Yahoo! plugin, called BrowserPlus to do its magic. The transfers are peer to peer - straight between the two clients and aren't relayed or proxied.

Machsend traverses firewalls with a TCP form of STUN (STUNT) combined with a bit of SYN packet manipulation. There's a few good papers on the subject here and here.

Yes, we don't receive any of the data, or even the file names. It's totally private. Read more at machsend.com

Amp-ing and Poster-ing the The Bad Ass SEO Guest Blogging Contest

from sem-group.net

The Bad Ass SEO Guest Blogging Contest

Yes, you read correctly, it’s time for The Bad Ass SEO Guest Blogging Contest. For the next month, I’ll be accepting guest posts right here on my blog. As you can see below, the top guest bloggers are eligible to receive cash prizes (current pot is $2050.) cash and there are a couple non-cash prizes.

To clarify, you don’t have to actually be a bad ass SEO (although it wouldn’t hurt) to enter the contest. The general theme is SEO and the contest itself is bad ass since we have several generous sponsors that put up cash and a few other prizes.

What is the Bad Ass SEO Guest Blogging Contest? Blogging is always fun, but it’s even more fun when there is cold hard cash involved. Starting today (August 2nd) until September 2nd, you can submit guest posts to my blog. I’m pretty flexible as far as acceptable topics as long as they fit within the general theme of this blog. So, anything from SEO to blogging to social media will do.

How long does the contest last? The contest starts today August 2nd and ends September 2nd You must submit your post between these dates in order to be eligible to win. The winners will be announced 15 days after the contest ends. This will allow us ample time to publish any remaining posts and to judge all contest entries. Read more at sem-group.net

No Guardian or Telegraph on Yahoo homepage!?

Here below is the question and a selection of comments (but no answers) from disgruntled Yahoo viewers who can no longer see headlines from the Guardian, Telegraph, and Daily Mail newspapers on the Yahoo homepage.
I am one of the disgruntled users who likes/liked the layout of news headlines on Yahoo.
I like to scan news from around the world and I get the Guardian, the Telegraph, and other newspaper headlines from around the world, on iGoogle.
I preferred the format on Yahoo, which if I recall it correctly (amazing how quickly the details of the format has faded from my memory) was all in one central box with tabs for the newspapers and connected links to related images above the tabs.

from www.searchwords.org

What's happened to Daily Mail, Guardian and Daily Telegraph tabs on Yahoo UK home page? charles - 2010-08-05 19:56:07 - Other - Yahoo! Products

Up to yesterday, I could click directly into these newspaper sites. They were the best reason for having yahoo as my home page. Now it's just 'news', 'sport', 'entertainment' and' finance'. Why?

The same has happened to me too and I agree with you.

They feel that they need to keep changing things, for some reason; this is not always appreciated by the users.

Newspapers are losing money are limiting their sites so people buy more papers..

It can't be because of subscription issue. you can still google these papers and read them. Yahoo should stop changing user areas without asking the users. It give you lots of way to "tailor" your yahoo and then just ignores all this "choice" by changing anything it feels like. So so irritating.

I am another user not happy that these tabs have been removed overnight without any warning or explanation!

Tried fiddling around, can't get them back either. Really annoyed by this.

has anyone heard any more about this? I liked the different papers view they just went without any notice/comment or any apparent opportunity to give any feed back

agree with all above - can't even find where to formally query this. Going to wait a couple of days to see if it a glitch then will have to find new homepage. This is rubbish. Does anyone know of a similar news comparison site?Read more at www.searchwords.org

Learning efficient behaviour from ants

I found this on http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/08/13/217237

 from www.economist.com

A single ant cannot do much on its own, but the colony as a whole solves complex problems such as building a sophisticated nest, maintaining it and filling it with food. That rang a bell with people like Marco Dorigo, who is now a researcher at the Free University of Brussels and was one of the founders of a field that has become known as swarm intelligence.

Dr Dorigo was interested to learn that ants are good at choosing the shortest possible route between a food source and their nest. This is reminiscent of a classic computational conundrum, the travelling-salesman problem. Given a list of cities and their distances apart, the salesman must find the shortest route needed to visit each city once. As the number of cities grows, the problem gets more complicated. A computer trying to solve it will take longer and longer, and suck in more and more processing power. The reason the travelling-salesman problem is so interesting is that many other complex problems, including designing silicon chips and assembling DNA sequences, ultimately come down to a modified version of it.Read more at www.economist.com

Help - I am looking for a designer for web pages

He or she doesn't have to slice for HTML or CSS3 though if they want to and can then thats good  - but the important thing is that they can make a beautiful layout.
To give you an idea, I am thinking along the lines of rounded corners and shading.
I probably don't want the elements in .png files, and would prefer in CSS3 - with the best compatibility possible with IE but accepting the limitations.
Do you know anyone who designs lovely stuff like that?
If so, send me details.
Thanks

Official cause of David Kelly's death is 'extremely unlikely', say group of legal and medical experts

Mystery and doubt - the stuff of spy thrillers - surrounded the death of the David Kelly - the biological weapons expert attached to the Ministry of Defence, who spilled the beans to Andrew Gilligan, a British journalist.
In a nutshell, the doubters say Kelly would not have died from the injuries he is supposed to have inflicted on himself at the time he died.

from www.guardian.co.uk

Official cause of David Kelly's death is 'extremely unlikely', say group of legal and medical experts

A group of prominent legal and medical experts called today for a full inquest into the death of the government scientist David Kelly in 2003.

Nine experts including Michael Powers, a QC and former coroner, and Julian Blon, a professor of intensive care medicine, said in a letter to the Times that the official cause of death – haemorrhage from the severed artery – was "extremely unlikely".

"Insufficient blood would have been lost to threaten life," they said. "Absent a quantitative assessment of the blood lost and of the blood remaining in the great vessels, the conclusion that death occurred as a consequence of haemorrhage is unsafe."

Kelly's body was found in woods close to his Oxfordshire home in 2003, shortly after it was revealed that he was the source of a BBC report casting doubt on the government's claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction which could be fired within 45 minutes. Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

Amperisk Typeface Free

from www.photographworks.com

You May Want To Get The Amperisk Typeface

Amperisk typeface

Free from 110Design.

Killer of Sheep - on TV at the moment

from www.killerofsheep.com

Killer of Sheep examines the black Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached and numb from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse.

Frustrated by money problems, he finds respite in moments of simple beauty: the warmth of a coffee cup against his cheek, slow dancing with his wife in the living room, holding his daughter. The film offers no solutions; it merely presents life — sometimes hauntingly bleak, sometimes filled with transcendent joy and gentle humor.

Killer of Sheep was shot on location in Watts in a series of weekends on a budget of less than $10,000, most of which was grant money. Finished in 1977 and shown sporadically, its reputation grew and grew until it won a prize at the 1981 Berlin International Film Festival.

Since then, the Library of Congress has declared it a national treasure as one of the first fifty on the National Film Registry and the National Society of Film Critics selected it as one of the "100 Essential Films" of all time. However, due to the expense of the music rights, the film was never shown theatrically or made available on video. It has only been seen on poor quality 16mm prints at few and far between museum and festival showings.

Now, thirty years after its debut, the new 35mm print of Killer of Sheep, brilliantly restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive, is ready for its long-awaited international release.

Milestone's premiere of the restored Killer of Sheep was at the 2007 Berlinale Film Festival and the theatrical release begins in Spring of this year.

See more at www.killerofsheep.com

I want this in my office!!! - ReflectionOf.Me

via reflectionof.me

Posted via email from hotpixel

The Age Of Stupid asks "why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?"

This film can join 'The End Of The Line' as an attempt to bring home some of the truths about how a-little-bit-here-and-a-little-bit-there turns into a gazillion plastic bottles, plastic bags, denuded forests, crapped-on planet, etc.
I saw it at HydePark Picture House in Leeds, England. It is a small art-house cum social-conscience cinema, and I saw End Of The Line there as well.
Why don't mainstream distributors take these kind of films?
There has to be a better way of distribution.

from www.spannerfilms.net

The Age of Stupid stars Pete Postlethwaite as a man living in the devastated future world of 2055, looking at old footage and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?

It is a co-production between Franny's company Spanner Films and Executive Producer John Battsek's (One Day In September) company Passion Pictures. The production was notable for its innovative way crowd-funding financing model, as well as the Indie Screenings distribution system which allows anyone anywhere to screen the film.

The full story of the production of the film is told in the 50-minute Making Of documentary which is free to watch online and also available on the double-pack DVD.The film was released in 2009 and became one of the most talked-about films of the year. It also spawned the hugely-successful 10:10 campaign. Read more at www.spannerfilms.net

A very simple Wordpress theme that appeals to me

from wordpreciousss.org

Precious Theme Read more at wordpreciousss.org

Diana Dors' Delahaye Type 175 Roadster to be auctioned

She was born Diana Mary Fluck. She was the English version of Jayne Mansfield or Marlyn Monroe.
She had a career as an actor. She could act. And she liked big cars. Her Delahaye Type 175 Roadster is going for auction.

From Wikipedia:
According to Dors's autobiography, she was once asked and readily agreed to open a fête in her home town of Swindon, England. Prior to the festivities,
Dors lunched with the local vicar, during which she informed him that her real name was Diana Fluck.
The vicar became somewhat worried about his planned speech. After lunch, they arrived at the fête at the appointed time.
The vicar, totally unnerved about mispronouncing "Fluck", introduced Diana with these immortal words:
“Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I introduce to you our star guest. We all love her, especially as she is our local girl. I therefore feel it right to introduce her by her real name; Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome the very lovely Miss Diana Clunt."

from uk.cars.yahoo.com

See more at uk.cars.yahoo.com

Stage Two of the New Enclosure Act

From - This is Your Britain - Did You Vote For it?

from www.guardian.co.uk

David Cameron announces plan to end lifetime council tenancies

Because maybe in five or 10 years you will be doing a different job and be better paid and you won't need that home, you will be able to go into the private sector."

Speaking in Birmingham, he said: "There is a question mark about whether, in future, we should be asking when you are given a council home, is it for a fixed period? Because maybe in five or 10 years you will be doing a different job and be better paid and you won't need that home, you will be able to go into the private sector."Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

Stage One of the New Enclosure Act

from en.wikipedia.org

After Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister, the legislation to implement the Right to Buy was passed in the Housing Act 1980.

Right to buy scheme Read more at en.wikipedia.org

Greenpeace: "Thanks to all the visitors who generated more than 2,000,000 hits ... and spread the competition"

 from www.greenpeace.org.uk

We have a winning logo!

And thanks to...

... everyone who helped make this competition a huge success. Thanks to all the entrants who together submitted more than 2,000 logos. Thanks to all the visitors who generated more than 2,000,000 hits to the website and spread the competition around the globe. Thanks to the more than 25,000 people who voted. Read more at www.greenpeace.org.uk